La Belle Vie

News just in from Paris: a new album by Laurent Mignard’s Dukeorchestra is to be released on February 27^th.

The album is called Ellington French Touch and as you might imagine from the title, it explores Duke’s connections with France and French culture over the years.

Excitingly, this album will present some ‘new’ Ellington music – in particular a complete rendition of the Goutelas Suite and selections from Ellington’s score for the stage production Turcaret.

The album comprises the following tracks:

La Belle Vie (from the Reprise album Ellington 66)

From Goutelas Suite:

Goof

Gogo      - from never released manuscripts in the Smithsonian

Gigi        - from never released manuscripts in the Smithsonian

From Paris Blues:

Paris Blues (unreleased)

Battle Royal

Paris Blues alternate bed (unreleased)

Autumnal Suite (unreleased)

From the album Midnight in Paris:

Under Paris Skies

No Regrets

Comme ci comme ca

A  Midnight in Paris

From the Degas Suite:

Daily Double

From Antibes, 1966

The Old Circus Train

Ellington’s stage music for:

Turcaret

You can read all the details of this season’s engagements in this splendid PDF here.

I have the album on pre-order from Amazon France. Details here.

And whilst we wait, here are scenes from the Winter Season in Paris, 1958. Click on the image to be taken through to the video.

PARISIAN LIFE