The ninth of ten volumes of music from
Duke Ellington's
Private Collection of unknown tapes, this CD captures him in 1968 shortly after clarinetist
Jimmy Hamilton left the band and tenor-saxophonist
Harold Ashby joined up. Even after 30 years of playing some of these standards,
Ellington found new ways to re-arrange such songs as "Sophisticated Lady," "Mood Indigo" and "Just Squeeze Me." In addition, there are a few new obscurities such as "Knuf" (which finds
Jeff Castleman switching to electric bass), "Reva" and the somewhat dated
Trish Turner vocal on "Cool and Groovy." Lots of surprises on this fine CD. ~ Scott Yanow