Duke Ellington en Ivie Anderson limited release 2 cd set

Whether your love is for older forms of jazz, honky tonk show tunes, or just a rollicking good time with the baddest big band around, featuring some of the sweetest, gutsiest singing you;ll ever hear, duke ellington presents ivie anderson is one wonderful must-have!


This 2-disc set is a deluxe travelogue of the ellington orchestra focusing upon dynamic cover performances and key formative work for columbia from 1932 to 1940. With bands whose basswork runs from the stomping slap of wellman braud to the consummate breakthrough dance of jimmy blanton, you are witness -front and center- to the science and sorcery which changed the listening of the world, forever. A special treat is how many showtunes by the likes of harold arlen (anderson;s show-stopping rendition of ;stormy weather", for instance!) Find their way alongside forgotten chestnuts (;all god;s chillun got rhythm;, ;shoeshine boy, ;rose of the rio grande;, ;in a mizz;) and ellington originals, known and unknown. Make no mistake, though, on who is the focus of this collection. Frequently dismissed or taken for granted by more recent jazz critics as being way too plain, the point missed is that her plain-spoken stylistic is at the heart of why anderson is so unique.



Those disappointed that anderson wasnt ella fitzgerald or sarah vaughan show their own lack of perspective, forgetting that singers like anderson set the stage (along with mr. Armstrong, of course!) For the astounding scatologists and sweet bird-callers to come. Further, it was the pioneering of singers such as ivie anderson who broke rank with the overblowing theatrics of rudy vallee, and the campy mammyface of al jolson and eddie cantor, to hit with a subtler brand of genuine down-home song. Anderson;s approach was to sear with a sharp delivery borne of blues belters. This she finely attuned with clearest enunication, crisp tonality, and dynamic warmth which brought anything she sang straight on home -uptown and downtown- to all who hears! Far from stolid, her lively, pugnaciously eloquent style is engaging and inviting, and was clearly the precedent for generations of staright-shooters and subtle note-benders from billie holiday to lena horne, and on. Listen to the debut recording of the anthem ;it don;t mean a thing (if it aint got that swing);, anderson riding the rat-a-tat romp of ellington pomp with her own shout and shimmy to seperate the gals from the girls, and the women even finer! Check out her saucy street step on ;killing myself;, featuring some hip ad-lib from maestro billy strayhorn!


Encounter her aching balladry in an epic rendition of ;solitutde, and the curvaceous sensuality she brings to ;mood indigo;, and you will come to know the surging power and rarified grace that this woman brought to the master stage of ellington performance. No singer ever graced it finer.