Such Sweet Thunder
Encyclopedia
Such Sweet Thunder is a Duke Ellington
album, released in 1957 (see 1957 in music
). The record is a twelve part suite based on the work of William Shakespeare
.
On all LP issues of this album and the French Columbia CD #COL 469140 2, there is a different take of the piece, Up and Down, Up and Down (I Will Lead Them Up and Down). On this original version, Clark Terry ends it by talking through his trumpet, "Lord, what fools these mortals be."
has included this album on their Basic Jazz Record Library. The Penguin Guide to Jazz
gave the album 4 stars (out of a possible 4.) Allmusic gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
album, released in 1957 (see 1957 in music
1957 in music
-Events:*January 5 – Renato Carosone and his band start their American tour in Cuba.*January 6 – Elvis Presley makes his final appearance on the The Ed Sullivan Show.*January 16 – The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool, UK....
). The record is a twelve part suite based on the work of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
.
Track listing
- "Such Sweet Thunder" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:22
- "Sonnet for Caesar" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:00
- "Sonnet to Hank Cinq" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 1:24
- "Lady Mac" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:41
- "Sonnet in Search of a Moor" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 2:22
- "The Telecasters" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:05
- "Up and Down, Up and Down (I Will Lead Them Up and Down)" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:09
- "Sonnet for Sister Kate" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 2:24
- "The Star-Crossed Lovers" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:00
- "Madness in Great Ones" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:26
- "Half the Fun" (Also known as "Lately") (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:19
- "Circle of Fourths" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 1:45
Bonus tracks
- "The Star-Crossed Lovers" (Also known as "Pretty Girl") (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:15
- "Circle of Fourths" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 1:47
- "Suburban Beauty" (Ellington) - 2:56
- "A-Flat Minor" (Ellington) - 2:33
- "Café au Lait" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 2:49
- "Half the Fun" (Alternate take) (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:08
- "Suburban Beauty" (Alternate take) (Ellington) - 2:56
- "A-Flat Minor" (OuttakeOuttakeAn outtake is a portion of a work that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DVD reissues of many albums and films as bonus tracks or features, in film often, but not...
) (Ellington) - 3:49
- "Café au Lait" (Also known as the "Star-Crossed Lovers") (Outtake) (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 6:21
- "Pretty Girl" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 8:54
On all LP issues of this album and the French Columbia CD #COL 469140 2, there is a different take of the piece, Up and Down, Up and Down (I Will Lead Them Up and Down). On this original version, Clark Terry ends it by talking through his trumpet, "Lord, what fools these mortals be."
Musicians
- Jimmy HamiltonJimmy HamiltonJimmy Hamilton was an American jazz clarinetist, tenor saxophonist, arranger, composer, and music educator, best known for his twenty-five years with Duke Ellington....
- Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone - Johnny HodgesJohnny HodgesJohn Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges was an American alto saxophonist, best known for his solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years, except the period between 1932–1946 when Otto Hardwick generally played first chair...
- Alto Saxophone - Russell ProcopeRussell ProcopeRussell Procope , an American clarinettist and alto saxophonist, was known best for his long tenure in the reed section of Duke Ellington's orchestra, where he was one of its two signature clarinet soloists....
- Clarinet, Alto Saxophone - Paul GonsalvesPaul GonsalvesPaul Gonsalves, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"...
- Tenor Saxophone - Harry CarneyHarry CarneyHarry Howell Carney was an American swing baritone saxophonist, clarinetist, and bass clarinetist mainly known for his 45-year tenure in Duke Ellington's Orchestra. Carney started off as an alto player with Ellington, but soon switched to the baritone. His strong, steady saxophone often served as...
- Bass Clarinet, Baritone Saxophone
- Cat Anderson - Trumpet
- Clark TerryClark TerryClark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
- Trumpet - Ray NanceRay NanceRay Willis Nance was a jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer.Nance is best known for his long association with Duke Ellington through most of the 1940s and 1950s, after he was hired to replace Cootie Williams in 1940...
- Trumpet - Willie CookWillie CookWillie Cook was an American jazz trumpeter.Cook grew up in Chicago and learned to play violin before settling on trumpet as a teenager. He joined King Perry's band in the late 1930s, then replaced Charlie Parker in Jay McShann's band early in the 1940s...
- Trumpet
- Quentin Jackson - Trombone
- John Sanders - Trombone
- Britt WoodmanBritt WoodmanBritt Woodman was a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus....
- Trombone
- Jimmy WoodeJimmy WoodeJimmy Woode was a jazz bassist. His father, also named Jimmy Woode, was a music teacher and pianist who played with Hot Lips Page...
