''Duke Ellington at the Bal Masque'' is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader
Duke Ellington recorded in 1958 and released on the
Columbia label.
[A Duke Ellington Panorama](_blank)
accessed May 17, 2010
Reception
The
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
review by
Scott Yanow stated: "the music works quite well for Ellington and his all-star orchestra manage to transform what could be a set of tired revival swing into superior dance music and swinging jazz. While certainly not the most essential Ellington record, ''At the Bal Masque'' is a surprise success".
[Yanow, S. ]Allmusic Review
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
accessed May 10, 2010
Track listing
# "
Alice Blue Gown "Alice Blue Gown" is a popular song written by Joseph McCarthy and Harry Tierney. The song, which was inspired by Alice Roosevelt Longworth's signature gown, was first performed by Edith Day in the 1919 Broadway musical ''Irene''. In 1920 the song ...
" (
Harry Tierney
Harry Austin Tierney (May 21, 1890 – March 22, 1965) was an American composer of musical theatre, best known for long-running hits such as ''Irene'' (1919), Broadway's longest-running show of the era (620 performances), ''Kid Boots'' (1923) and'' ...
,
Joseph McCarthy) - 3:02
# "
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf
"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" is a popular song written by Frank Churchill with additional lyrics by Ann Ronell, which originally featured in the 1933 Disney cartoon ''Three Little Pigs (film), Three Little Pigs'', where it was sung by Fiddle ...
" (
Frank Churchill,
Ann Ronell
Ann Ronell (née Rosenblatt; December 25, 1905 — December 25, 1993) was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for the standards " Willow Weep for Me" (1932) and " Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" (1933).
Early life
Ronell was b ...
) - 2:53
# "Got a Date with an Angel" (
Jack Waller,
Joseph Turnbridge;
Sonnie Miller,
Clifford Grey) - 2:25
# "
Poor Butterfly
"Poor Butterfly" is a popular song. It was inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera '' Madame Butterfly'' and contains a brief musical quote from the Act two duet ''Tutti i fior'' in the verse.
The music was written by Raymond Hubbell, the lyrics ...
" (
Raymond Hubbell
John Raymond Hubbell (June 1, 1879 – December 13, 1954) was an American writer, composer and lyricist. He is best known for the popular song, " Poor Butterfly".
Life and career
Hubbell was born in Urbana, Ohio. He attended schools in Urba ...
,
John Golden
John Lionel Golden (June 27, 1874 – June 17, 1955) was an American actor, songwriter, author, and theatrical producer. As a songwriter, he is best-known as lyricist for " Poor Butterfly" (1916). He produced many Broadway shows and four films. ...
) - 3:40
# "Satan Takes a Holiday" (
Larry Clinton
Larry Clinton (August 17, 1909 – May 2, 1985) was an American musician, best known as a trumpeter who became a prominent American bandleader and arranger.
Biography
Clinton was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He became a ver ...
) - 3:15
# "The Peanut Vendor" (
Moisés Simons
Moisés Simons (born Moisés Simón Rodríguez; 24 August 1889 in Havana, Cuba – 28 June 1945 in Madrid, Spain),[Marion Sunshine
Marion Sunshine (born Mary Tunstall Ijames, May 15, 1894 – January 25, 1963) was an American actress and songwriter. During her youth she worked in many films and Broadway musicals, as well as vaudeville and variety shows. In the 1930s she w ...]
,
Wolfe Gilbert) - 3:33
# "
Satin Doll
"Satin Doll" is a jazz standard written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Written in 1953, the song has been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, 101 Strings, Terry Callier, and Nancy Wilson. Its chord progressio ...
" (Ellington,
Billy Strayhorn,
Johnny Mercer) - 3:48
# "
Lady in Red" (
Mort Dixon
Mort Dixon (March 20, 1892 – March 23, 1956) was an American lyricist.
Biography
Born in New York City, United States, Dixon began writing songs in the early 1920s, and was active into the 1930s. He achieved success with his first published ef ...
