''Swinging Suites by Edward E. & Edward G.'' (also known as ''Peer Gynt Suite/Suite Thursday'') is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

recorded for the Columbia label in 1960 featuring a jazz interpretation of ''

Peer Gynt ''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five-Act (drama), act play in verse written in 1867 by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. It is one of Ibsen's best known and most widely performed plays. ''Peer Gynt'' chronicles the journey of its title character fr ...

'' by

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic music, Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwid ...

and Ellington's tribute to

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

's '' Sweet Thursday'', co-written by

Billy Strayhorn William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the ...

. The album was rereleased on CD as ''Three Suites'' along with Ellington's reworking of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

's ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'' in 1990.

Reception

In the 1960s, the

Royal Swedish Academy of Music The Royal Swedish Academy of Music (), founded in 1771 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in ...

made a statement, referring to a Swedish law paragraph called "Klassikerskyddet" (" Protection of Classics") in the copyright legislation, that Duke Ellington's jazz versions on the album were "offending to the nordic music culture". Ellington withdrew the album and the case was never tried in court.Marianne Levin. ''Lärobok i immaterialrätt'' (p 167–168), 2011, Nordstedts Juridik. Tionde upplagan. . In 1992, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reviewed a live performance of Ellington's ''Peer Gynt'' adaption: "The pieces, with their dense and gorgeous harmonies, lend themselves perfectly to live performance" and "the melody kept peeking around creamy harmonies, hurtling up-tempo sections abruptly merged with ballads".

Track listing

:Selections from ''Peer Gynt'' suites No. 1 and 2 written by Edvard Grieg adapted by Duke Ellington # "Morning Mood" – 4:24 # "In the Hall of the Mountain King" – 2:33 # "Solvejg's Song" – 3:59 # "Ase's Death" – 3:47 # "Anitra's Dance" – 2:58 :''Suite Thursday'' written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn # "Misfit Blues" – 4:09 # "Schwiphti" – 3:04 # "Zweet Zurzday" – 3:56 # "Lay-By" – 4:50 :Recorded in Los Angeles on June 28 (tracks 1 & 5), June 29 (tracks 3 & 4), June 30 (track 2), and October 10 (tracks 6–9), 1960.

Personnel

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Willie Cook, Fats Ford, Eddie Mullins,

Gerald Wilson Gerald Stanley Wilson (September 4, 1918 – September 8, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. He arranged music for D ...

(track 2) –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

* Ray Nance, –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

(on "Lay-By") (uncredited) * Lawrence Brown, Matthew Gee, Booty Wood, Britt Woodman (tracks 1–5) –

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

* Juan Tizol –

valve trombone The valve trombone is a brass instrument in the trombone family that has a set of valves to vary the pitch instead of (or in addition to) a slide. Although it has been built in sizes from alto to contrabass, it is the tenor valve trombone pitched ...

* Jimmy Hamilton –

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

Johnny Hodges Johnny Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophone, alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on sop ...

(tracks 1–5), Paul Horn (tracks 6–9) –

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

* Russell Procope – alto saxophone, clarinet * Paul Gonsalves –

Harry Carney Harry Howell Carney (April 1, 1910 – October 8, 1974) was a jazz saxophonist and clarinettist who spent over four decades as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He played a variety of instruments, but primarily used the baritone saxophon ...

–

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

* Aaron Bell –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Sam Woodyard –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

References

{{Authority control Columbia Records albums Duke Ellington albums 1961 albums Peer Gynt (Grieg) Arrangements of compositions by Edvard Grieg