Duke Ellington: Orchestral Music
Naxos 8.559737
Ellington: The River: Suite (21:04)
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra / JoAnn Falletta
Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington wrote some of the 20th century’s greatest Big Band music, but he also wrote in a variety of forms. The evocative Harlem pays tribute to Ellington’s roots. Black, Brown and Beige sets work songs and spirituals, while the suite from The River shows his genius in writing for the stage. Three Black Kings, scored as a ballet, was left unfinished at his death, and Ellington’s arrangement of Billy Strayhorn’s Take the ‘A’ Train ranks among the most widely recorded standards of all time.
Duke Ellington: Orchestral Music,
