The Great Summit: The Complete Sessions
For starters,The Great Summitproduced not only itself, both in a long-valued one-CD set and now this 2-CDComplete Sessions, but also a later summit,Count Basieand Duke Ellington's tandem showdown,First Time. On its own, though,The Great Summitneeds no later chapters to justify its celebrated standing in jazz annals. This was and is terrifically important music, Ellington in grand form between recording theParis Bluessoundtrack and cutting ace sessions likeDuke Ellington Meets Coleman HawkinsandDuke Ellington & John Coltranein late 1962. For his part, Armstrong was on leave, as well, resting up between ceaseless tours as a bona fide jazz superstar and veteran.So Ellington and Armstrong join hands, backed by the latter's band (Trummy Young on trombone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Mort Herbert on bass, and Danny Barcelona on drums), tackling 17 of Duke's tunes. Armstrong's sweet, rolling vocal growl gives the tunes endless hugs, just as his band both cuts plump solos and then backs way off so Ellington can throw down alternately swinging and unapologetically modernist solos himself. What distinguishes this two-CD set from the originally issued, one-CDComplete Sessionis the second disc,The Making of the Great Summit. What's that worth? Well, it's a fan's dream, with studio chatter, with myriad false starts and several alternate complete takes ("In a Mellow Tone," "Duke's Place," and "Drop Me Off in Harlem"). Pure gold if you love Duke and Louis separately--unalloyed platinum if you love them (or just the thought of them) together.--Andrew Bartlett