LOUIS ARMSTRONG & DUKE ELLINGTON
The Great Summit (Roulette)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

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You'd think the two giants of jazz would have found time and studio space for frequent collaboration, but apart from some curt crossovers, there were only two days that Satchmo and Duke made music together. April 3rd and 4th, 1961. That's it, that's all. And even at that, the famous Ellington Orchestra was not along for the ride. Nonetheless, the meeting was pure magic, as Louis Armstrong made his way through seventeen Duke tunes. With Ellington on piano and Barney Bigard on clarinet, a tight sextet ran through the likes of "Mood Indigo," "The Mooche" and "In a Mellow Tone," all sounding damn fresh with Armstrong in the lead. The kicker to the session is the inclusion of "Azalea" which Duke reputedly wrote for Armstrong, and which he hadn't been able to record properly previous to this session, proving that a certain chemistry is sometimes a requirement.

© 2001 - John Sekerka