Although retail music sales still suffer, kudos to Rasputin Music today for having a used copy of Duke Ellington's Indigos CD. As I had mentioned, the fifties recording of Mood Indigo has captured my attention. And from the liner notes, now I know about the trumpet soloist:
"Mood Indigo" is given a treatment as unusual and unexpected as that of "Solitude," The tradtional theme statement by three horns is dispensed with, and it becomes a vehicle for Shorty Baker's immaculate trumpet. Both as a section leader and a soloist, Baker was outstanding in his profession, but his gifts were more appreciated by musicians than by the public, perhaps because flamboyant, exhibitionistic exercises were not his forte. His sensitive, muted variations make this version of "Mood Indigo" a personal triumph nonetheless. "Shorty loves to play it," Ellington told Irving Townsend.
amazon: products tagged with "indigo". books mentioning "shorty baker".
