Chico Hamilton: The Original Ellington Suite (Pacific Jazz)
A lost album, recorded by the Chico Hamilton Quintet in LA in 1958 and never issued, which turned up as a near-mint test pressing in a second-hand record store in Brighton almost 40 years later. Apart from the bizarre circumstances of its retrieval, it contains the first recorded solos of the great alto, flute and clarinet player, Eric Dolphy. Conceived as an Ellington suite with passages linking the Ducal pieces on each side of the originally planned LP, it features Dolphy with cello, guitar and bass, and the leader on drums - a group with, for the time, unusual tonal colours and a restrained, almost elegiac, period charm. But it's Dolphy's superb, Parker-inspired alto that speaks most clearly over the years.
- Ray Comiskey
Louis Armstrong/Duke Ellington: The Great Summit (Roulette Double)
The only album Duke and Pops made together has long been damned with faint praise, or worse - Armstrong's lip was sore, Ellington uneasy with his colleague's traditional lineup, clarinettist Barney Bigard off-form, trombonist Trummy Young too robust, the rhythm section plodding. Forget it. Armstrong plays with a vulnerable, soaring majesty and sings with affecting gusto, Ellington is fine (all the material was his) and the effect is fresh, enjoyable and touching. With even better sound than earlier releases and a second CD of previously-unissued out-takes revealing how relaxed the studio feeling was, this is a thing to cherish, warts and all. If you look down your nose at it, you need your head examined. Or something.
- Ray Comiskey