Duke Ellington - Portrait (2002) {10CD Box Set, Remastered}

Duke Ellington called his music "American Music" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category. He remains one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music and is widely considered as one of the twentieth century's best known African American personalites. As both a composer and a band leader, Ellington's reputation has increased since his death, with thematic repackagings of his signature music often becoming best-sellers. Posthumous recognition of his work include a special award citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Duke Ellington influenced millions of people both around the world and at home. He gave American music its own sound for the first time. In his fifty year career, he played over 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia.

Simply put, Ellington transcends boundaries and fills the world with a treasure trove of music that renews itself through every generation of fans and music-lovers. His legacy continues to live onand will endure for generations to come. Winton Marsalis said it best when he said "His music sounds like America." Because of the unmatched artistic heights to which he soared, no one deserved the phrase “beyond category” more than Ellington, for it aptly describes his life as well. He was most certainly one of a kind that maintained a llifestyle with universal appeal which transcended countless boundaries.

Duke Ellington is best remembered for the over 3000 songs that he composed during his lifetime. His best known titles include; "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing", "Sophisticated Lady", "Mood Indigo", “Solitude", "In a Mellotone", and "Satin Doll". The most amazing part about Ellington was the most creative while he was on the road. It was during this time when he wrote his most famous piece, "Mood Indigo"which brought him world wide fame.

When asked what inspired him to write, Ellington replied, "My men and my race are the inspiration of my work. I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people".

Duke Ellington's popular compositions set the bar for generations of brilliant jazz, pop, theatre and soundtrack composers to come. While these compositions guarantee his greatness, whatmakes Duke an iconoclastic genius, and an unparalleled visionary, what has granted him immortality are his extended suites. From 1943's Black, Brown and Beige to 1972's The Uwis Suite, Duke used the suite format to give his jazz songs a far more empowering meaning, resonance and purpose: to exalt, mythologize and re-contextualize the African-American experience on a grand scale.

Duke Ellington was partial to giving brief verbal accounts of the moods his songs captured. Reading those accounts is like looking deep into the background of an old photo of New York and noticing the lost and almost unaccountable details that gave the city its character during Ellington's heyday, which began in 1927 when his band made the Cotton Club its home. ''The memory of things gone,'' Ellington once said, ''is important to a jazz musician,'' and the stories he sometimes told about his songs are the record of those things gone. But what is gone returns, its pulse kicking, when Ellington's music plays, and never mind what past it is, for the music itself still carries us forward today.

Duke Ellington was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. He was later awarded several other prizes, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, and the Legion of Honor by France in 1973, the highest civilian honors in each country. He died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday, and is buried in the Bronx, in New York City. At his funeral attendedby over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, "It's a very sad day…A genius has passed."

Track List CD01 - Buffet Flat:

01. Dinahґs In A Jam [2:52]
02. Iґm Slappinґ Seventh Avenue [2:35]
03. Swingtime In Honolulu [2:51]
04. You Gave Me The Gate [2:23]
05. Rose Of The Rio Grande [3:01]
06. Pyramid [2:55]
07. When My Sugar Walks Down The Street [2:40]
08. Watermelon Man [2:36]
09. A Gypsy Without A Song [2:59]
10. The Stevedoreґs Serenade [2:47]
11. La De Doody Doo [2:27]
12. A Blues Serenade [2:21]
13. Love In Swingtime [2:37]
14. Please Forgive Me [3:02]
15. Lambeth Walk [2:28]
16. Prelude To A Kiss [3:01]
17. Hip Chic [2:57]
18. Buffet Flat [2:28]
19. Prelude To A Kiss [2:43]
20. Thereґs Something About An Old Love [2:41]





Track List CD02 - Cotton Club Stomp:

