SIDE BY SIDE - Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges

Artist: DUKE ELLINGTON - JOHNNY HODGES

Album: SIDE BY SIDE

Label: Verve

Format: MP3@320 kbps

Sound Quality: FULL

Size: 105,69 MB
Time 46:15

Type: Album

Country: USA

Release Date: 1959

Genre: JAZZ

Although it is billed as a Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges album, Side by Side is a 1959 album mostly under the leadership of Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington's alto saxophonist for many years. Ellington only appears on three of this album's tracks. The album places Hodges at the fore, backing him with piano by Ellington or Billy Strayhorn and providing other accompaniment by well-known jazz figures like Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, Harry "Sweets" Edison and Jo Jones. The album, a follow-up to the popular Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues, has remained perpetually in print and was among the first of the Verve Music Group catalog to be transferred to CD,on March 23, 1999.

wikipedia

The sound of Johnny Hodges's alto saxophone--a tone of ethereal smoothness combined with slyly familiar blues phrasing and a capacity for both wit and romance--may be the most identifiable sonic marker of Duke Ellington's music, and it's much in evidence on the two small group sessions on this CD. One, from 1959, has Hodges and Ellington in a sextet with two great Basie alumni, drummer Jo Jones and trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison. The combination generates extraordinary swing, especially on the opening "Stompy Jones," with Ellington's percussive chords and Jones's drums generating enough power to drive a big band. Hodges and Edison maintain the big-band illusion, fuelling one another's solos with supportive riffs, while Ellington seems to revel in the wide-open spaces, soloing on "Going Up" with an expansive and almost casual brilliance. Though Duke is absent from the second date on this CD, featuring a septet recorded in 1958, his alter ego, Billy Strayhorn, plays piano in appropriately ducal fashion. This band has an even stronger Ellington flavor, with tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and trombonist Lawrence Brown adding their unique sounds to a joy-filled session that recalls Duke's small group recordings of the '30s. --Stuart Broomer

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Track listing

"Stompy Jones" (Duke Ellington) – 6:38

"Just Squeeze Me" (Fats Waller, Clarence Williams) – 4:36

"Big Shoe" (Jimmy Hamilton) – 5:37

"Going Up" (D. Ellington) – 4:51

"Just a Memory" (Lew Brown, Buddy DeSylva, Ray Henderson) – 5:53

"Let's Fall in Love" (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler) – 6:47

"Ruint" (Mercer Ellington, Johnny Hodges) – 2:32

"Bend One" (Hodges) – 2:59

"You Need to Rock" (Hodges) – 5:52

Personnel

Tracks 1, 2 and 4

Duke Ellington – piano

Johnny Hodges – saxophone: alto

Harry "Sweets" Edison – trumpet

Les Spann – flute, guitar

Al Hall – bass

Jo Jones – drums

These tracks were recorded February 20, 1959

Tracks 3 and 5 through 9

Johnny Hodges – saxophone: alto

Roy Eldridge – trumpet

Lawrence Brown – trombone

Ben Webster – saxophone: tenor

Billy Strayhorn – piano

Wendell Marshall – bass

Jo Jones – drums

These tracks were recorded August 14, 1958

Producer: Norman Granz.