Far East Suite

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Far East Suite
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 1967
RecordedDecember 19–21, 1966
StudioNew York City
GenreJazz, big band
Length45:14
LabelBluebird/RCA
ProducerBrad McKuen
Duke Ellington chronology
The Popular Duke Ellington
(1967)
Far East Suite
(1967)
...And His Mother Called Him Bill
(1968)

Far East Suite is a 1967 concept album by American jazz musician Duke Ellington, inspired by his group's tour of Asia. Ellington and longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn wrote the compositions.

Strayhorn died in May 1967, making Far East Suite one of the last albums recorded during his life to feature his compositions. The album won the Grammy Award in 1968 for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance – Large Group or Soloist with Large Group.

The album was reissued in 1995 with four previously unreleased alternate takes.[1] In 2003, Bluebird Records issued the album on CD with additional bonus takes.

Background

The album's title is something of a misnomer. As critics

Abadan, Baghdad, and Beirut. The band arrived in Ankara but U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated the day before its concert, and the State Department cancelled the tour. Scheduled performances in Istanbul, Nicosia, Cairo, Alexandria, Athens, Thessaloniki
, and a week added to the tour for Yugoslavia were cancelled.

In early 1964, while on tour in England, Ellington and Strayhorn performed four pieces of music for the first time ("Mynah", "Depk", "Agra", and "Amad"), which they called "Expressions of the Far East". By the time of the recording sessions in December 1966 Ellington and Strayhorn had added four more pieces. One, the latter's "Isfahan" was formerly known as "Elf", and had in fact been written months prior to the 1963 tour.

Legacy

Ellington very rarely performed the pieces that made up The Far East Suite. Cook and Morton have suggested that "Isfahan", which later became a jazz standard, "is arguably the most beautiful item in Ellington's and Strayhorn's entire output."[2] The album had a big impact on the Asian American jazz movement[citation needed]. In 1999, Anthony Brown recorded the entire suite with his Asian-American Orchestra. Unlike the 1967 album, Brown's version used Eastern instruments along with standard jazz instruments.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic
[1]
Penguin Guide to Jazz[2]

Cook and Morton, writing for

Allmusic, calls this one of Ellington's "more memorable recordings,"[1] describing it as an example of "Ellington and Strayhorn in their late prime," and as such, "quite essential."[3]

Participating in

Down Beat' s Blindfold Test shortly after the album's release, composer-arranger Clare Fischer was played track #7, "Agra." A longtime admirer and student of Ellington's work, Fischer had no trouble identifying the artist, awarding the track five stars, citing both "Duke's immensely creative writing" and his inexplicable ability to transcend "this same old tired instrumentation of trumpets, trombones and saxophones," while "perfect[ly] utilizing the men's specific sounds." In addition, Fischer praised Ellington's ability to "take an exotic-sounding idea and create something – you might call it sophisticated crudity. It gives both qualities that I look for – an earthy quality and the sophisticated quality."[4]

Track listing

(All compositions by Ellington & Strayhorn except 9. by Ellington.)

  1. "Tourist Point of View" – 5:09
  2. "Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah)" – 3:18
  3. "Isfahan" – 4:02
  4. "Depk" – 2:38
  5. "Mount Harissa" – 7:40
  6. "Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)" – 3:00
  7. "Agra" – 2:35
  8. "Amad" – 4:26
  9. "Ad Lib on Nippon" – 11:34
    1995 reissue bonus tracks
  10. "Tourist Point of View" (alternative take) – 4:58
  11. "Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah)" (alternative take) – 3:08
  12. "Isfahan" (alternative take) – 4:11
  13. "Amad" (alternative take) – 4:15

Personnel

References

  1. ^
    AllMusic
  2. ^ .
  3. .
  4. ^ Feather, Leonard. "Clare Fischer – Blindfold Test". Down Beat. October 18, 1967. Retrieved 2013-04-14.