Joe Pass – Portraits Of Duke Ellington

Remembering Ellington by playing his music

Duke Ellington had died only weeks before Joe Pass recorded this tribute. Released by Pablo in 1975, Portraits of Duke Ellington draws on nine pieces from Ellington’s musical world. Pass does not attempt to reproduce an orchestra. He works with the possibilities of guitar, Ray Brown’s double bass and Bobby Durham’s drums, giving familiar melodies room for individual turns.

The connection was personal. In January 1973, Pass and Brown had recorded Duke’s Big 4 with Ellington and Louie Bellson. Two members of this trio were remembering someone with whom they had recently made music. Producer Norman Granz preserved both encounters on his young Pablo label.

One guitar becomes the ensemble

Pass plays “Sophisticated Lady”, “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” and “Solitude” unaccompanied. Melody, accompaniment and answering lines have to coexist on one instrument. The movement between trio performances and these solo pieces becomes part of the album’s shape: the same musical vocabulary can sound like a conversation or a concentrated monologue.

Listen to how a melody note is allowed to linger while the harmony beneath it moves on. There is no need to analyse every technical detail. Follow the tune first, then return to the things that support it. The arrangement becomes easier to hear without losing the song itself.

Ray Brown and the space between notes

Brown and Durham bring another kind of movement to the trio selections. “Satin Doll” opens the programme, and “Caravan” closes it. Between them, pieces such as “In a Mellow Tone” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” connect the different settings. Brown’s line offers a useful thread: hear how it relates to the guitar and where the drums pick up the motion.

Durham had also played in Ellington’s orchestra. The tribute therefore rests on the performers’ experience as well as the repertoire. That history gives the modest instrumentation a much larger frame of reference, while leaving each tune free to take its own course.

This Pablo reissue

AAPJ 184 is a single 180-gram LP played at 33⅓ RPM. The publisher credits Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab with mastering from the original analog master tape. Quality Record Pressings manufactures the record, presented in a Stoughton tip-on jacket. It belongs to Analogue Productions’ second round of Pablo reissues; these production details describe this edition rather than the original 1975 pressing.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and dispatch from Hilden.

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Series: Pablo – all 30 records, musicians and the session book

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.