Recollections of the Big Band Era
Recollections of the Big Band Era is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington recorded in 1962 and 1963 by Bruce Swedien at Universal Recording Corporation in Chicago for the Reprise label but not released until 1974 on the Atlantic label. The album features performances of compositions associated with big bands led by artists such as Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway and others by the Duke Ellington's Orchestra. The 1989 CD reissue included 11 bonus tracks that originally appeared on "Will Big Bands Ever Come Back?" which  was released on Reprise in 1965. Reception. The AllMusic review by Bruce Eder awarded the album 3 stars and stated: "The material is done in a smooth, swinging style, more laid-back than what the Count Basie orchestra of the same period would have done with this same stuff but with enough fire and boundless elegance to make it more than worthwhile... this is sort of a concept album, and a rather good one at that".