J*** guru help req

You may be looking for The Far East Suite, a great work by a great master.

One possibility for what you are looking for is Duke's "Far East Suite", which is available as a Bluebird CD "ND 87640", and would have been released as an LP in another epoc. This is one of a number of thematic suites from the maestro, and perhaps his best.

Good luck in your seach.

If it is this album, make sure you get the "special mix", Bluebird 07863 66551 2. This, I believe, is from a new stereo master generated from the orginal four track tapes. The earlier stereo master was slightly distorted. The special mix aso gives 4 alternate takes.

Of course, if it's not this album, get it anyway. Great music, brilliant recording. "Mount Harissa" is a true gem.

Regards, CB

A few years ago, I had the unique opportunity to perform Duke's Far East Suite with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, led by Bill Russo. The CJE is a repertoire ensemble organized around the problematic principle of treating jazz as a classical music, performing written transcriptions of improvised material (along with material that was strictly composed). In other words, as pianist, I was playing a nearly literal transcription of Duke Ellington's piano performance: his ensemble figures, his accompaniment, and his solos.

It was an interesting and educational experience, to say the least (which is why I accepted the challenge, along with the income ... hey, a gig's a gig). On the one hand, it was fascinating to get a glimpse into the performance head of Duke, as well as to see his arranging and compositional sense from the inside. But no written notation could ever precisely transcribe what he actually played; it's only an approximation, tempered by sometimes quite liberal license interpreting what it was that he had played.

It was the height of irony, really, because making jazz, even largely composed big band jazz, an act of recreation is fundamentally anathema to Duke's inspiration. He never would have wanted people to transcribe his playing and try to perform as written ... he would have said, "Blow your own damn solos!" and he'd be right on. Doubling the irony is that if one put the transcription in front of Duke and asked him to play it, he wouldn't be able to ... not because he couldn't read music but because it would be disembodied. Imagine having a conversation with someone, then transcribing what you had said, and reading that instead of just speaking off the cuff. (A famous anecdote, although possibly only apocryphal, is that someone actually did this to John Coltrane, transcribing one of his Giant Steps solos and then asking him to play it; John was incredulous, saying something to the effect of, "Shit, that's too hard. I can't play that!" even though he obviously once had.)

Adding still more fuel to the fire was that because Duke had a prodigious but insidiously idiosyncratic technique, full of quirky, stylized figures and demonic fingering patterns, my ass was totally kicked trying to make it fit my hands ... I had to practice for hours just trying to get his parts to sound even remotely natural. In the end, although I pulled it off, it was a pale impersonation. Glad I did it, but never again.

In any case, the Far East Suite comprises some great and beautiful music, and the recording is wonderful.

So, John, is The Far East Suite what you were looking for? And if so, how do you like it?

Fred, I don’t know yet ordered on the weekend over the internet hmv records the special mix version, been advised it’s coming from there supplier, I must say I enjoyed your post, iam hoping it will arrive before Christmas, and will report back ASAP, thanks again for your help.

Regards

Fred

Yeh that’s the one just as I remembered it, came today, on it’s fith play now thanks.

Stuart