Billboard : 12/02/1957

Highly integrated modern trio date concerned with music by Ellington. Vibist Charles, pianist Overton and bassist Pettiford afford the listener a vital jazz experience — they fashion the material in such a way as to simultaneously project basic Ellington feeling, and much of themselves. Try Sherman Shuffle as demo band.

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The Gramophone (UK)
Alun Morgan : August 1958

Jazz is full of surprises. Usually records by vibraphonist Teddy Charles are pretentious in the extreme, but Three For Duke is a praiseworthy album of Ellington interpretations. Charles discards his “Nu-Di” principles and gets down to straightforward jazz, aided by the sympathetic piano playing of Overton and the superb bass playing of Pettiford. Oscar, in my opinion the best jazz bass player today, more than compensates for the lack of a drummer, and his own term of service with the Ellington orchestra clearly helped in the planning of the session. The rapport existing between the three men is remarkable, and on Main Stem their playing is strongly reminiscent of the now-defunct Vic Feldman-Lennie Bush-Tony Crombie trio. A relaxed version of Ellington’s lush Sophisticated Lady is the highspot of this admirable release.

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High Fidelity
John S. Wilson : February 1958

The three-Teddy Charles, vibraphone; Hall Overton, piano; Oscar Pettiford, bass-tackle four familiar and two lesser known pieces by Duke Ellington without improving on the originals. Overton has an opportunity to show a gentle, reflective side often lost sight of in self-effacing accompaniments but Charles is only intermittently effective.

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Jazz Journal (UK)
Sinclair Traill : July 1957

Entitled Three For Duke this is pleasant music, without ever becoming foot-tap-making. The instrumentation forbids the depth one feels Duke’s music ought to have, although it must be admitted the routines have been exceedingly cleverly worked out. Pettiford’s bass work is a veritable tower of strength throughout, and much of Hall Overton’s piano is very tasteful and even swingy. I am not over fond of vibes at any time, but Charles here obviously tries hard to get the true Ellington mood—many of his solo passages being full of neat phrases.

The unison passages on Sherman Shuffle are very clever, and I liked the whole of The Mooche, which is given a really ‘weird’ treatment. It must be mentioned that the recording is not too steady in places.

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Metronome
Bill Coss : November 1958

Teddy Charles’ Three for the Duke (Jubilee JLP 1047): vibist Charles sharing equal billing with pianist Hall Overton and bassist Oscar Pettiford in a trio examination of these Ellington songs — Main Stem, Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear from Me, Sophisticated Lady, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Sherman Shuffle, and The Mooche – with two arrangements by Teddy, the rest by Hall and a great deal of observation and advice from Pettiford because of his long experience with Duke. The three tried to “get into a kind of Ellington groove as a point of departure,” as Teddy puts it. From there, there were immediate points of return to that groove and there is the constant reminder by Pettiford’s bass but, essentially, the emphasis begins to rest on Overton’s and Charles’ imaginations at work on Ellington. Many listeners are likely to be struck with the resemblance of some of what results with Thelonious Monk, or what Monk might feel if not be able to play. That resemblance is there, but it seems more to be a natural result of giving angular grace to Ellington than it is any real allegiance to Monk, although both Hall and Teddy are very familiar with, and great admirers of, Thelonious. In any case, that may give you some word picture of what you may often hear here. Strangely, despite the seeming limited instrumentation, all three, in writing and playing, have produced an immensely rich and varied set of sounds and moods whose technical sources are amply explained in the excellent notes by Nat Hentoff. Nor, for those of you who worry about such things, should this album be thought of as experimental in the usual sense of that word despite the presence of Charles and Overton. There are experiments of course; music would be a poor thing if imagination weren’t allowed some individuality; but the emphasis here, I suppose because it is naturally enough tied to the material, is on the healthy and hearty Ellington emotions and Teddy and Hall and Oscar bring strength and warmth and humor to that, adding bits of backwoods groove (as Hall does on Anymore) and a driving, though emphatically musical, swing nearly throughout. Obviously enough, I recommend this album.

