Don’t miss this late set, from 1966, inspired by an orchestra tour of India, Sri Lanka and the Middle East. With the out-and-out Strayhorn-Ellington masterpiece Isfahan.

This is terrific. The Duke totally fronts up; Mingus is dazzling. Les Fleurs Africaines is one for the desert island.

Plenty of thrills and spills in this soundtrack to Otto Preminger’s 1959 film. Steeply evocative dynamic and rhythmic contrasts and quick changes in orchestral density get the job done — with a repeated strain of melody —  and make for highly entertaining listening, with numerous rollicking brass passages in amongst the piano-threaded impressionism, plus terrific soloing by Johnny Hodges, Ray Nance and co. Highlights include the suspenseful opener, the moody Midnight Indigo, the sublimely sad Almost Cried, and the band hard-rocking out-the-door with Upper And Outest, culminating in an amazing stratospheric passage by Cat Anderson, playing for a moment as if the needle is stuck.
Check out the opening of the film, with its title sequence by Saul Bass, and Duke’s music. Class.

The Duke’s response to Billy Strayhorn’s death from cancer in 1967, this album is one of his masterworks.
Featuring Johnny Hodges, in Strayhorn’s sublime arrangement, Blood Count is utterly devastating, every time. Another masterpiece of despair, cut by wistfulness, After All is stone-cold classic Ellingtonia. The solo-piano version of Lotus Blossom — which closed the original LP — is the Duke at his most emotionally frank.
Ineffably beautiful music, to help you through life.