Duke Ellington: The Duke Box

The Duke Box, an eight-CD reissue from Storyville, features the Duke Ellington Orchestra on broadcasts and concert performances from 1940-49. Most serious Ellington collectors will already own the great majority of this material, which includes two radio airchecks from 1940, two CDs of material from the band’s famous Fargo concert of Nov. 7, 1940, broadcasts from 1943, Ellington’s second Carnegie Hall concert of ’43, appearances from 1944-46 and a disc of the Orchestra’s Jubilee broadcast of Feb. 1949. Archivists who do not have most of these timeless performances will want this attractive box, which features such notables as trumpeters/cornetists Cootie Williams, Ray Nance and Rex Stewart, trombonists Tricky Sam Nanton and Lawrence Brown, clarinetists Barney Bigard and Jimmy Hamilton, altoist Johnny Hodges, tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and bassist Jimmy Blanton, among many others.

Originally Published October 1, 2007