• **** Such Sweet Thunder (c) ; Sonnet For Caesar (a) ; Sonnet To Hank Cinq (d); Lady Mac (c); S..nnet In Search Of A Moor (6) ; The Telecasters (I); Up And Down (c) : Sonnet For Sister Kate (h); The Star-Crossed Lovers (d); Madness In Great Ones (d); Half The Fun (a); Circle Of Fourths (d); (All Ellington, Billy Strivhorn) (Philips 12 in. LP 13BL7203-37s. 84d.

Ellington (pno) ; Jimmy Hamilton (cif, ins) Johnny Hodges, Russell Procope (altos); Paul Gonsalves (tm); Harry Carney (bar); Cat Anderson,

Willie Cook, Ray Nance, Clark Terry )bpts); Quentin Jackson, John Sanders, Britt Woodman (toths); Jimmy Woode (bass); Sam Woodyard (sirs). (a) 7N1956, (b) 15/4/1957, (c) 24/4(1957 (d) 3/5/1957. C.R.1. Studios, New York. (Ain. Col mm

Only a couple of years ago some critics suspected that Duke Ellington's powers might at last be waning. He was producing no new works, his band was losing some of its best soloists. Yet, as he always does whenever critics give him up for lost, Ellington has made a comeback. Today he stands right on top of the jazz scene, easily the most creative artist working in the idiom. Not since A Tone Parallel To Harlem has he produced an extended composition approaching the quality of' Such Sweet Thunder, Dedicated to the Shakespearean Festival held at Stratford, Ontario, Such Sweet Thunder is even more striking because of the reticence of its scoring, the restraint that can be sensed behind the music. Every section is related to a theme or character in a Shakespeare play, and although the parallels may sometimes appear strained or oblique to the serious-minded, the artistic unity in the work makes up for any of these lapses.

Half The Fun, a sensuous evocation of Cleopatra's barge drifting down the Nile, is perhaps the most successful track. Johnny Hodges' alto soars like a bird against the heavy, exotic background. Here, as elsewhere on the record, Sam Woodyard shows himself to be the best drummer Ellington has had since Sonny Greer. In Up And Down, music for "A Midsummer Night's Dream ", Clark Terry's trumpet is suitably picaresque in the role of Puck, and Ellington, for the first time in my opinion, makes genuinely imaginative use of Ray Nance's violin. Third of the outstanding tracks is Madness In Great Ones, starting out in swinging mood and ending up as an apt and ingenious setting for sky-high trumpet work by Cat Anderson.

In Such Sweet Thunder, the title theme. Ray Nance plays lyrically against sombre, snarling brass. Lady Mac, moving in well-disguised waltztime, shows (as Duke puts it) that she had "a little ragtime in her soul ". Clark Terry's trumpet work on this track is exquisitely sensitive. The Telecasters, as well as mixing up " Othello " and " Macbeth" (Harry Carney represents Iago, the trombone section the dire( witches), makes very effective use of the pregnant pause. Each of the four sonnets features an individual soloist. ,Jimmy Hamilton plays fluent clarinet in Sonnet For Caesar bassist Jimmy Woode bumbles through Sonnet In Search Of A Moor. But the finest playing comes from the trombones of Britt Woodman and Quentin Jackson. heard respectively in Sonnet For Honk Gina and Sonnet For Sister Kate. Johnny Hodges's more rhapsodic alto-playing has often been too stickily sentimental for my taste. His work on Star-Crossed Lomrs, however, is far less florid than I feared, while the warm, languorous background makes this an extremely eilective track.

The only part of the suite open to harsh comment is Circle Of Fourths, a frantic showpiece in which Paul Gonsalves progresses by a fourth through every musical key. It makes a hasty and unworthy climax to an LP that could prove to be the most memorable jazz record issued in 1958. C.F.

Sleeve Note : Anonymous. Excellent.

*Art Farmer Quintet