01. The Jeep Is Jumpin' [2:29]
02. Krum Elbow Blues [2:37]
03. Twits And Twerps [2:37]
04. Mighty Like The Blues [2:37]
05. Jazz Poutpourri [2:59]
06. T. T. On Toast [2:51]
07. Battle Of Swing [2:59]
08. Potrait Of The Lion [2:25]
09. (I Want) Something To Live For [2:50]
10. Solid Old Man [2:41]
11. Cotton Club Stomp [2:52]
12. Doin' The Voom Voom [2:42]
13. Way Low [3:29]
14. Serenade To Sweden [3:24]
15. In A Mizz [3:07]
16. I'm Checkin' Out, Goo'm Bye [2:28]
17. A Lonely Co - Ed [3:17]
18. You Can Count On Me [2:56]
19. Bouncing Buoyancy [2:43]
20. The Sergeant Was Shy [2:43]
21. Grievin' [3:08]





Track List CD03 - I Never Felt This Way Before:

01. Little Posey [2:41]
02. I Never Felt This Way Before [2:59]
03. Grievin' [2:52]
04. Tootin' Through The Roof [2:55]
05. Weely (A Portriat Of Billy Strayhorn) [3:00]
06. Killin' Myself [2:26]
07. Your Love Has Faded [2:55]
08. Country Gal [2:58]
09. Solitude [3:02]
10. Stormy Weather [2:37]
11. Mood Indigo [2:46]
12. Sophisticated Lady [2:51]
13. You, You Darlin' [3:22]
14. Jack The Bear [3:17]
15. Ko-Ko [2:43]
16. Morning Glory [3:18]
17. So Far, So Good [2:54]
18. Conga Brava [2:58]
19. Concerto For Cootie [3:17]
20. Me And You [2:52]





Track List CD04 - Dusk:

01. Bojangles [2:44]
02. Cotton Tail [3:11]
03. Never No Lament [3:18]
04. Blue Goose [3:20]
05. Dusk [3:19]
06. Bojangles [2:53]
07. A Portrait Of Bert Williams [3:11]
08. Blue Goose [3:23]
09. Harlem Air-Shaft [2:59]
10. At A Dixie Roadside Dinner [2:48]
11. All Too Soon [3:32]
12. Rumpus In Richmond [2:45]
13. My Greatest Mistake [3:25]
14. Sepia Panorama [3:21]
15. There Shall Be No Night [3:13]
16. In A Mellotone [3:18]
17. Five O'Clock Whistle [3:19]
18. Warm Valley [3:15]
19. The Flaming Sword [3:07]
20. Warm Valley [3:22]





Track List CD05 - After All:

01. Across The Blues Track [2:59]
02. Chloe (Song Of The Swamp) [3:26]
03. I Never Felt This Way Before [3:30]
04. Sidewalks Of New York [3:15]
05. Flamingo [3:24]
06. The Girl In My Dreams Tries To Look Like You [3:19]
07. Take The 'A' Train [2:55]
08. Jumpin' Punkins [3:33]
09. John Hardy's Wife [3:29]
10. Blue Serge [3:22]
11. After All [3:21]
12. Bakiff [3:23]
13. Are You Sticking [3:04]
14. Just A-Settin' And A-Rockin' [3:35]
15. The Giddybug Gallop [3:32]
16. Chocolate Shake [2:53]
17. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good [3:18]
18. Clementine [2:56]
19. The Brown Skin Gal [3:10]
20. Jump For Joy [2:50]





Track List CD06 - Moon Over Cuba:

01. Jump For Joy [2:55]
02. Moon Over Cuba [3:10]
03. Five O'Clock Drag [3:14]
04. Rocks In My Bed [3:07]
05. Blip-Blip [3:06]
06. Chelsea Bridge [2:55]
07. Raincheck [2:30]
08. What Good Would It Do? [2:46]
09. I Don't Know What Kind Of Blues I Got [3:15]
10. Chelsea Bridge [2:54]
11. Perdido [3:09]
12. The 'C' Jam Blues [2:40]
13. Moon Mist [2:59]
14. What Am I Here For [3:27]
15. I Don't Mind [2:51]
16. Someone [3:11]
17. My Little Brown Book [3:11]
18. Main Stem [2:49]
19. Johnny Come Lately [2:40]
20. Haywood, Strawfoot [2:31]





Track List CD07 - I'm Beginning To See The Light:

