The Ellington Suites

Description

Duke Ellington’s The Ellington Suites ties a string on three late-period orchestral works, each recorded years apart but finally brought together by Norman Granz in 1976. ‘The Queen’s Suite’, composed in 1959 and privately gifted to Queen Elizabeth II, remained unreleased to the public until more than a decade later. It’s joined by ‘The Goutelas Suite’ (1971) and ‘The Uwis Suite’ (1972), both steeped in Ellington’s characteristically rich voicings and vivid mise en abymes, written in a fertile stretch when he often self-financed recordings later licensed for release. Housed in a Stoughton tip-on jacket, it’s a high-spec reissue of a quietly dazzling chapter.