Duke Ellington - The Cosmic Scene (Remastered) (2018) [24bit FLAC]

Recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York on April 2 (tracks 1, 2 & 9-11) and April 3 (tracks 3-8 & 12), 1958

This was the 2nd late '50s Columbia album by Duke with a "space" theme. The first, "Blues in Orbit," is at once a first-rate aural portrait of the Ellington cosmos and a demonstration of the versatility of the blues. Just as Shakespeare covered virtually every human emotion in the 14-line sonnet form, Ellington's settings of the blues were no less limiting in exploring the widest range of moods and hues, textures and tempos.

The Ellington musical world is also very much in evidence in "The Cosmic Scene," despite Duke's unusual instrumentation and approach: here he's thinking like a small combo leader--more Horace Silver or John Lewis than composer/director of a large ensemble. The primary soloists--his two special "Spacemen," or "frontline"--are Clark Terry (flugelhorn) and Paul Gonsalves (tenor), with Jimmy Hamilton's dependable clarinet included for a bit of variety and continuity. But the rhythm section has been "expanded" to include not just Duke, Sam Woodyard, and Jimmy Woode (the threesome responsible for laying down the driving beat behind Gonsalves' 28-bar chorus and the riot that ensued at Newport 1956), but as terrific a trio of trombones as a composer-arranger could have an opportunity to write for: Britt Woodman (who, after Duke's passing, would shine with Toshiko's big band), Quentin "Butter" Jackson (arguably as good a plunger player as Tricky Sam Nanton), and the redoubtable John Sanders. Duke uses this team to buttress and, occasionally to replace, the piano accompaniment as well as to carry some of the melodic load.

The program is largely familiar, with more standards than originals. Yet this is as "post-boppish" an Ellington date as you're likely to hear. The first tune, "Avalon," will be recognizable only to listeners who can hear Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee" and recognize its source as the standar, "Indiana." The second number, "Body and Soul," which is the most recorded song of all time (see jazzstandardsdotcom), receives the most boppish, "progressive," far-out version on record--Paul digs in for his extended solo as though he were back at Newport playing the "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" that rocked the Festival site and got Duke's picture on the cover of Time Magazine. The weakest tune in the bunch is the concluding "A Train," which despite another freshening up, can't compare with either the original or the 2-tempo version featuring Gonsalves and Betty Roche (on "Ellington Uptown").

In sum, on "Cosmic Scene" Duke and the aforementioned "Spacemen" appear to be going for a more hip, or modern, sound and style, with leaner textures along with post-Bird and Diz harmonies and phrasings--and an uncharacteristic aversion to the mutes normally considered a hallmark of the "Ellington sound." In fact, mutes and some of the other devices hearkening back to the Cotton Club days are more conspicuous by their absence than on any Ellington recording that comes to mind.

The album was largely ignored upon its first release and could not save Duke's contract with Columbia. Similarly, when it was reissued 5-6 years ago, it received the briefest of acknowledgements and remained in print for about the same length of time as a carton of milk at your local supermarket. Duke was clearly poorly understood then and now--for all practical purposes, a Martian or unwelcome visitor from outer space. Many valuable, priceless Ellington works have been reissued in the present millennium, including his sparkling session with Coleman Hawkins. Yet Amazon's sales frequently show his best-selling album as a session that is arguably the least of his efforts--the iconic Ellington-Coltrane meeting, a date on which Duke does little more than "show up."

"Cosmic Scene," though remastered and reissued in the new millennium, is already a collector's item, going for prices that all but ensure its continued obscurity. As a favor to Duke, the music, and future generations, I say buck the trend and buy the album anyway. It's worth its weight in pure gold--and a lot more. It's an album that's upbeat all the way, swinging with class, style, sophistication and genuine feeling. Like Prometheus, Duke went to visit the muses in outer space and came back to bequeath us with this hard, ever-burning gem-like flame.