Billboard : 12/8/1956
Score of 83

These sides were cut in February, 1956, and are representative of what the Ellington band has been doing this year. There have been greater Ellington ensembles and greater individual soloists in his organization, but measured against the current market, this is a pleasurable set of rather good quality. In almost every selection, a different soloist is featured. Outstanding highlights: Harry Carney‘s moody solo on Frustration; Paul Gonsalves‘ wild ride on the old Ben Webster flag-water, Cotton Tail; Johnny Hodges‘ silky sensuous alto solo in Day Dream; Jimmy Hamilton‘s Deep Purple. Lively, swinging sounds put together with Ellington’s usual taste and imagination.

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Down Beat Review
Nat Hentoff : 4 stars

Duke Ellington Presents… is the last of Duke’s two contracted albums for Bethlehem. The format basically is a series of frameworks for the band’s soloists. Their order of appearance by track is Anderson, Gonsalves, Nance on vocal and violin, Hamilton-Nance-Jackson, Grissom, Carney, Gonsalves and others, Hodges, Hamilton, Procope, and a long Blues with Duke-Hamilton-Woodman–Terry-Hodges-Nance-Woodyard-Anderson.

The band as a whole plays with zest (dig the sections on Cotton Tail, and all the soloists are undeniably professional. For me, the two outstanding tracks are Carney’s Frustration and Hodges’ Day Dream. Carney and Hodges are unusually strong originals as well as professionals. The other soloists, except for Duke and Terry, are not up to their stature.

The program is quite varied in terms of colors, moods, and tempos and is a fairly sound representation, so far as solo vehicles go, of the current band although I wonder why there was no room for Britt Woodman and Jimmy Woode. I assume the unbilled trombone after Hamilton’s tenor on Blues is Britt. Ellingtonia at its very best, however, occurs when the orchestra is the primary instrument and the soloists form carefully balanced parts of a cohesive Ellington whole. That depth and quality of orchestral writing, however, is too often subordinated here to soloists who aren’t always that extraordinary on their own.

The set is very well recorded, and there is enough going on, despite the aforecited reservations, to warrant its being recommended. Bob Parent’s cover photograph of Duke is his best yet.

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Liner Notes by Joseph P. Muranyi

Jazz bands have been known to come in every size from popular duos, trios, etc. (popular because they can find work more easily and therefore more of them are exposed to the public where they can be accepted) to the large organizations featuring sizable reed, brass, rhythm and sometimes even string sections (though they rarely produce a sound that can be considered jazz). These small and large groups (as well as the medium group of 8, 10 or so) have much in common. Two of these are: arrangements- where one person’s original jazz feeling is interpreted by the group (although quite often in both big and little bands, arrangements fail to be either original or really capture the freedom of a jazz feeling) and emphasis on good jazz improvisers- effective in any size group.

The Duke Ellington orchestra featured in this album consists of fifteen pieces (making it a large group as far as jazz bands go) and primarily plays the arrangements of Duke. As the title- “Duke Ellington Presents…” -implies the emphasis is on the soloists of the band. Duke Ellington in the thirty or so years that he has had a band has featured many great ones. Such jazz greats as Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, Lawrence Brown, Barney Bigard, Jimmy Blanton, Ben Webster, Bubber Miley, Oscar Pettiford and Willie Smith are some of the many that contributed to the big band Ellington sound through the years.

As you listen to this new record featuring some of the new and old names, it’s hard to tell whether the individual soloists are creating the Ellington sound or whether it’s the background influence of Duke that we hear in their mood setting choruses. Arguments have been started on the subject with some claiming that so-and-so, after leaving Duke, went nowhere musically (or even financially) while others can prove the opposite. Actually it’s probably a case of the subject being so dependent upon individual cases that it would be quite impossible to make a generalization either way.