- Bass - Sam WoodyardSam WoodyardSam Woodyard was an American jazz drummer.Woodyard was largely an autodidact on drums, and played locally in the Newark, New Jersey area in the 1940s. He gigged with Paul Gayten in an R&B group, and then played in the early 1950s with Joe Holiday, Roy Eldridge, and Milt Buckner...
- Drums
- Billy StrayhornBilly StrayhornWilliam Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".-Early...
- Orchestration
Production
- Irving TownsendIrving TownsendIrving Townsend was an American record producer and author. He is most famous for having produced, in March 1959, the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, which at #12, is the highest-ranked jazz album on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and according to the RIAA, is the best-selling...
- Liner Notes, Original Recording Producer - Phil SchaapPhil SchaapPhil Schaap is an American jazz disc jockey, historian, archivist and producer. He hosts a daily morning radio program on 89.9 FM New York, WKCR, the radio station of Columbia University, his alma mater, in New York City. The show, called Bird Flight, is broadcast from 8:20 am–9:30 am on weekdays...
- Liner Notes, Reissue Producer, Remastering, Research, Restoration - Steven BerkowitzSteven BerkowitzSteven Berkowitz is an American producer. He is credited as the producer for Love, God, Murder, The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall, Cloud 7 . He was the CEO for ask.com before moving on to Microsoft. He has since left Microsoft.He has a Bachelor's degree...
- A&RA&RArtists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :... - Darren Salmieri - A&R
- Mark Wilder - Digital Mastering
- Howard Fritzson - Art Direction
- Don Hunstein - Photography
- Randall Martin - Design
- Juliana Myrick - Package Manager
Critical Reception
NPRNPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
has included this album on their Basic Jazz Record Library. The Penguin Guide to Jazz
The Penguin Guide to Jazz
The Penguin Guide to Jazz is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which are currently available in Europe or the United States...
gave the album 4 stars (out of a possible 4.) Allmusic gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Contemporary reviews and journalism
- “Ellington Suite to Bow April 28” New York Times. 15 April 1957.
- Parmenter, Ross. “Music: Weill and the Duke.” New York Times 29 April 1957.
- “New Ellington Suite Hailed By Coast-to-Coast Audience.” Daily Defender. 2 July 1957.
- Wilson, John S. “Duke Bounces Back With Provocative Work.” New York Times. 13 Oct. 1957. esp 113
- Wilson, John S. “Jazz: Ellington.” New York Times 13 October 1957.
Historical and analytical writings (in reverse chronological order)
- Bradbury, David. Duke Ellington. London: Haus, 2005. Esp. pp. 91.
- Lanier, Douglas. “To Be-Bop or Not to Be-Bop; Minstrelsy, Jazz, Rap: Shakespeare, African American Music, and Cultural Legitimation.” Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation Vol. 1, 2005 [no pagination].
- Buhler, Stephen M. “Form and Character in Duke Ellington’s and Billy Strayhorn’s Such Sweet Thunder.” Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation Vol. 1, 2005 [no pagination].
- Nicholson, Stuart. Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington. Northeastern University Press, 1999, esp. pp. ???-???.
- Lambert, Eddie. Duke Ellington: A Listener’s Guide. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1999. Esp. pp. 193–194.
- Kernfeld, Barry. New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. St. Martin’s Press, 1994. esp 331
- Hasse, John Edward. Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
- Tucker, Mark. The Duke Ellington Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Esp. pp. 321, 441. esp. pp. 339–341, 393
- Harrison, Max. “Max Harrison: Some Reflections on Ellington’s Longer Works. The Duke Ellington Reader. Tucker, Mark, ed. (esp. pg.393).
- Crouch, Stanley. “Stanley Crouch on Such Sweet Thunder, Suite Thursday, and Anatomy of a Murder.” The Duke Ellington Reader. Tucker, Mark, ed. (esp. 339, 441).
- Hasse, John. Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1993. Esp. pp. 331–333, 362.
- Timmer, W.E. Ellingtonia: The recorded music of Duke Ellington and his sidemen. Metuchen, N.J.: Institute of Jazz Studies: Scarecrow Press, 1988. Esp. pp. 450.
- Marsalis, Wynton. “What Jazz is and Isn’t.” New York Times. 31, July 1988.
- Ellington, Mercer. Duke Ellington in Person: An Intimate Memoir. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1978. Esp. pp. 117.
- Ellington, Duke. Music is My Mistress. New York: Da Capo Press, 1976, c1973. Esp. pp. 192.