Battle Royal (LP 242 - 243)

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra Piano In The Background (Vinyl - CBS Coronet, 1960) ***
Duke Ellington and Count Basie Battle Royal (Vinyl - CBS Coronet, 1961) ****

Genre: Big Band, Swing 

Places I remember:  Inherited from the Graham Purdy collection 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Jumpin' At The Woodside (BR) does what it says on the tin: jumps!




Gear costume:  Wild Man (BR)

Active compensatory factors: Battle Royal is another album from dad's collection that has always been in my life.

And it's fantastic - amazingly uncluttered given all the musos on hand from two big bands and I love the way the Duke and the Count play on opposite sides of the stereo channels. Very cool!

Both albums have versions of the classic Take The "A" Train. I prefer the Battle version - it's more visceral.

The Piano in the Background version is like that album in total - sophisticated and a bit out of reach for me. I am not a musician - my appreciation of music is from an emotional attachment, not a technical one. 

That means I can appreciate the Piano album for what it is - clearly Ellington is a genius, but I prefer the whomp of the Battle Royal album a lot more.

Where do they all belong? Even though I'm not a huge fan of swing, that was my dad's bag, these two are with me forever.