The classic 1962 album
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane showcased the rising jazz saxophone innovator performing alongside the long-established piano institution. While the pairing might have portended a dynamic clash of the musical generations, instead we got a casual, respectful, and musically generous meeting of like-minded souls. Similarly, while one might have assumed that
Ellington would use his sidemen, instead producer
Bob Thiele (who also produced similar albums for
Ellington including pairings with
Louis Armstrong and
Coleman Hawkins) chose to bring in
Coltrane's own outfit for the proceedings. Consequently, the duo is backed here at various times by bassist
Jimmy Garrison and drummer
Elvin Jones, as well as alternates bassist
Aaron Bell and drummer
Sam Woodyard. The most surprising aspect of the
Ellington/
Coltrane date is how well suited
Coltrane and his group are at playing what largely ends up being
Ellington's own material. While he was certainly in the nascency of his more avant-garde period in 1962,
Coltrane had a deep understanding of traditional jazz vocabulary, having played in a swing band in the Navy in the 1940s and studied the style of artists like
Hawkins and
Ben Webster while coming up in Philadelphia. Similarly, though an icon of the big-band era by the 1960s,
Ellington had been on the upswing of a career resurgence ever since his dynamic performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, later released as Ellington at Newport. His meeting with
Coltrane was emblematic of his renewed creativity and was one of several albums he recorded in his latter life with theretofore unexpected artists, not the least of which his other 1962 date,
Money Jungle with bassist
Charles Mingus and drummer
Max Roach. Here,
Ellington and
Coltrane play a handful of well-known
Ellington book numbers, including a supremely lyrical "In a Sentimental Mood" and a soulful, half-lidded version of
Billy Strayhorn's "My Little Brown Book."
Ellington even supplied the brisk original "Take the Coltrane," allowing plenty of room for
Coltrane to let loose with knotty, angular lines. ~ Matt Collar