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Mellow Tone

Johnny Hodges' Mellow Tone is a 1977 double-album which brings together two sets of tracks that I believe had both previously been issued on separate LPs. One disc is ostensibly a 1958 live recording of Duke Ellington's band (of which Hodges had been a prominent member for decades) in Chicago; the other a set of tracks recorded in Paris in 1950 by a smaller, eight-piece group.

It's confusing as the track-listing in the gatefold contradicts the labels as to which disc is which. Nor are Charles Fox's sleevenotes exactly a model of clarity. And the Chicago tracks may actually date from 1959. Whenever they were recorded, those live big-band numbers are highly enjoyable; while the other disc I revisit less often. Its tunes are all brief, as if recorded with 78s in mind, and their sound quality, not surprisingly, isn't the best.

It's another of the many albums I've bought as part of a 3-for-£10 purchase from the selection upstairs at St. Mary St. Collectables in Chepstow. I picked it up there last summer.


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