Song:In A Sentimental Mood
Album:Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane
Most jazz fans familiar with the long career of Duke Ellington know that things were not going well in the 50s. A lot of his long time band members left and bebop had taken over jazz. He didn't even have a record contract in the mid-50s. But that all changed with his appearance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. A lot of his musicians returned and the 1956 album Ellington At Newport was a huge seller. It was his first album of a new deal with Columbia Records. There was a TV special. Ellington worked on films like Anatomy of a Murder. But also Ellington also seemed to be more open to working with other jazz stars. In 1961, he recorded with Louis Armstrong and then Count Basie. In 1962, he recorded three albums like this in a timeframe of a month. First he recorded with another jazz legend, sax player Coleman Hawkins, in August. Then in September he recorded Money Jungle with Charles Mingus and Max Roach and followed that a week later recording with John Coltrane. All three albums are classics and a must for any jazz fan. But the album with Coltrane is probably the best known of the three. Ellington first recorded In A Sentimental Mood in 1935. But the recording with Coltrane is probably the best known version of the song. The musicians on the song are Ellington's bassist Aaron Bell and Coltrane's drummer Elvin Jones. But Coltrane's bassist Jimmy Garrison and Ellington's drummer Sam Woodyard also appear on the album. Coltrane doesn't try to impose his contemporary style and chooses to follow Ellington's lead. Both the Coltrane and Hawkins albums were released on Impulse Records and both albums are less than 40 minutes. So Verve released them as a twofer on one CD in 2011. Ellington and Coltrane never toured together and they only recorded together once. That's why it's a must for any jazz fan. Here's a video for In A Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington and John Coltrane.
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