Lawrence Brown played trombone off and on with
Duke Ellington's orchestra for nearly 40 years. Surprisingly, he only led two albums of his own in his entire career, a set for Impulse in 1965, and this album for Clef (now Verve). Heard either as part of a quintet with tenor saxophonist
Sam "The Man" Taylor or with a nonet that includes tenor saxophonist
Al Cohn and pianist
Hank Jones,
Brown is in excellent form on the reissue. The music (not too shockingly) often sounds as if it were an
Ellington small group, including such numbers as
Brown's longtime feature "Rose of the Rio Grande," "Caravan," "You Took Advantage of Me," and "Blues for Duke." The original LP program is joined by two previously unreleased performances ("Time After Time" and "For All We Know"). Excellent mainstream swing of the 1950s. ~ Scott Yanow