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Miami Herald (Miami, FL)
Fred Sherman : 05/04/1958

Three for Duke (Jubilee JLP-1047) is an Ellington parade in miniature, a half dozen tunes played by vibist Teddy Charles and pianist Hall Overton with the beat from Oscar Pettiford, an impeccable bass player. This is an unusual trio, but you will find the piano-vibes interplay full and rich, surprisingly so. Pettiford’s steady work makes you forget about the missing drummer. His throbbing on The Mooch is superb.

Charles has been going far out with recent albums. It’s pleasant to hear him in a different and warmer mood. The trio works on Main Stem, Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me, Sophisticated Lady, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, and Sherman Shuffle. On this last one, the piano and vibes are woven tightly. An offbeat sound that is a welcome one.

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Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA)
Russ Wilson : 04/20/1958

Vibist Teddy Charles, who is coming to be recognized as an important jazz writer; pianist Hall Overton, and Oscar Pettiford, one of the great bassists, play six Ellington tunes in a manner evocative of the Duke’s feeling. The numbers include the seldom heard Main Stem, Sherman Shuffle, and The Mooch.

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Toronto Star (Toronto, ON)
Roger Feather : 06/14/1958
Four stars

Charles, the dominant voice on this album, is generally characterized as a radical, “far-out” composer-musician. As a result he has yet to receive the public acceptance he deserves. This stimulating, straightforward LP could gain him a wider reputation.

The unconventional trio has a refreshing, complete sound as they play six Duke Ellington compositions. They are sensitive, cohesive and achieve a surprisingly accurate Ellington feeling. This is a rare appearance for Overton as a soloist and his forceful, full-sounding work is delightful. Pettiford, as usual, is excellent either in solo or rhythm.

The trio has a beautifully relaxed feeling on Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me and Don’t Get Around Much Anymore. The latter tune features some brilliant interplay between Overton and Pettiford. Sherman Shuffle has some wonderful, vigorous work by Charles and also Pettiford’s best solo. Main Stem is an aggressive swinger and Sophisticated Lady, although a little long, receives a gentle exploration. The Mooch hauntingly rounds out the album.

This is a happy, lively LP with very good performances from the three men involved and the fourth who wrote the material.

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White Plains Reporter Dispatch (White Plains, NY)
Ted Riedeburg : 05/07/1958

Three For Duke, Jubilee 1047, exercises the talents of Teddy Charles on vibes, Hall Overton piano and Oscar Pettiford, bass. They give six Ellington tunes a fairly plausible overhauling by present-day improvisational standards. Do Nothing ‘Til you Hear From Me, Sophisticated Lady and Don’t Get Around Much Anymore survived Teddy’s onslaughts in passable fashion. Overton and Pettiford give good accounts of themselves on all tracks. Charles, of late, has been losing himself in too much thought. Consequently, he gives more emphasis to the intellectual aspects of jazz expression rather than allowing his emotions more freedom to permeate his work and give it greater feeling. Besides honing his solos to a finer edge than many of us care about, Teddy has picked up Hamp’s unfortunate habit of mumbling or humming as he plays.

Add to this the fact that all sustained notes come through with an exasperatingly broad wobble and you can understand why we rate this disc lower than average.

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Down Beat : 02/20/1958
Dom Cerulli : 4.5 stars

In every respect, this is a fluid, in-depth probing of a half-dozen Ellington pieces by three highly-skilled practitioners.

Much of the melodic load falls to Charles, and he carries it with grace and polish and charm. Overton, too, contributes mightily to the flow. And Pettiford’s bass sings with a rich, ripe sound.

The feel of Ellington is here, despite the fact that it would appear the group would be limited by their instrumentation in capturing the wide palette used by Duke with his band.

Take The Mooch as an example, and hear how Duke’s mood has been captured. Not the sound. Not the color. But the marrow of the piece, the very soul of it.

