Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band

For the song originally titled "Never No Lament", see Don't Get Around Much Anymore.
Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band
Compilation album by
Duke Ellington
Released2003 (2003)
Recorded1940–1942
GenreJazz
LabelBluebird Records (RCA/BMG)
ProducerOrrin Keepnews
Steve Lasker
Duke Ellington chronology
1951
(2003) 		Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band
(2003) 		The Alternative Takes: Vol. 10: 1947–1951
(2003)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings[2]

Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band is a 2003 three-disc compilation combining the master takes of all the recordings by Duke Ellington's Orchestra during the years of 1940 to 1942 with an additional nine tracks, including five alternative takes and four additional masters. An expanded version of The Blanton–Webster Band, this reissue, according to Allmusic, "truly worth either an initial investment or reinvestment".[3] All About Jazz: New York observed that these performances, from what is often considered "the band in its prime", "not only set the standard for big bands and jazz orchestras, but created an ideal near insurmountable to improve upon".[4] The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this compilation as part of its suggested "Core Collection."[2]

An earlier collection of recordings from this period was first issued in 1986 by RCA Bluebird containing 66 tracks. This 2003 version draws on the 1999 transfers first issued in The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (1927–1973) with an additional nine tracks over the 1986 edition, including the Blanton Ellington duos "Pitter Panther Patter" and "Body and Soul".

Ellington put Blanton front-and-center on the bandstand nightly, unheard of for a bassist at the time, together with tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, thus this era of Ellington's ensemble is referred to the Blanton–Webster band.

Bassist Jimmy Blanton was only with the Ellington orchestra for two years, leaving in 1941 due to tuberculosis, and dying the following year at the age of 23. Blanton does not appear on the final 17 tracks of the 2003 collection (CD3 tracks 10-26), having been replaced on bass by Alvin "Junior" Raglin.

  1. ^ AllMusic review
  2. ^ a b Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2008) [1992]. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (9th ed.). New York: Penguin. pp. 430–431. ISBN 978-0-14-103401-0.
  3. ^ Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band at AllMusic
  4. ^ Donohue-Greene, Laurence. (June 2003) Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band All About Jazz: New York. Accessed September 15, 2007.