Recent $1 find from my weekend of record digging. Beautiful in every single way. Rosemary Clooney/Duke Ellington, Blue Rose:
I haven’t watched Adam Neely regularly in a long time, but I just set aside the time for this and I’m very impressed. I wasn’t aware of Laufey before, so I’m highly biased to agree with him having learned everything from this video.
The Champagne joke he made in there that ‘it isn’t Jazz unless it comes from New Orleans, otherwise its just sparkling Blues’ is so on point in the context and really made me laugh. He seriously knows his Jazz and has always been a great educator (and player!) on the topic with a good spirit, very glad to see both his touring and channel seem to be going well.
I promise you will have no idea where this is going and you’ll be impressed:
So I was doing a pass of 1967 releases for the music League and came across Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite:
I’m really enjoying this and realizing I’ve never listened to Duke Ellington at all before. Any recommendations for where to go from here? Really into the looser big band underground club sound.
Are you looking for more Duke? His catalog is rather intimidating, but I’ve enjoyed Money Jungle (trio!), The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (funky big band), Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (title says all you need to know), and, believe it or not, the album he did with Rosemary Clooney.
If you’re looking for more of this post-swing big band sound, check out some Fletcher Henderson or early Sun Ra Arkestra.
Medeski, Martin & Wood live recording recommendations?
I have not kept up with their live output since the 90s, sadly, but here’s a cool site. Currently under construction, but looks like they have all the live stuff you might be looking for.