01. Sentimental Lady [3:03]
02. A Slip Of The Lip [2:55]
03. Sherman Shuffle [2:39]
04. Boy Meets Horn [4:45]
05. Hop Skip Jump [2:39]
06. Things Ainґt What They Used To Be [3:19]
07. Main Stem [2:57]
08. Creole Love Call [4:30]
09. The Mood To Be Wooed [5:04]
10. My Little Brown Book [3:13]
11. Iґm Checkinґ Out Goom-Bye [1:50]
12. Tootinґ Through The Roof [2:13]
13. I Ainґt Got Nothing But The Blues [2:42]
14. Iґm Beginning To See The Light [3:16]
15. Donґt You Know I Care [2:59]
16. I Didґnґt Know About You [2:45]
17. Work Song [4:40]
18. Come Sunday [4:33]





Track List CD08 - Frantic Fantasy:

01. The Blues [4:36]
02. Three Dances [4:29]
03. Carnegie Blues [2:49]
04. Blue Cellophane [2:56]
05. Mood To Be Wooed [2:59]
06. My Heart Sings [2:52]
07. Perfume Suite Part 1 a/ Under The Balcony b/ Strange Feeling [4:53]
08. Perfume Suite Part 1 a/ Dancers In Love b/ Coloratura [5:11]
09. Frantic Fantasy [4:43]
10. It Donґt Mean A Thing [4:29]
11. Black Brown And Beige Part 1 a/Blues [5:09]
12. Black Brown And Beige Part 2 b/West Indian Dance c/ Emancipation Celebration … [6:31]
13. The Kissing Bug [3:02]
14. Everything But You [2:52]
15. Riff Staccato [3:05]
16. Prelude To A Kiss [3:02]
17. Caravan [2:47]
18. Black And Tan Fantasy [2:48]





Track List CD09 - Mood Indigo:

01. Mood Indigo [2:43]
02. Harlem Airshaft [3:16]
03. The Minor Goes A Muggin [2:58]
04. In A Sentimental Mood [2:59]
05. It Don't Mean A Thing [3:01]
06. Sophisticated Lady [2:41]
07. Tonight I Shall Sleep [2:58]
08. I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart [3:04]
09. Solitude [3:03]
10. Black Beauty [2:49]
11. Every Hour On The Hour [3:08]
12. Hollywood Hangover [3:38]
13. Kissing Bug [3:03]
14. In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree [4:55]
15. Frankie And Johnnie - Part 1 [3:57]
16. Frankie And Johnnie - Part 2 [3:12]
17. Sugar Hill Penthouse (Black, Brown And Beige) [4:23]
18. Diminuendo In Blue / Crescendo In Blue [6:32]
19. New World A Comin' - Part 1 [5:43]
20. New World A Comin' - Part 2 [5:44]







Track List CD10 - Suddenly It Jumped:

01. Prelude To a Kiss (Gordon - Mills - Ellington) [2:54]
02. Ring Dem Bells (Ellington - Mills) [3:16]
03. Perfume Suite - Strange Feeling (Ellington) [3:11]
04. Perfume Suite - Coloratura (Ellington) [3:03]
05. Perfume Suite - Balcony Serenade (Ellington) [3:09]
06. Perfume Suite - Coloratura (Ellington) [3:00]
07. Time's A-Wastin (Ellington - Ellington) [3:05]
08. Perfume Suite - Dancers In Love (Ellington) [2:20]
09. Carnegie Blues (Ellington) [2:51]
10. Tell Ya What I'm Gonna Do (Green - Blane) [2:48]
11. Come To Baby, Do! (James - Miller) [2:48]
12. I'm Just A Lucky So And So (Ellington - David) [3:14]
13. Long, Strong And Consecutive (Ellington - David) [2:57]
14. The Wonder Of You (Ellington - Hodges - George) [2:48]
15. Esquire Swank (Ellington - Hodges) [3:59]
16. Rockabye River (Ellington) [3:04]
17. Suddenly It Jumped (Ellington) [2:49]
18. A'Gathering In A Clearing (Ellington - Anderson) [3:10]
19. Transblucency (Ellington - Brown) [3:00]
20. 'C' Jam Blues (Ellington) [2:00]