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...And His Mother Called Him Bill

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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums:

... and His Mother Called Him Bill

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  • Artist: Duke Ellington
  • Rating: StarStarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: 1967
  • Total Time: 61:18
  • Genre: Jazz

Review

When Billy Strayhorn died of cancer in 1967, Duke Ellington was devastated. His closest friend and arranger had left his life full of music and memories. As a tribute, Ellington and his orchestra almost immediately began recording a tribute to Strayhorn, using the late arranger's own compositions and charts. The album features well-known and previously unrecorded Strayhorn tunes that showcased his range, versatility, and, above all, the quality that Ellington admired him most for: his sensitivity to all of the timbral, tonal, and color possibilities an orchestra could bring to a piece of music. The set opens with a vehicle for Johnny Hodges called "Snibor," written in 1949. A loose blues tune, its intervals showcase Hodges against a stinging I-IV-V backdrop and turnaround, with a sweeping set of colors in the brass section before Cootie Williams takes a break and hands it back to Hodges to take out. The melancholy "Blood Count" was written in 1967 for the band's Carnegie Hall concert. It proved to be his final composition and chart. Hodges again gets the call and blows deep, low, and full of sadness and even anger. The music is moody, poignant, and full of poise, expressing a wide range of feelings as memories from different periods in the composers' and bandleaders' collective careers. Given all the works Strayhorn composed, this one -- with its muted trumpet section set in fours against Hodges' blues wailing -- is both wistful and chilling. Also included here is a remake of 1951's "Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note," in a spicy, funky version with a shimmering cymbal ride from Sam Woodyard and a punched up, bleating Cootie Williams solo as well as one from Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet, smoothing out the harmonic edges of the brass section (which features a ringing break from John Sanders). In cut time, the tune shuffles in the groove with Ellington accenting on every eight as the brass and reeds mix it up joyously. There are two versions of "Lotus Blossom." Ellington claimed it was the piece Strayhorn most liked to hear him play. The LP version is a quiet, restrained, meditative rendition played solo by Ellington, with the most subtle and yet emotional nuances he ever presented on a recording as a pianist. Finally, closing the album is a bonus track, a trio version played in a whispering tone with only baritone saxophonist Harry Carney and bassist Aaron Bell accompanying Ellington. The piece was supposedly recorded as the band was packing up to leave. Its informality and soulful verve feel like they are an afterthought, an unwillingness to completely let go, a eulogy whose final words are questions, elegantly stated and met with only the echo of their last vibrations ringing in an empty room, full of wondering, longing, and helplessness, but above all the point of the questions themselves: "Is this enough?" or "Can there ever be enough to pay an adequate tribute to this man?" They are interesting questions, because only five years later we would all be saying the same thing about Ellington. For a man who issued well over 300 albums, this set is among his most profoundly felt and very finest recorded moments. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

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...And His Mother Called Him Bill

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...And His Mother Called Him Bill
Studio album by Duke Ellington
Released 1967
Recorded August 28, 1967 -November 15, 1967
Genre Jazz
Length 61:18
Label Bluebird/RCA
Producer Steve Backer, Brad McCuen
Duke Ellington chronology
Studio Sessions, 1957, 1965, 1966, 1967, San Francisco, Chicago, New York
(1967)		 ...And His Mother Called Him Bill
(1967)		 Francis A. & Edward K.
(1967)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 5/5 stars [1]

...And His Mother Called Him Bill is a 1967 album by Duke Ellington. He recorded the album in the wake of the death of his long-time music partner Billy Strayhorn. All of the songs featured were written or co-written by Strayhorn. Some were Strayhorn's last works ("Blood Count" and "The Intimacy Of The Blues") while others were rarely, if ever, recorded with Ellington's band. Because of this, Strayhorn's best known tune, "Take the "A" Train," wasn't recorded for this release.

The album was first released in 1967 on RCA Victor, has since been reissued several times on compact disc: first in 1987 by RCA Records/Bluebird Records, then in 1993 by Flying Dutchman Records, and finally by BMG in 2000. Two special reissues were also released, one in America and one in France, though both had the same track listing. They were released in 2002 by RCA and 2001 by BMG International, respectively.

Contents

Track listing

Original release

  1. "Snibor" (Billy Strayhorn) – 4:16
  2. "Boo-Dah" (Strayhorn) – 3:25
  3. "Blood Count" (Strayhorn) – 4:16
  4. "U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group)" (Strayhorn) – 3:09
  5. "Charpoy" (Strayhorn) – 3:05
  6. "After All" (Strayhorn) – 3:28
  7. "The Intimacy of the Blues" (Strayhorn) – 2:55
  8. "Rain Check" (Strayhorn) – 4:34
  9. "Day Dream" (Ellington, John La Touche, Strayhorn) – 4:18
  10. "Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 2:59
  11. "All Day Long" (Strayhorn) – 2:56
  12. "Lotus Blossom" (Strayhorn) – 3:52

1987 CD reissue

  1. "Boo-Dah" (Strayhorn) – 3:32
  2. "U.M.M.G." (Strayhorn) – 3:13
  3. "Blood Count" (Strayhorn) – 4:19
  4. "Smada" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 3:20
  5. "Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 3:02
  6. "Rain Check" (Strayhorn) – 4:37
  7. "Midriff" (Strayhorn) – 4:31
  8. "My Little Brown Book" (Strayhorn) – 4:13
  9. "Lotus Blossom" (Strayhorn) – 3:57
  10. "Snibor" (Strayhorn) – 4:19
  11. "After All" (Strayhorn) – 3:48
  12. "All Day Long" (Strayhorn) – 2:57
  13. "Lotus Blossom" (Strayhorn) – 5:01
  14. "Day Dream" (Ellington, Latouche, Strayhorn) – 4:20
  15. "The Intimacy of the Blues" (Strayhorn) – 3:02
  16. "Charpoy" (Strayhorn) – 3:07

American and French reissues

  1. "Snibor" (Strayhorn) – 4:16
  2. "Boo-Dah" (Strayhorn) – 3:28
  3. "Blood Count" (Strayhorn) – 4:18
  4. "U.M.M.G." (Strayhorn) – 3:14
  5. "Charpoy" (Strayhorn) – 3:07
  6. "After All" (Strayhorn) – 3:52
  7. "The Intimacy of the Blues" (Strayhorn) – 2:58
  8. "Rain Check" (Strayhorn) – 4:37
  9. "Day Dream " (Ellington, Latouche, Strayhorn) – 4:25
  10. "Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 3:02
  11. "All Day Long" (Strayhorn) – 2:58
  12. "Lotus Blossom [Solo Version]" (Strayhorn) – 3:54
  13. "Acht O'Clock Rock" (Ellington) – 2:23
  14. "Rain Check [alternate take]" (Strayhorn) – 5:22
  15. "Smada" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 3:21
  16. "Smada [alternate take]" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 3:20
  17. "Midriff" (Strayhorn) – 4:35
  18. "My Little Brown Book" (Strayhorn) – 4:13
  19. "Lotus Blossom [Trio Version]" (Strayhorn) – 4:56

Personnel

Band: (based on track numbers as listed in American and French reissues)

Production:

  • Steve Backer – executive producer
  • Ed Begley – original recordings
  • Ray Hall – remixing
  • Daniel Maffia – illustrations
  • Brad McCuen – producer
  • Ed Michel – reissue producer
  • Robert Palmer – liner notes
  • Neal Pozner, J.J. Stelmach – art direction

Awards

  • 1969 Grammy Award – Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance; Album – Duke Ellington

References

  1. ^ ...And His Mother Called Him Bill at Allmusic

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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