Track Listing

1. In a Sentimental Mood
2. Take the Coltrane
3. Big Nick
4. Stevie
5. My Little Brown Book
6. Angelica
7. Feeling of Jazz

Product Details

• Released on: 1995-11-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
Perhaps looking to renew his inspiration or maybe simply wanting to broaden his horizons, Duke Ellington began a string of collaborations in the second half of his career--whereas before that, his own band was stimulus enough. Whatever the reason, almost all of his collaborations succeeded at high levels, although none of his shared sessions are more intriguing on the surface than this 1962 date with the preeminent sax star of the day. In reality, the record amounts to "Coltrane Plays Ellington" (plus one Coltrane original) because the tenor man is the whole show--and what a show it is. Only Coltrane could be as "fiercely tender," and there's no better forum for his sensitive side than the music of Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, who contributes the album's true vertex, "My Little Brown Book." The rhythm section alternates between Duke's and Trane's, each adding a different texture to the proceedings. Ellington is wise enough to appreciate the nature of the session, and he is quite content to feed chords in service of the young master--proving the old master's open mind and good taste. Hearing Coltrane seize "In a Sentimental Mood" is thanks enough. --Marc Greilsamer

Album Description
Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2006.

Album Details
Japanese Limited Edition Issue of the Album Classic in a Deluxe, Miniaturized LP Sleeve Replica of the Original Vinyl Album Artwork.

Customer Reviews

Certainly, a desert-island disc
My reviews are usually fairly lengthy, but I'll spare the listening public this time to note that this record might be my favorite ever made. Note that I said favorite, not 'best', which is an argument in which I dare not engage; certainly Coltrane at least recorded several arguably better albums (among them, Giant Steps; My Favorite Things; Crescent; A Love Supreme; Sun Ship; and Interstellar Space) and though I have a strong small-combo bias, and am not partial to extended suites, this probably doesn't represent Ellington's best work either. But it hardly matters; I said favorite. And hardly any other album moves me as much as this one. There is the Byrds' Ballad of Easy Rider, maybe; a Marvin Gaye album; something by Herbie Hancock or the Velvet Underground. Possibly even something else of Trane's. But above all, this one.

Note the heartbreakingly ethereal, rather androgynous quality of his solo on Strayhorn's "My Little Brown Book". Marvel at the full-on Quartet (or rather, trio) vanguard fire of "Take the Coltrane". Trane's one composition is slight, but charming, and his soprano solo on it is a deluge.

Ellington's new compositions aren't major, but they're successful - especially "The Feeling of Jazz", which he later revisited - and uncharacteristically bluesy; "Angelica" is the exception, oddly reminiscent of "St Thomas", and a sheer continental delight. His solos too are strikingly 'new thing' - blocky and jagged, a pure percussive pleasure. But he often lays out. Next to Coltrane, who wouldn't?

This album is often mischaracterized as a disc of ballads, like Trane's other '62 work for Impulse!. It is, on the contrary, far more ardent and uptempo than, say, Kind of Blue, and I consider this superior for other reasons too. Sole complaint: this album is ten minutes shorter. Inexplicably. Although it does have two more tracks, and even the tossed-off Berlioz-quoting vamp "Stevie" is more substantial than "Freddie Freeloader".

This is also the album that has "In a Sentimental Mood" on it. Yeah, that version. The nonpareil.

Look at the price. Look at the personnel. Why don't you own this yet?

Duke meets Trane!!!!!!!!!!
Although not nearly as much closed minded about liking new jazz forms as other "swing" musicians of the thirties and forties, you would think Duke Ellington would not want to record with this new experimentalist, John Coltrane. Obviously he did, and the outcome was amazing. I can never imagine Coltrane doing a collaboration album or asking to play with another jazz musician because I can't imagine Trane talking. I've never heard his voices, except for his brief vocal statement on Love Surpreme. Anyway, this is a great album. The first track, In A Senntimental Mood, is probally the most famous as it was featured in an episode of The Bill Cosby Show. It shows restraint, but also has Elvin Jones's melodic drum fills, mostly using the small tom and floor tom together in a good collaboration. Big Nick starts off what might be a "cute" little tune, but once Coltrane solos, he's turned it in to a free jazz/Anant Garde song. Ellington just copes in a cool way even under Trane's heavy improvisations. The others are all great too.

A memorable session
Duke and Trane play it sweet this time, no big orchestras, no avant garde explorations. Two of the greatest ever playing together, perhaps there is too much to expect from this meeting. 'In a sentimental mood' and 'my little brown book' definitely live up to anyone expectations, to me, the best versions of these 2 classic Duke songs. But there is also a fair amount of jams that do not quite live up to the hype. Not among Trane or Duke greatest recordings or essential, but still, a nice listen.