Conny Plank Session

[Note: Another Amazon customer’s review of this recording borrows from my review without attribution.]“The Conny Plank Session” is the only Ellington release I know of to be named for a recording engineer. Conny Plank (1940–1987) was an acclaimed producer and engineer who would become known for his work with Brian Eno and Kraftwerk, among other musicians. My guess is that Plank happened to be the engineer in the Cologne studio where Ellington was adding yet another session to the countless sessions that formed the stockpile — music recorded at his expense to test ideas and document work in progress. Suffice to say that the band sounds great: bright, clear, rich, and well-balanced.This session — two tunes, three takes each — gives us the Ellington band in July 1970. Or 1970 A. H., After Hodges, the alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, who had died on May 11. “Because of this great loss, our band will never sound the same,” Ellington wrote on that day. Yet the band continued, as ever, as a collection of idiosyncratic voices (who sometimes, it’s true, modeled themselves on earlier Ellingtonians). Wild Bill Davis was on board as organist: he had just appeared to great advantage (along with Hodges) on “Blues for New Orleans,” the opening section of Ellington’s “New Orleans Suite.” Fred Stone, trumpeter and flugelhornist, had played with Clark Terry-like fleetness on the Suite'’s “Aristocracy à la Jean Lafitte.” Norris Turney played a Hodges-like alto and was an important presence in the suite as a flutist, the first band member to play flute on an Ellington recording (on “Bourbon Street Jingling Jollies”). Davis, Stone, and Turney all have prominent parts in this session.“Alerado,” by Wild Bill Davis, is the slighter of the two tunes here. It’s named for the record producer Alexandre Rado, who supervised the French RCA Integrale LP series of Ellington reissues. The tune is little more than its attractive chord changes, which evoke (strongly) the bridge of Rodgers and Hart’s “Blue Moon” and (less specifically) Dave Brubeck’s “The Duke.” Turney (flute, alto), Stone (flugelhorn), and Paul Gonsalves (tenor) solo briefly in what was likely designed as a concert showpiece for Davis.Ellington never stopped listening: in his last official concert recording (Eastbourne, 1973), he was parodying the Art Ensemble of Chicago and other avant-gardists, giving the audience a taste of “the future” (as he derisively called it) with an atonal explosion that turned into “Basin Street Blues.” “Afrique,” a section of “The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse” (1971), is a more genuine engagement with the new: it gives us the band playing on a single chord (B minor, of all things) in a latter-day version of the so-called “jungle music” that established Ellington in the ’20s. (“Chinoiserie,” another section of the “Eclipse,” is another late engagement with the new: particularly in a 1973 performance that gives us the Ellington band hitting “the one,” the defining element of James Brown’s funk.)The 1971 “Afrique” (released on LP by Fantasy in 1975) is primarily a vehicle for piano, trombones, and reeds, with Russell Procope (clarinet), Harry Carney (baritone), Gonsalves, and Turney (alto) engaging in call and response. The three 1970 takes are markedly slower and more devoted to exploring the atmosphere established by Rufus Jones’s untiring drumming. They are tremendously exciting music. Trombones, organ, and Gonsalves’s tenor are the key elements here, with Ellington’s piano at its most percussive. The third take is one of the wildest Ellington recordings I’ve heard, with an unidentified singer who evokes Adelaide Hall’s growls (“Creole Love Call”) and Alice Babs’s soaring vocalise (“T. G. T. T.,” from the Second Sacred Concert). The profane and the sacred, in one voice! I can only wonder what further treasures remain in the stockpile.Grönland’s presentation of “The Conny Plank Session” is less than satisfactory. The musicians are identified in nothing more than a line of abbreviations reproduced from W. E. Timner’s “Ellingtonia: The Recorded Music of Duke Ellington and His Sidemen” (2007). The line is partly hidden behind the CD spindle, with some of its text barely readable. But for anyone with some prior knowledge and a little time at Google Books, it’s easy enough to put together the band:Cat Anderson, Mercer Ellington, Fred Stone, Cootie Williams, Nelson Williams, trumpets, with Stone doubling (?) on flugelhornChuck Connors, Malcolm Taylor, Booty Wood, trombones, with Connors on bass tromboneHarold Ashby, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, Russell Procope, Norris Turney, reedsDuke Ellington, piano; Wild Bill Davis, organ; Joe Benjamin, bass; Rufus Jones, drumsThe liner notes identify the brass soloist on “Alerado” as Cat Anderson, but it must be Fred Stone: the instrument is flugelhorn, not trumpet, played with the same facility as on “Aristocracy à la Jean Lafitte.” NPR and other sources identify Lena Junoff as the singer on “Afrique” but offer no explanation.

War ein Geschenk für unseren Vati. Ist sehr gut angekommen bei im als Jazz- und Swingfan. Können wir weiter empfehlen.

While every one knows who Duke Ellington is, just who is Conny Plank ? Luckily, the internet came to the rescue. Conny Plank, or to give him his correct name, Konrad Plank.He was born in Germany in 1940 and died in 1987. He became a freelance producer of popular music and was known for his work with Kraftwerk . In July 1970, Duke Ellington took his orchestra into the Rhenus Studio in Cologne to record 3 takes of 2 numbers that he was working on. After the recording, the tapes were put away and have only recently been found and brought out as a CD, 45 years after they were recorded. While the recording is very good, the notes that come with it should have been more informative, and accurate. There are no personnel listed, although initials are provided and if you are unable to identify them, its not very good. To help with this problem the following list should be helpful, if only up to a point. Duke Ellington ( piano ) Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Fred Stone, Mercer Ellington, ( trumpets and fluegelhorn ), Booty Wood, Chuck Connors, ( trombones ) Russell Procope, Norris Turney, Paul Gonsalves, Harold Ashby, Harry Carney, ( saxophones ) Wild Bill Davis, ( organ ) Joe Benjamin ( bass ) and Rufus Jones ( drums ) . There are 2 sets of initals that I could not sort out, they are NW and Mtir. There is a singer on the final track who is un named. The first 3 tracks are versions of Alerado, track 1 features Norris Turney on flute and not Cat Anderson as the sleeve note claims,but Fred Stone on fluegelhorn, as far as I am aware Cat Anderson did not play this instrument. On track 2 Norris Turney is joined by Paul Gonsalves on tenor, and on track 3 Norris plays alto sax. I have not come across this track on any other Ellington recording, but I may have missed it. The last 3 tracks are of Afrique, this was recorded on The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, in 1971. While they are all slightly different, the 3 tracks feature Rufus Jones on drums and Wild Bill Davis on organ. They are joined by the trombones and reeds, and on track 5 Paul Gonsalves plays tenor. On the final track there is a female singing with the orchestra rather in the style of some of Ellington's vocalists from the 1940's.All of the tracks on this rather short recording ( under 30 minutes ) are different and enjoyable. It is interesting to hear Ellington trying out new ideas and despite the short comings of the sleeve notes it is a great addition to any ones collection of Duke Ellington.

Early stuff. Love the woman's vocals....

A Gooed addition to my Ellington Collection highly recomended