It's the long weekend, however we don't have much planned.
In fact, I rode for an hour or so into gale force headwinds and now that that's been accomplished, I'm lying on the couch listening to this Masterpieces album by Duke Ellington.
Not excited?
Well get excited, because as far as Duke Ellington aficionado's such as myself as concerned, this record is the literal Ground Zero of awesome.
Masterpieces by Ellington is the first LP album by American pianist, composer, and bandleader Duke Ellington, recorded for the Columbia label in 1950. It was one of the earliest 12-inch LP's to take advantage of the extended time available and consisted of four tracks, three of them "concert arrangements" of Ellington standards and one, The Tattooed Bride, a recent tone poem.
Amazingly, it took Columbia Records until the very end of 1950, two years into the LP era and the transition from disc to magnetic tape recording, to get Duke Ellington and His Orchestra into the studio to cut a long-playing record. For the first time in his recording career, Ellington was able to forego the three-minutes-and-change restrictions in running time of the 78 rpm disc -- he and the band rose to the occasion with extended (11-minute-plus) "uncut concert arrangements" of Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, and Solitude, augmented with one splendid newer work, The Tattooed Bride.
Absolutely a fantastic way to begin a mellow long weekend ...
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