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Liner Notes by Nat Hentoff

Teddy Charles, recently summarized by Whitney Balliett in The New Yorker as “a militant and talented twenty-nine-year-old arranger, composer, and vibraphonist” is strongly identified with those of the younger modern jazzmen who feel that more stimulating and durable frameworks for jazz improvisation are required than has usually been the case heretofore. Teddy, in short, is concerned with composition in jazz. He has appeared in performances of his own works and others at various Composers Workshop concerts and at David Broekman’s Music In The Making series at Cooper Union in New York. He headed his Tentet in a vivid, stimulating program of modern jazz compositions at the Newport Jazz Festival in the summer of 1956, and he has recorded “new directions” works for several albums. He participated in Brandeis University’s 4th Festival of Creative Arts in June, 1957, as a member of the orchestra that performed the first concert in jazz history of jazz works especially commissioned by a university. He is also a founder of the Contemporary Jazz/Composers’ Series which began in the spring of 1957 with a midnight offering at Carnegie Recital Hall.

Teddy, however, also likes to wail on occasion; and he has proved in many club appearances that he is a skilled, heated improviser of power and invention. On records, although he has mainly been devoted in recent years to blowing within relatively group-integrated compositional frameworks; he also has been heard in a few free-blowing tracks. But never until now has Teddy been recorded in a unified program of one composer’s works. It’s apt that Teddy chose the composer who has contributed the most valuable, largest and most precedent shaping body of original jazz material that is wholly personal and yet wholly indigenous to jazz. Duke Ellington is the first major jazz composer.

“This album of Ellington,” Teddy Charles points out, “is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while. For one thing, I wanted to do some research on the old Ellington material, because I realize increasingly how valuable and fresh many of Duke’s works remain. And with regard to my own writing, I began to be aware after I wrote Green Blues a couple of years ago, that maybe some of what I do comes out of Duke.

“I’ve been listening to Duke,” Teddy continued, “since I was six years old. My elder brother used to bring home records by Duke, Benny Goodman, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, and I’d listen to them all. Black and Tan Fantasy was the first piece of his of which I was aware. His rich harmonies always knocked me out, and hearing the band in person when I was growing up used to kill me. I feel his greatest period of achievement in terms of his band was during the early and middle ’40s when he made the best versions of several of the compositions in this album. No other band has sounded close to the orchestra Duke had then. It was so distinctive a band, and so adventurous harmonically. Duke’s melodic lines were also often different and challenging. When I first heard the line on Main Stem, I was immediately intrigued. Here was something new and something modern and yet consistently Duke.

“In this album,” Teddy went on, “we were trying to get into a kind of Ellington groove as a point of departure. After all, if you play a Monk tune, you ought to play it in Monk’s kind of groove, to some extent, and the same is true of so personal a writer as Duke. As a result, I wound up playing quite differently on this set than I had expected I would and than I had before on records. The session was a pleasure. It was a pretty smooth date, and I think we got a good feeling.

“We had decided not to use drums,” Teddy recalled, “but then I was almost panicked as to whether we could make it without drums. It had been so long since I’d played without drums behind me. I was even going to have a drummer stand by. But with Oscar Pettiford there, we didn’t need drums. Oscar is one of the very greatest. And it really is kind of nice for me to play without drums. I get a chance to get more melodic continuity going. When a drummer’s present, if you’re holding a note, the drummer is apt to come wailing in on it. He may think that’s the end of the phrase and that you’re through, and he unwittingly breaks your continuity. A horn player can at least hold the note so that you can hear it; but with the vibes, the note starts to fade right away. That’s why I sing so much when I play — to give myself the illusion of sustaining a note.

“Playing with Hall Overton,” Teddy underlined, “is also a firm help to attaining more continuity. He feeds so great. The chords are always there for you. He feels every little nuance; and he never gets in your way. Hall also arranged four of the numbers, and as you can hear, he was after a variety of textures, intent on exploiting the potentialities of the instruments he had to work with. Several times, he had me working very hard shifting registers. Oscar took care of himself most of the time, and made several valuable suggestions.”

Teddy arranged Main Stem and contributed much of the “head” on Sophisticated Lady. Hall Overton, a viable musician-composer, was responsible for the arrangements of the other four. Hall is a classical composer of consequence, and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition and a commission from the Koussevitsky Foundation, among other sources. It was for the latter commission that he composed his Symphony for Strings; and his Second String Quartet has recently been recorded. His jazz experience is also considerable. Hall has recorded with Teddy Charles, Jimmy Raney and other modern jazzmen; he has appeared in several jazz concerts, and at clubs; and has written several jazz originals.

