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“Far East Suite”
Anthony Brown’s Orchestra (1999)
“Brown and his colleagues have taken the Far East Suite a
giant step beyond [its] original jazz orchestra parameters,
which is a major accomplishment.”
—
Jazz Times magazine
In
homage to the musical legacy and humanitarian achievements of Duke Ellington, Brown chose to commemorate
Ellington’s 1999 centennial with a new interpretation of the Far East Suite, blending the sounds of the
jazz orchestra with musical instruments and concepts from Iran, Japan, and China.
Read
more about this CD:
“Far
East Suite: The Director’s Notes”
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Anthony
Brown: director, conductor, drumset with pedal tom, gong; Louis
Fasman: trumpet, fluegelhorn; Mark Izu: bass, sheng (mouth
organ); Jon Jang: piano; Qi Chao Liu: sheng, suona (reed
trumpet), dizi (bamboo flute); Melecio Magdaluyo: alto and
baritone saxophones; Dave Martell: trombone; Hafez Modirzadeh:
tenor and alto saxophones, alto clarinet, ney (end-blown
flute), karna and goshme (Persian double reed instruments),
daf (frame drum); Jim Norton: clarinet, alto and baritone
saxophones, bassoon, piccolo; Wayne Wallace: trombone;
Francis
Wong: tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet; John Worley: trumpet,
fluegelhorn.
Anthony
Brown’s Liner Notes to “Far East Suite”
The
Duke Ellington Orchestra embarked on a US State Department
tour of the Middle East and Asia in September 1963. After
several successful weeks of performance engagements,
ambassadorial appearances and cultural exchange activities in
Syria, Jordan, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Iran, Iraq, and
Turkey, the tour was unfortunately canceled following the
assassination of President Kennedy. Ellington returned to Asia
the next year when the Orchestra was invited to tour Japan. In
1966, the Duke Ellington Orchestra recorded the Far East
Suite, a multicultural musical portrait by Ellington and
collaborator Billy Strayhorn inspired by the people and
countries who had welcomed them on their travels.
In
homage to the musical legacy and humanitarian achievements of
Duke Ellington, Brown chose to commemorate Ellington’s 1999
centennial with a new interpretation of the Far East Suite,
blending the sounds of the jazz orchestra with musical
instruments and concepts from Iran, Japan, and China. This
music was performed in the spirit of the original Ellington
Orchestra, featuring arrangements and contributions resulting
from collaboration among the members of the Asian American
Orchestra.
In
the centennial year of Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington,
millions of people around the world who have been touched by
his music celebrated his birth. In homage to the musical
legacy and humanitarian achievements of Duke Ellington, we
chose to commemorate him with a new interpretation of the Far
East Suite, blending the sounds of the jazz orchestra with
musical instruments and concepts from Iran, Japan, and China.
This music is performed in the spirit of the original
Ellington Orchestra, featuring arrangements and contributions
created through collaboration among the members of the Asian
American Orchestra.
Of
all the numerous achievements of his half-century
career, Ellington’s pioneering of the process of collaborative
composition is perhaps his most profound contribution. Music
composition, a traditionally singular endeavor in western
practices, became the democratic ideal in practice with
Ellington’s Orchestra. Ellington and Strayhorn fully intended
to write pieces which were evocative of their eastern
experiences, yet were idiomatically familiar enough to the
orchestra members to be welcomed challenges for personalized
expressions. Recognition by critics of the Far East Suite as a
masterpiece is all the more poignant because it was their last
extended collaboration to be recorded during Strayhorn’s
lifetime. By the session dates just before Christmas in 1966,
Strayhorn knew he was dying of the cancer that would end his
life the next May. Of the nine sections of the suite, he
contributed only two originals--Bluebird of Delhi and
Agra, since Isfahan had been composed before their eastern
tours.
Among
the various awards this recording has received are a 2000
Grammy nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and inclusion
as various critics’ best album of the year in Jazz Times and
Downbeat magazines.
Above
all, I wish to praise Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington for all
the love he shared through his wondrous music, bringing
millions of people together across all boundaries separating
persons, places, things or times.
— Anthony Brown, Ph.D.
Produced
by Anthony Brown
Recorded by Robert Berenson at Bay View Studios, Richmond, CA on March 31 and April 1, 1999.
Mixed by Robert Berenson and Mark Edwards, mastered by Brian Walker. Design by Anthony Brown and David Barker,
graphics by David Barker. Orchestra photographs by Andy Nozaka; Ellington photograph courtesy the Ellington Collection,
NMAH, Smithsonian Institution.
Special
Thanks to the members of the Asian American Orchestra, Martha, Sumi, Simone & Georgia Brown, Dan
Nielsen, Gina Hotta, Robert Berenson, David Barker, Mark Edwards, Brian Walker, Bud Spangler, Sam and Steve Suda, Ann
Kuebler and Ken Kimery of the Smithsonian Institution, Tardon Feathered of Mr. Toad’s, and the staffs, interns and
volunteers of Asian Improv Records/Justice Matters, CBCIS, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, and City Centre
Digital.
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