Such Sweet Thunder

Such Sweet Thunder
Studio album by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra
Released	April 1957 or May 1957
Recorded	August 7, 1956 – May 3, 1957
Genre	Jazz
Length	76:25
Label	Columbia/Legacy
Producer	Irving Townsend - Original Recording Phil Schaap - Reissue
Duke Ellington and his Orchestra chronology
Studio Sessions, Chicago 1956 (1956-57) Such Sweet Thunder (1957) Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (1957)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[2]

Such Sweet Thunder is a Duke Ellington album, released in 1957. The record is a twelve part suite based on the work of William Shakespeare.

Track listing

1. "Such Sweet Thunder" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:22
2. "Sonnet for Caesar" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:00
3. "Sonnet to Hank Cinq" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 1:24
4. "Lady Mac" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:41
5. "Sonnet in Search of a Moor" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 2:22
6. "The Telecasters" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:05
7. "Up and Down, Up and Down (I Will Lead Them Up and Down)" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:09
8. "Sonnet for Sister Kate" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 2:24
9. "The Star-Crossed Lovers" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:00
10. "Madness in Great Ones" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 3:26
11. "Half the Fun" (Also known as "Lately") (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:19
12. "Circle of Fourths" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 1:45

Bonus tracks

13. "The Star-Crossed Lovers" (Also known as "Pretty Girl") (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:15
14. "Circle of Fourths" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 1:47
15. "Suburban Beauty" (Ellington) - 2:56
16. "A-Flat Minor" (Ellington) - 2:33
17. "Café au Lait" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 2:49
18. "Half the Fun" (Alternate take) (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:08
19. "Suburban Beauty" (Alternate take) (Ellington) - 2:56
20. "A-Flat Minor" (Outtake) (Ellington) - 3:49
21. "Café au Lait" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 6:21
22. "Pretty Girl" (Also known as the "Star-Crossed Lovers") (Outtake) (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 8:54

Production/reissue credits

Musicians

• Jimmy Hamilton - Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone
• Johnny Hodges - Alto Saxophone
• Russell Procope - Clarinet, Alto Saxophone
• Paul Gonsalves - Tenor Saxophone
• Harry Carney - Bass Clarinet, Baritone Saxophone
• Cat Anderson - Trumpet
• Clark Terry - Trumpet
• Ray Nance - Trumpet
• Willie Cook - Trumpet
• Quentin Jackson - Trombone
• John Sanders - Trombone
• Britt Woodman - Trombone
• Jimmy Woode - Bass
• Duke Ellington - Piano
• Sam Woodyard - Drums
• Billy Strayhorn - Orchestration

Production

• Irving Townsend - Liner Notes, Original Recording Producer
• Phil Schaap - Liner Notes, Reissue Producer, Remastering, Research, Restoration. (No reissue retains Clark Terry's quotation, on the original LP release, of Puck's "Lord, what fools these mortals be!")
• Steven Berkowitz - A&R
• Darren Salmieri - A&R
• Mark Wilder - Digital Mastering
• Howard Fritzson - Art Direction
• Don Hunstein - Photography
• Randall Martin - Design
• Juliana Myrick - Package Manager

Critical reception

NPR has included this album on their Basic Jazz Record Library.^[3] The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album 4 stars (out of a possible 4.) Allmusic gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars.

References

1. Allmusic review
2. Swenson, J. (Editor) (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 69. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
3. http://www.npr.org/2011/06/17/4543727/duke-ellington-such-sweet-thunder

Bibliography (further reading)

Contemporary reviews and journalism

• “Ellington Suite to Bow April 28” New York Times. 15 April 1957.
• Parmenter, Ross. “Music: Weill and the Duke.” New York Times 29 April 1957.
• “New Ellington Suite Hailed By Coast-to-Coast Audience.” Daily Defender. 2 July 1957.
• Wilson, John S. “Duke Bounces Back With Provocative Work.” New York Times. 13 Oct. 1957. esp 113
• Wilson, John S. “Jazz: Ellington.” New York Times 13 October 1957.

Historical and analytical writings (in reverse chronological order)

• Bradbury, David. Duke Ellington. London: Haus, 2005. Esp. pp. 91.
• Lanier, Douglas. “To Be-Bop or Not to Be-Bop; Minstrelsy, Jazz, Rap: Shakespeare, African American Music, and Cultural Legitimation.” Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation Vol. 1, 2005 [no pagination].
• Buhler, Stephen M. “Form and Character in Duke Ellington’s and Billy Strayhorn’s Such Sweet Thunder.” Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation Vol. 1, 2005 [no pagination].
• Nicholson, Stuart. Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington. Northeastern University Press, 1999, esp. pp. ???-???.
• Lambert, Eddie. Duke Ellington: A Listener’s Guide. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1999. Esp. pp. 193–194.
• Kernfeld, Barry. New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. St. Martin’s Press, 1994. esp 331
• Hasse, John Edward. Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
• Tucker, Mark. The Duke Ellington Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Esp. pp. 321, 441. esp. pp. 339–341, 393
  • Harrison, Max. “Max Harrison: Some Reflections on Ellington’s Longer Works. The Duke Ellington Reader. Tucker, Mark, ed. (esp. pg.393).
  • Crouch, Stanley. “Stanley Crouch on Such Sweet Thunder, Suite Thursday, and Anatomy of a Murder.” The Duke Ellington Reader. Tucker, Mark, ed. (esp. 339, 441).
• Hasse, John. Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1993. Esp. pp. 331–333, 362.
• Timmer, W.E. Ellingtonia: The recorded music of Duke Ellington and his sidemen. Metuchen, N.J.: Institute of Jazz Studies: Scarecrow Press, 1988. Esp. pp. 450.
• Marsalis, Wynton. “What Jazz is and Isn’t.” New York Times. 31, July 1988.
• Ellington, Mercer. Duke Ellington in Person: An Intimate Memoir. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1978. Esp. pp. 117.
• Ellington, Duke. Music is My Mistress. New York: Da Capo Press, 1976, c1973. Esp. pp. 192.