Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - "Nutcracker Suite/Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2" Vinyl, Album (Columbia)

The Duke 'duke-itze' Tchaikovsky and Grieg.   Co-arranged by Billy Strayhorn, this is a remarkable work by the Ellington Orchestra.  It's a work that is re-imagined by the composing genius. "Nutcracker Suite" is a work that most of us know from the Christmas Holiday, a ballet that as a schoolchild one had to see.  It's the "Louie Louie" of the ballet world. In Ellington's version, it becomes a subtle work of beauty, that is understated, and the hint of the well-known melodies makes it more of an aftertaste than a full meal.

My favorite is Grieg's "Peer Gynt" which has beautiful melodies, and the tasteful horns with a superb percussion make this work come alive.  I'm a huge fan of arrangements of familiar music and Ellington like Jack Nitzsche's Chopin album, he presents his arranging skills as a skilled translator. 

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - "Masterpieces by Ellington" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 1956 (Columbia)

My favorite Duke Ellington disc.   It's also an important statement about the 12" album format as well.    In the era of the 10" album or 78 rpm recordings, there was/is a time limit.  When the 12" album came out, I think one can have 20 minutes on each side of the record, and anything beyond that can affect the sound quality or mastering.    "Masterpieces by Ellington" is only four songs, but all in their original length the way Duke thought it out and played with his orchestra when they did live shows.   So in that sense, this format is the real meaning of the Ellington aesthetic. 

One of my all time favorite songs is "Mood Indigo."   I'm a huge fan of Frank Sinatra's version on his album "In the Wee Small Hours," but here on the Ellington album, I get goosebumps when I listen to this version.  The singer for the orchestra at this time, Yvonne Lanauze, gives a sexual presence to the smokey and seductive "Mood Indigo."   The long instrumental passage before the vocal just builds up and then - bingo!  There she is, and it's like a release after being teased for the first seven or however long the instrumental passage is.    The other three cuts here, "Sophisticated Lady," "The Tattooed Bride" (what a great title), and "Solitude" adds depth due to the natural length of the songs.  If you're an Ellington fan, more likely you have this album.  If you're not, or not have been introduced to this genius' work, then "Masterpieces by Ellington" is a great entrance way to Ellington & company's magic. 

Frank Sinatra - "In The Wee Small Hours" Vinyl, Album, LP, 1955/2009 (Capital)

This, I believe, is the first full-length Frank Sinatra album that I purchased in 1986. As a man who was in his 30's, it seems liked the right moment or time to get into the blue funk of Sinatra at the time. Sinatra, I believe, or at the very least, one of the first artists to use the album format as a theme piece or dare I say it, the concept album. Being a sad boy/man, I was immediately drawn to Sinatra's skills as a ballad singer. In other words, these recordings, especially this album "In The Wee Small Hours" is my version of the goth album. 

I re-lived my entire romantic life at that point and time with this album. The disappointments of love have never been expressed in such highly poetic and brutal terms before my ears. The album cover fully reveals what's inside the packaging, which is 16 songs of begging and acknowledging being on the losing side of a sexual/romantic relationship. "Can't We Be Friends" is the ultimate song of a partner just grasping any straws of hope that somehow you can still be part of someone's life. We can gather that this is not going to be the case. Failure lurks on this album like a cheap after-shave lotion. 

Sinatra had the knack of getting right into the emotion or the physical pleasure of being in love or with a loved one. Through his vocals, he was a sonic poet, and here he had his brilliant arranger Nelson Riddle adding spices and elements of Wagner like heights to Sinatra's series of pleadings and reporting of love gone wrong or gone. There are no bad cuts on this album. Sinatra took the great American Songbook and cherry-picked the brilliant songs that make this album. The one song I play over and over again is the great Duke Ellington song "Mood Indigo." Perfection was never so painful to hear. Yet, it pleases the troubled soul.

