Ken Burns Jazz

1	East St. Louis Toodle-Oo 3:06
2	Black and Tan Fantasy 3:26
3	Take It Easy / Duke Ellington's Washingtonians 2:37
4	The Mooche 3:16
5	Rockin' in Rhythm / The Harlem Footwarmers 3:16
6	Mood Indigo / Jungle Band 2:58
7	Creole Rhapsody, Pts. 1 & 2 6:30
8	It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) 3:11
9	Creole Love Call 4:10
10	Sophisticated Lady 3:16
11	Solitude 3:12
12	Caravan 2:41
13	Back Room Romp / Fifty-Second Street Stompers 2:49
14	Ko Ko 2:44
15	Never No Lament (Don't Get Around Much Anymore) 2:56
16	Cotton Tail 3:10
17	Take the "A" Train 2:54
18	Satin Doll 2:59
19	Jeep's Blues Live 4:42
20	Come Sunday From Black, Brown, and Beige 5:49
21	Black Beauty 3:17

Barnes & Noble

From 1924, when he put his name on the band -- Duke Ellington and His Washingtonians -- jazz's greatest composer produced a Herculean quantity of music for exactly fifty years. His written contributions are almost innumerable: thousands of songs and dozens of works in symphonic form, as well as complete scores for ballet, theater, and film. And through his music's increasing sophistication in the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties can be heard the evolution of jazz expression itself. But Ellington's greatest contribution to the world was his tireless work as bandleader and talent scout. In his half-century fronting the greatest orchestra jazz has ever known, he produced not just a near-infinite number of polished works but hit after danceable hit. And through that band's ranks passed some of the greatest instrumentalists who ever played jazz.

All Music Guide

In conjunction with the release of Ken Burns' ten-part, 19-hour epic PBS documentary Jazz, Columbia issued 22 single-disc compilations devoted to jazz's most significant artists, as well as a five-disc historical summary. Since the individual compilations attempt to present balanced overviews of each artist's career, tracks from multiple labels have thankfully been licensed where appropriate. This volume features many of Duke Ellington's best-known standards, including "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo," "Black and Tan Fantasy," "Mood Indigo," "Caravan," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," "Sophisticated Lady," "Take the 'A' Train," and the later-period comeback hit "Satin Doll." For the sake of unity, Ellington's longer-form works aren't emphasized here, nor are extended live tracks like the legendary 1956 Newport Jazz Festival version of "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue," which revitalized Ellington's career. Instead of undertaking the impossible task of recounting that career over a single disc, Ken Burns Jazz concentrates on the Ellington pieces that are burned the most indelibly into jazz history. As such, it's a very strong, cohesive introduction to one of the largest, richest, and most influential bodies of work in American music. Steve Huey