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“Duke Ellington Presents” was one of Duke’s last mid-50s recordings to be put out before his big comeback at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956. The mid-50s are considered a bit of a down time for Ellington as he was no longer writing new material and was being encouraged by labels to record his older hits in the new hi-fidelity LP format. Although critics are not particularly fond of these records, Ellington’s fans are often happy to hear different versions of popular favorites. The premise behind “Presents” was that each of these songs was to be a showcase for a particular soloist, hence the title. What made this album unique was that most of these tunes were not part of the usual Ellington repertoire, but were instead songs made popular by others, thus the attraction to Ellington fans who wanted to hear Duke’s take on well known classics such as “My Funny Valentine”, “Laura”, “Summertime” and others.
Another unique aspect of this album is that most of these cuts are ballads, making it must have for fans of Duke’s more mellow side. Each tune gives plenty of room for the appointed soloist to show off their lyrical abilities and personality. Most of these are good, but top honors for the ballad numbers goes to Russell Procope’s almost classical sounding alto sax on a beautifully subtle “Indian Summer”, also nice are Harry Carney on “Frustration” and Johnny Hodges on “Daydream”.
Despite the preponderance of ballad numbers, not everything is laid back on here. “Blues” is a great groove number that allows almost everyone a chance to solo, but possibly one of the most intense numbers I’ve ever heard from Ellington is the high speed take on “Cottontail”. The band fires off rapid riffs with lightning precision while Paul Gonsalves delivers a funky rhythmic solo. Put this one in the car and turn it up loud next time you need to make some good time. Overall this may not be one of Ellington’s most original LPs, but his fans don’t seem to mind, particularly fans of his ballad style. Most of these performances are excellent.