Tracklist Hide Credits

A1	In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning Composed By – David Mann (3)Written-By – Bob Hilliard	3:00
A2	Mood Indigo Composed By – Barney Bigard, Duke EllingtonWritten-By – Irving Mills	3:30
A3	Glad To Be Unhappy Written-By – Rodgers & Hart	2:35
A4	I Get Along Without You Very Well Composed By – Hoagy CarmichaelWritten-By – Jane Brown Thompson	3:42
A5	Deep In A Dream Composed By – Jimmy Van HeusenWritten-By – Eddie DeLange	2:49
A6	I See Your Face Before Me Composed By – Arthur SchwartzWritten-By – Howard Dietz	3:24
A7	Can't We Be Friends? Composed By – Kay SwiftWritten-By – Paul James (4)	2:48
A8	When Your Lover Has Gone Songwriter – E. A. Swan*	3:10
B1	What Is This Thing Called Love? Songwriter – Cole Porter	2:35
B2	Last Night When We Were Young Composed By – Harold ArlenWritten-By – E.Y. Harburg	3:17
B3	I'll Be Around Songwriter – Alec Wilder	2:59
B4	Ill Wind Composed By – Harold ArlenWritten-By – Ted Koehler	3:46
B5	It Never Entered My Mind Written-By – Rodgers & Hart	2:42
B6	Dancing On The Ceiling Written-By – Rodgers & Hart	2:57
B7	I'll Never Be The Same Songwriter – Frank Signorelli, Gus Kahn, Matty Malneck	3:05
B8	This Love Of Mine Songwriter – Frank Sinatra, Henry Sanicola, Sol Parker	3:35

HARUOMI HOSONO - "Omni Sight Seeing" (Epic, CD, Japan)

In my first long stay in Japan, somewhere in 1989-1990, I purchased this CD, I think, at the music store THE WAVE.   The store was located in Roppongi part of Tokyo, and it was a six-story building filled with music and film DVD's.  It also had an art movie house in its basement.  The perfect home away from home for me.  A few laters I come back to the area and I was shocked to see the store gone - and not just the store, but the entire building as well.  It was just an empty hole in the place of the structure.  It's like a dentist pulling a tooth and just leaving the open wound for the world to view.   I'm just now, getting over the depression of losing such a store and building.  Nevertheless, Haruomi Hosono's album "Omni Sight Seeing" was one of the purchases I have made at THE WAVE.  Twenty-six years later, I'm still paying attention to this album, and when I do hear it, the horrid humid summer comes to mind, that was taking place that summer in Tokyo. 

But to focus on the album, it is very much a travel-log of sorts for Hosono.  It's going around the world with Hosono, or to be even more precise, Asia.   At the time, I never heard an album like this - it is various sorts of music and its history, but through the eyes and sounds of Hosono.  In the West, he's a famed member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), a band that I admire, but not love.  On the other hand, Hosono solo albums are always interesting. He's sort of the Ry Cooder of Japan - in that he's very much a historian of music and its various cultures.  But that is everything from techno-pop to Americana roots music. He works on a big canvas.  If I was to recommend one album for the new listener it would be "Omni Sight Seeing." 

There are traces of John Cage to Middle-Eastern melodies to Parisian tourism to techno to Duke Ellington on this album.  Hosono's version of Duke's "Caravan" is a solid delight.   Accordion, sax, and electronic keyboards is a very good mixture for this tune.   The whole album is very much a variety pack of goodies.  It's traveling without a passport or the fear of security.  The other highlight of the album is "Laugh-Gas," which has to be the ultimate 11 minute minimal techno cut.   Superb entertainment for all!

Boris Vian - "Inédits Radio" CD Compilation

Boris Vian - Inédits Radio

CD, Compilation, France, 2003

INA

For the Boris Vian fan, this is very much the holly grail of listening pleasure.  Among other talents by the Jacques-of-all-trades Vian also had DJ skills, which makes perfect sense because he was such a vinyl addict of his time.  I’ve read in a biography on Simone De Beauvoir that he helped purchase a sound system for her apartment, and also chose the recordings to go with that system.  A music lover, especially a jazz fanatic, is part of a small world.  Here Vian shares that world with listeners over the medium of the radio.

Vian had a thing for Duke Ellington, like he should of course, and the entire radio broadcast or the ‘best’ of his shows, he clearly has an understanding to what makes this music so cool.  Also included is Vian playing music with the Le Tabou orchestra.  And his priceless commentary (in French of course) on the music plus him interviewing Ellington.