Of his contributions to this album, Hall declares that “there was a lot of group participation in finally molding the ideas into performance. The basic ideas on four of the arrangements were mine, but I left them in the stage where anybody who had a contribution to make that I liked was able to incorporate his idea. Teddy and I did quite a lot of listening to Duke’s records before we made the sessions, and to various Ellington versions of these tunes. We tried to get as many of Duke’s orchestral effects within trio possibilities as we could.

“As for Teddy, the two of us had worked together a great deal and had empathy. I worked out the basic ideas for the lines and harmonies, and just taught him the parts. I didn’t have to write them out; he has that quality of ear and mind. It was the first time I had worked with Oscar. He was unbelievable in the way he played within the limitations of a trio that was without drums and yet made the whole thing sound big. He had played, of course, with Duke for several years, and remembered the style for these tunes. He also worked out some lines and provided ideas for several of the endings. I hadn’t had some of the endings worked out by the time of the date, and so Oscar’s ability to come up with instantaneous ideas was especially helpful. And again, the way he played trio bass — which is very difficult — was extraordinary. And a footnote about Teddy is that he did some unusually difficult playing on the session, including some four-mallet work on Sherman Shuffle that is almost impossible.”

Overton went on to discuss the character of Duke’s writing, and how he tried to utilize that character in adapting these songs for trio. “Duke,” Hall explained, “likes to use both full, resonant chords in his writing and also to oppose to them unison and octave sounds. And he has a lot of riff lines going. We tried to incorporate all of these aspects of his writing. With regard to piano-vibes voicings, some passages sounded better with the piano voiced above the vibes; some sounded better with the piano underneath; and some were more effective in unison as in Sherman Shuffle. There was a record with Monk and Milt Jackson, incidentally, I Mean You, that influenced me in my experiments because it has some fantastic doublings and breaking up of melody lines between vibes and piano. And when we could, we tried to keep riff lines going in the background, particularly in something like Main Stem.

“Essentially,” Hall said, “I tried to get things that would sort of maintain the spirit of Ellington’s approach. And it is a spirit — and letter — that is very, very unique. Take a work like The Mooch which is one of the strangest jazz compositions I know. There’s a very minorish first section which is in two parts. The opening d minor theme is repeated and then goes to a Bb-d minor variation for what would normally be the bridge, but it doesn’t come back to d minor and moves right into a section of written-out blues in F major which sort of acts like a middle section. The written line on the blues has only two or three ideas, but they’re placed very economically and oddly and create an unusual effect. There follows a section of blowing blues which alternates from one chorus in minor to another in major except that in my piano solo, I go from F major to f minor and then we all go into the original d minor section, a kind of modal move. And that section ends again on Bb-d minor which would normally be the bridge.”

Hall summarized his feelings about the session: “It was a wonderful group feeling. And everybody contributed ideas. For me, it was an enriching experience to work on a group of Ellington’s tunes, and thereby to know and feel more of the roots of jazz composition.”

Oscar Pettiford is one of the major bassists in jazz history and is currently the leader of a large jazz orchestra whose repertoire contains a significant amount of modern jazz writing that is fresh and personal. Oscar is also, as you can hear on this record and in many others, a bassist whose flowing strength energizes any rhythm section; and he is a soloist of rare force and imagination. “Playing without drums,” Oscar notes, “is rather difficult and you don’t play the same way as usual. You have to integrate yourself more into everything that’s happening and still keep the time going. I think the session worked out well; I know we had a ball playing.

“As for Duke’s music,” Oscar concluded, “I haven’t heard anything bad by him yet. In terms of adapting some of his works for a trio, I did make some suggestions; because, having worked with Duke so long, I had a kind of insight on how he does things. So I sort of pulled their coats a little from time to time. Anyway, write whatever you want about the session; I just dig playing the music.”

And you are likely to dig hearing it. So, I feel, will Duke.