The Cosmic Scene
Encyclopedia
The Cosmic Scene is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington
featuring a nonet credited as "Duke Ellington's Spacemen" recorded and released on the Columbia
label in 1958. It was reissued by Mosaic Records
in 2007.
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
featuring a nonet credited as "Duke Ellington's Spacemen" recorded and released on the Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
label in 1958. It was reissued by Mosaic Records
Mosaic Records
Mosaic Records is an American specialist jazz record label, founded in 1983 by Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie to issue coherent limited edition box sets of jazz recordings by individual musicians, which had fallen out-of-print...
in 2007.
Reception
The Allmusic review by Michael G. Nastos awarded the album 4 stars and stated "Perhaps in many ways a neglected recording in the vast annals of Ellingtonia, fans will certainly welcome this long out of print re-addition to the master's CD discography. It comes highly recommended".Track listing
:All compositions by Duke Ellington except as indicated- "Avalon" (Buddy DeSylva, Al JolsonAl JolsonAl Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
, Vincent RoseVincent RoseVincent Rose was a musician and band leader.Vincent Rose has one of the longest histories as a band leader. He achieved much popularity with his Montmartre Orchestra in the 1920s, and recorded with the group for RCA...
) - 3:22 - "Body and SoulBody and Soul (song)"Body and Soul" was recorded as a duet by Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse in 2011. It was the final recording made by Winehouse before her death on July 23, 2011. The single was released worldwide on September 14, 2011 on iTunes, MTV and VH1....
" (Edward HeymanEdward HeymanEdward Heyman was an American musician and lyricist, best known for his compositions "Body and Soul", "When I Fall in Love", and "For Sentimental Reasons". He also contributed many songs for films.-Biography:...
, Robert SourRobert SourRobert Sour was a lyricist and composer, and the president of Broadcast Music Incorporated .In 1940 Sour worked for Broadcast Music as its lyrics editor, and by 1966 had risen through company ranks to become BMI's president. Two years later he had become the company's vice chairman and was...
, Frank EytonFrank EytonFrank Eyton was an English popular music lyricist best known for co-writing the lyrics of Johnny Green's "Body and Soul" with Edward Heyman and Robert Sour....
, Johnny GreenJohnny GreenJohnny Green was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, and conductor. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his earliest, "Body and Soul"...
) - 4:57 - "Bass-Ment" - 3:03
- "Early AutumnEarly Autumn (song)"Early Autumn" is a song composed by Ralph Burns and Woody Herman with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was a hit for Woody Herman in the year it was written.-Notable recordings:...
" (Ralph BurnsRalph BurnsRalph Burns was an American songwriter, bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and bebop pianist.-Early life:...
, Woody HermanWoody HermanWoodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
) - 3:10 - "Jones" (Ellington, Clark TerryClark TerryClark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
) - 2:55 - "Perdido" (Juan TizolJuan TizolJuan Tizol was a Puerto Rican trombonist and composer.He was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Music was a large part of his life from an early age. His first instrument was the violin, but he soon switched to valve trombone, the instrument he would play throughout his career...
) - 2:49 - "St. Louis Blues" (W. C. HandyW. C. HandyWilliam Christopher Handy was a blues composer and musician. He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues"....
) - 5:06 - "Spacemen" - 2:32
- "Midnight Sun" (Sonny BurkeSonny BurkeSonny Burke was a big band leader. In 1937, he graduated from Duke University where he had formed and led the jazz big band known as the Duke Ambassadors....
, Lionel HamptonLionel HamptonLionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Johnny MercerJohnny MercerJohn Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
) - 3:38 - "Take the "A" Train" (Billy StrayhornBilly StrayhornWilliam Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".-Early...
) - 4:59 - "Body and Soul" [alternate take] (Heyman, Sour, Eyton, green) - 4:46 Bonus track on CD reissue
- "Jones" [alternate take] (Ellington, Terry) - 2:35 Bonus track on CD reissue
- Recorded at Columbia 30th Street StudioCBS 30th Street StudioCBS 30th Street Studio, also known as Columbia 30th Street Studio, and nicknamed "The Church", was an American recording studio operated by Columbia Records from 1949 to 1981 located at 207 East 30th Street, between Second and Third Avenues in Manhattan, New York City...
, New York on April 2 (tracks 1, 2 & 9-11) and April 3 (tracks 3-8 & 12), 1958
- Recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio
Personnel
- Duke EllingtonDuke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... - Clark TerryClark TerryClark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
- trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air... - Quentin JacksonQuentin JacksonQuentin "Butter" Jackson was an American jazz trombonist. In the early stage of his career he worked with Cab Calloway and was in the Duke Ellington Orchestra...
, Britt WoodmanBritt WoodmanBritt Woodman was a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus....
- tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate... - John Sanders - valve trombone
- Jimmy HamiltonJimmy HamiltonJimmy Hamilton was an American jazz clarinetist, tenor saxophonist, arranger, composer, and music educator, best known for his twenty-five years with Duke Ellington....
- clarinetClarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed... - Paul GonsalvesPaul GonsalvesPaul Gonsalves, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"...
- tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble... - Jimmy WoodeJimmy WoodeJimmy Woode was a jazz bassist. His father, also named Jimmy Woode, was a music teacher and pianist who played with Hot Lips Page...
- bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2... - Sam WoodyardSam WoodyardSam Woodyard was an American jazz drummer.Woodyard was largely an autodidact on drums, and played locally in the Newark, New Jersey area in the 1940s. He gigged with Paul Gayten in an R&B group, and then played in the early 1950s with Joe Holiday, Roy Eldridge, and Milt Buckner...
- drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....