Track Listing
DISC 1: 1926-28:
1. East St. Louis Toodle-O - (1st version)
2. Birmingham Breakdown - (1st version)
3. Immigration Blues
4. Creeper, The - (1st take)
5. Creeper, The - (2nd take)
6. New Orleans Low-Down
7. Song of the Cotton Field
8. Birmingham Breakdown - (2nd version)
9. East St. Louis Toodle-O - (2nd version)
10. Black and Tan Fantasy
11. Soliloquy
12. Red Hot Band
13. Doin' the Frog
14. Take It Easy
15. Jubilee Stomp
16. Black Beauty - (1st take)
17. Black Beauty - (2nd take)
18. Yellow Dog Blues
19. Tishomingo Blues
20. Awful Sad
21. Mooche, The
22. Louisiana
DISC 2: 1929:
1. Doin' the Voom Voom
2. Tiger Rag (Part I) - (take A)
3. Tiger Rag (Part I) - (take B)
4. Tiger Rag (Part II)
5. Rent Party Blues
6. Paducah
7. Harlem Flat Blues
8. Black and Blue, (What Did I Do to Be So)
9. Jungle Jamboree
10. Ain't Misbehavin'
11. Doin' the New Low Down
12. Jolly Wog
13. Jazz Convulsions
14. Six or Seven Times - (take A)
15. Six or Seven Times - (take B)
16. Goin' Nuts
17. Oklahoma Stomp - (take A)
18. Oklahoma Stomp - (take B)
19. Sweet Mama
20. Wall Street Wail - (take A)
21. Wall Street Wail - (take B)
22. Cincinnati Daddy
DISC 3: 1930-31:
1. Maori (A Samoan Dance) - (1st version)
2. When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You) - (take A)
3. When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You) - (take B)
4. Maori (A Samoan Dance) - (take A, 2nd version)
5. Maori (A Samoan Dance) - (take B, 2nd version)
6. Admiration
7. Double Check Stomp
8. Accordion Joe - (take A)
9. Accordion Joe - (take B)
10. Cotton Club Stomp - (take A)
11. Cotton Club Stomp - (take B)
12. Runnin' Wild!
13. Mood Indigo
14. Home Again Blues
15. Wang-Wang Blues
16. Rockin' Chair
17. Rockin' in Rhythm
18. Twelfth Street Rag
19. Peanut Vendor, The
20. Creole Rhapsody (Part 1)
21. Creole Rhapsody (Part 2) - (take A)
22. Creole Rhapsody (Part 2) - (take AA)
23. Is That Religion?
| Details | | Producer: | Steven Lasker (Compilation) | | Distributor: | Universal Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Mono | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel includes: Duke Ellington (piano); Bill Robinson, Irving Mills, Dick Robertson (vocals); Bennie Payne (vocals, piano); Otto Hardwick (saxophone, clarinet); Bubber Miley, Louis Metcalf, Cootie Williams, June Clark, Arthur Whetsel (trumpet); Freddy Jenkins (trumpet, vocals); Joe Nanton (trombone); Juan Tizol (valve trombone); Mack Shaw (tuba); Prince Robinson, Rudy Jackson, Harry Carney, Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges (clarinet, saxophone); Joe Cornell (accordion); Harold Randolf (kazoo); Fred Guy (banjo); Teddy Bunn (banjo-guitar); Wellman Braud (acoustic bass); Sonny Greer (drums, percussion, vocals); Bruce Johnson (washboard).
Recorded at the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company's studios, New York between 1926 and 1931. Includes liner notes by Steven Lasker.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
EARLY ELLINGTON: THE COMPLETE BRUNSWICK AND VOCALION RECORDINGS OF DUKE ELLINGTON, 1926-1931 was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Historical Album.
EARLY ELLINGTON is an invaluable aural history of one of America's greatest composers. The works collected on this 3-CD set comprise Ellington's first steps--some tentative and idiomatic of the times, others boldly original--towards the creation of an American orchestral language, which both anticipated and paralleled developments in the Swing Era.
The genius of Ellington, like a great movie director, was in how he incorporated, edited, stylized and personalized the contributions of all his players into a coherent, unified vision. As these ancient, fragile discs show, trumpeter Buber Miley's growling, gutbucket plunger mute style on early classics such as "East St. Louis Toodle-o," "Black And Tan Fantasy" and "The Mooche" helped define the expressive vocal effects and tonal colorations which Duke would codify into his band's sonic signature during their tenure at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem.
EARLY ELLINGTON traces the arrival of such mainstays as Tricky Joe Nanton, Harry Carney, Barney Bigard and Cootie Williams into the Ellington orbit--a group dubbed The Jungle Band. Their collective performances with dancer Bill Robinson on "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Doin' The Low Down" show their mastery of popular song forms. By the time you get to disc three, with classic performances like "Moon Indigo," "Rockin' In Rhythm" and "Creole Rapsody," Ellington's music has taken on a mature air of melancholy, celebration and reflection that was to distinguish the band's performance for the next 50 years.
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![Early Ellington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings of Duke Ellington, 1926-1931 [Box] by Duke Ellington (CD, Oct-1994, 3 Discs, GRP Records USA)](http://i11.ebayimg.com/03/c/01/a2/e6/e4_7.JPG "Early Ellington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings of Duke Ellington, 1926-1931 [Box] by Duke Ellington (CD, Oct-1994, 3 Discs, GRP Records USA)")
![Early Ellington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings of Duke Ellington, 1926-1931 [Box] by Duke Ellington (CD, Oct-1994, 3 Discs, GRP Records USA)](http://i11.ebayimg.com/03/c/01/a2/e6/e4_32.JPG "Early Ellington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings of Duke Ellington, 1926-1931 [Box] by Duke Ellington (CD, Oct-1994, 3 Discs, GRP Records USA)")
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