Duke Ellington The Essential Duke Ellington [Sony] (2-CD)

The Essential Duke Ellington is, of course, essential American music, as indispensable and indelible as the outputs of Copeland or Gershwin, Armstrong or Dylan. Composer, arranger, pianist, and leader of the most innovative orchestra ever to flourish under the banner of "jazz" - though his glorious, multi-colored work was hardly limited to, or by, jazz's parameters - the Maestro never stopped creating. For more than half a century, until his death at 75 in 1974, Ellington, wrote, performed and, above all, guided his band of demigods to Olympus. These 37 selections, spanning the years 1927 to 1960, are, among many other things, an ideal initiation for anyone wishing to glimpse the summit.