Here then is the latest from Duke Ellington, his big band, and the men he features as soloists:

SUMMERTIME – Featuring “Cat” Anderson: trumpet.
William Alonzo is here to be heard in a dual version of Gershwin‘s melody. The first half or so of this track is an almost straightforward presentation of the melody (against a Latin beat); in a while though “Cat” goes into his high note specialty; the ending finds him in the stratosphere.

LAURA – Featuring Paul Gonsalves: tenor sax.
Here Paul is to be heard in a complete contrast to his performance on Cottontail which begins side B. The tempo is relaxed and against Duke’s lush chords he gets a chance to rhapsodize.

I CAN’T GET STARTED – Featuring Ray Nance: vocal, violin.
Ray has been featured with Duke since 1940. Here he demonstrates his fine talents as a violinist and vocalist. His warmth as an individualist is easily discernible. Note Duke’s interjection of Take The A Train on his chorus and Ray’s finger snapping on his second vocal chorus. Ray Nance is one of jazzdom’s few moving violinists.

MY FUNNY VALENTINE – Featuring J. Hamilton, R. Nance, and Q. Jackson.
Here is a wonderfully colorful bit of Ellingtonia. The contrast between Hamilton’s and Nance’s smoothly warm tones and Quentin Jackson’s growl trombone (in the old Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton tradition) is a sly bit of Ellington humor.

EVERYTHING BUT YOU – Featuring Jimmy Grissom: vocal.
Here, at a comfortable tempo and with lots of enunciation, we find Jimmy Grissom (nephew of Dan Grissom, Duke’s vocalist before Herb Jeffries). The ironic tale he tells speaks for itself.

FRUSTRATION – Featuring Harry Carney: baritone sax.
Carney is one of the original pioneers of a jazz style on the baritone sax. He has been with Duke Ellington for about thirty years; during this time he has been a featured soloist and has acquired a renown quite in keeping with his great talents as a reed man. His performance here is in a moody Carney vein with his baritone weaving its way through a complex Ellington score.

COTTON TAIL – Featuring Paul Gonsalves: Tenor Sax,
The Ellington specialty for tenor sax (once a flag-waver for Ben Webster) is here taken at a virtuoso tempo (very fast) with Paul in full command even at this speed. Besides the wild Gonsalves tenor we find short solo bits by Ray Nance, Carney and Duke;
note the separate, clean, section choruses by the reeds and brasses.

DAY DREAM – Featuring Johnny Hodges: alto sax.
Here is the silky and sensuous alto of Hodges in the number he made famous. His gorgeous and individual sound here is as great as it ever was in person or on record. Johnny’s mood-evoking abilities through the media of his exquisite tone, phrasing and way with a melodic line are universally acknowledged; here is the aural proof. Here is a case where the Ellington mood and Hodges’ artistry complement each other near perfectly.

DEEP PURPLE – Featuring Jimmy Hamilton: clarinet.
Ellington has always featured a clarinetist. For many years it was Barney Bigard; since 1942 the clarinet has been that of Jimmy Hamilton, who is here heard in a relaxed, deliberate mood. His melodic lines and tone-clean, pure and pristine-are contrasted to Duke’s rich and colorful orchestral chords.

INDIAN SUMMER – Featuring Russell Procope: alto sax.
Russell Procope is a veteran of groups led by such people as Chick Webb, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Teddy Hill and John Kirby. Here he does a beautifully clean job on the Victor Herbert standard.

BLUES – The choruses in this extended Blues are in this order: Duke on piano, three; band, two; Jimmy Hamilton on tenor, two; Clark Terry, trumpet, two; Johnny Hodges, alto, two; Ray Nance on trumpet, two; Paul Gonsalves, tenor, two; Clark Terry versus Sam Woodyard, drums, two; the band ride-out features “Cat” Anderson’s stirring horn. This track is a fitting close to Duke’s album “Duke Ellington Presents . . .” as it gives everybody a chance to make a statement; this gives us a quick thumbnail idea of most of the excellent and varying solo styles in the band.