,
Allie Wrubel) - 2:49
# "
Indian Love Call
"Indian Love Call" (first published as "The Call") is a popular song from '' Rose-Marie'', a 1924 operetta-style Broadway musical with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. Or ...
" (
,
Herbert Stothart
Herbert Pope Stothart (September 11, 1885February 1, 1949) was an American songwriter, arranger, conductor, and composer. He was also nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning Best Original Score for '' The Wizard of Oz''. Stothart was widel ...
,
Oscar Hammerstein II,
Otto Harbach
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach (August 18, 1873 – January 24, 1963) was an American lyricist and librettist of nearly 50 musical comedies and operettas. Harbach collaborated as lyricist or librettist with many of the leading B ...
) - 3:36
# "
The Donkey Serenade
Allan Jones (October 14, 1907 – June 27, 1992) was an American actor and tenor.
Jones is best remembered as the male romantic lead actor in the first two films in which the Marx Brothers starred for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, '' A Night at the Op ...
" (Friml, Stothart,
George Forrest,
Robert Wright) - 2:14
# "Gypsy Love Song" (
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is bes ...
,
Harry B. Smith) - 3:54
# "Laugh, Clown, Laugh" (
Ted Fio Rito
Theodore Salvatore Fiorito (December 20, 1900 – July 22, 1971),DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 95. known professionally a ...
,
Samuel Lewis, Joseph Young) - 3:02
:*Recorded at
Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York on March 20 (tracks 3, 5 & 12), March 24 (tracks 4 & 6), March 26 (track 9), March 31 (tracks 1, 7, 8 & 10) and April 1 (tracks 2 & 11), 1958.
Personnel
*
Duke Ellington –
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
*
Cat Anderson,
Shorty Baker
Harold "Shorty" Baker (May 26, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, US – November 8, 1966) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Baker began on drums, but switched to trumpet during his teens. He started his career on riverboats and played with Don Redman i ...
,
Willie Cook
Willie Cook (November 11, 1923 – September 22, 2000) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Cook was born in Tangipahoa, Louisiana, on November 11, 1923.Hogan, E"Willie Cook" AllMusic. Retrieved July 13, 2017. He grew up in Chicago and learned to p ...
,
Clark Terry -
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
*
Ray Nance
Ray Willis Nance (December 10, 1913 – January 28, 1976) was an American jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer. He is best remembered for his long association with Duke Ellington and his orchestra.
Early years
Nance was the leader of his ow ...
- trumpet,
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
on "Poor Butterfly" and "Gypsy Love Song"
*
,
Britt Woodman -
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...
*
John Sanders -
valve trombone
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...
*
Jimmy Hamilton
Jimmy Hamilton (May 25, 1917 – September 20, 1994) was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist, who was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Biography
Hamilton was born in Dillon, South Carolina, United States, and grew up in ...
-
clarinet,
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 (while ...
*
Johnny Hodges
Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American 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 soprano ...
-
alto saxophone
*
Russell Procope
Russell Keith Procope (August 11, 1908 – January 21, 1981) was an American clarinetist and alto saxophonist who was a member of the Duke Ellington orchestra.
Before Ellington
Procope was born in New York City, United States, and grew up in ...
-
alto saxophone, clarinet
*
Bill Graham -
alto saxophone
*
Paul Gonsalves - tenor saxophone
*
Harry Carney -
baritone saxophone
*
Jimmy Woode
James Bryant Woode (September 23, 1926 – April 23, 2005) was an American jazz bassist. He played and/or recorded in bands with Flip Phillips, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Nat Pierce, Sidney ...
-
bass
*
Sam Woodyard
Sam Woodyard (January 7, 1925 – September 20, 1988) was an American jazz drummer.
He was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States. Woodyard was largely an autodidact on drums and played locally in the Newark, New Jersey area in the 1940 ...
-
drums
References
{{Authority control
Columbia Records albums
Duke Ellington albums
1958 albums
Albums recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio