---
product_id: 89763337
title: "The Blanton-Webster Band"
brand: "duke ellington"
price: "AR$30637"
currency: ARS
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/89763337-the-blanton-webster-band
store_origin: AR
region: Argentina
---

# The Blanton-Webster Band

**Brand:** duke ellington
**Price:** AR$30637
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Blanton-Webster Band by duke ellington
- **How much does it cost?** AR$30637 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.ar](https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/89763337-the-blanton-webster-band)

## Best For

- duke ellington enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted duke ellington brand quality
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## Description

.com               These 66 songs not only represent Ellington's artistic apex, but perhaps reflect the greatest creative period by any single artist in jazz history. Ellington had already made a lasting impression on jazz by 1940, but adding writer/arranger Billy Strayhorn, young bassist Jimmy Blanton, and tenor great Ben Webster brought the band to extraordinary new heights. The new blood boosted a roster already touting Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams (replaced by Ray Nance), Rex Stewart, Juan Tizol, and Barney Bigard. The set list reveals masterpiece after masterpiece: Ellington's "Cotton Tail," "Never No Lament," "All Too Soon," "In a Mellotone," "Warm Valley," "I Got It Bad," and "Sentimental Lady" plus Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" and "Take the 'A' Train" offer a mere taste of the treasures within. --Marc Greilsamer

## Images

![The Blanton-Webster Band - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412V0WEXHWL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Ellington's most legendary band among the connoisseurs.
  

*by S***L on Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2010*

I've just come away from the French Classic "Duke Ellington: 1942-44."  The music and recording quality are more than I could have expected, simply sublime.  Yet it's not the Blanton-Webster band, which was the preceding two years--tracks including unequaled classics like "Harlem Airshaft" and "Ko Ko."  Since I already have the celebrated "Fargo Concert" as well as the LP's of the Blanton-Webster edition of the band, I was tempted to wait for a CD reissue that's at least as well mastered as the French edition of the band, 1942-1944.The great misfortune to us all--if not scandal--is that ever since Ken Burns' wonderful series for PBS, jazz has again gone on the skids (notwithstanding a few isolated summer festivals and some of the Lincoln Center events).  The American public doesn't even have ears for instrumental music let alone Ellington.  If it's not vocals, guitars, and reductive sounds (or reductively loud), the music scarcely has a chance in the American marketplace.  The last great tribute to Ellington was the Columbia/Sony remastering of the "Ellington at Newport '56" album, which by itself made the case for the value and potential of digital technology.  Sony invested tens if not hundreds of thousands in the project, and some listeners have yet to grasp that such an event is not about to be repeated--at least not during any of our lifetimes.  Your best bet for a lovingly remastered edition of these precious tracks--recordings representative of an African-American art form at its very best (compare these complex miniatures to Shakespeare's sonnets)--is a Spanish or French reissue.Nevertheless, this RCA package is the equal of my two RCA LPs representing the band, it has additional tracks for which there was not room on the LPs, and the booklet is more informative and completely documented.  It definitely belongs in the selective list of the top ten--if not top five--Ellington essential recordings.  (The others would have to be "Ellington Uptown," "Such Suite Thunder," "The Nutcracker Suite," "Blue Rose."  But that's not enough: you must have "Ellington at 'Newport '56," which was his best-selling LP recording, as well as "A Drum Is a Woman," "Black Brown and Beige," and a number of personal favorites that I won't list lest they discourage listeners from making their own discoveries in the universe of Ellington.  I wouldn't list the Ellington-Coltrane album (in fact, the Ellington-Hawkins, Ellington-Fitzgerald, Ellington-Armstrong albums are more essential than the one with Coltrane, which, though often listed as the best-seller among Ellington albums, is largely an iconic meeting, with minimal Ellington.  The meeting between the Ellington and Basie bands has more solid music from both legends.  And for Ellington playing piano with modernists, "Money Jungle" with Mingus and Roach is better than the date with Coltrane.  And despite what you may have heard, there's much of great appeal and quality on the three Sacred Music Concerts.Finally, for an album that's practically miraculous, since long-playing tracks would not be in release for another ten years, the "Fargo Concert" reproduces a lot of the material on this collection but from a live, back-stage perspective in which the listener is plopped down in the midst of the band in 1940.Coda: After listening again to Herb Jeffries' flawless, masterful singing on Strayhorn's nnovative arrangement of "Flamingo," I must issue a cautionary.  Thinking I would save the time of going to the box set, I entered the words "Jeffries" and "Flamingo" in Amazon's search box and was greeted by no fewer than six non-Ellington, non-Strayhorn versions of the tune (the original interweaves Jeffries vocal instrument with the equally distinctive instrumental voices of Lawrence Brown and Johnny Hodges).  The six tunes ranged from the ordinary to the atrocious (4 were disco mixes!).  If you go this route, enter the tune under Ellington's name, not Jeffries'.  As for audio quality, the later edition ("No Lament") has more bass frequencies and less evidence of surface noise or distortion.  At the same time, I find that Jeffries' voice has slightly more presence, naturalness, authenticity on this version than on the more recent one.  (There are usually trade-offs when remastering a previous edition--with the exception of the inarguably superior 1999 remastering of "Ellington at Newport '56.")

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Old problems persist!
  

*by A***7 on Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 1999*

I have to disagree with the review of "Music Fan from Seattle WA" dated May 11, 1998, who claims the "little 'faux pas' (of the previous edition) have been ironed out."  "Music Fan from  Westchester" dated April 17, 1999 is correct.  They persist.  I now  have a 12-13 year old set and one sent last week by Amazon.  The problems  referred to -- which did not exist on earlier earlier LPs, nor on some  foreign CDs -- are still there in all their gory.  Unless Amazon sent me  old stock, RCA (that is, General Electric) has had the slovenliness not to  redigitize these recordings for the Duke Ellington Centennial (April 29)  over a period of 13 years.  The good news is that those who are not  familiar with this music may notice little wrong.  Those who are may find  it akin to publishing the American Constitution with several ugly typos!  I  suggest that the best approach to acquiring this music is to buy one of the  foreign CDs (e.g. RCA/GE France: Indispensable Ellington vols 5/6 and 7/8  on the Black and White label).  It would be interesting to see if the  Complete RCA recordings are similarly marred.  I certainly won't buy them  until I know for sure.  Five stars for the music, but minus at least one  for the slick accountants at GE/RCA.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The great Duke at his greatest!
  

*by J***I on Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2015*

The greatest jazz orchestra ever at their absolute peak, it doesn't get any better than this. I can listen to Duke in any era right up until the end in 1974, but this group of standout performances is the holy grail of Ellington masterpieces. The arrangements are so tight and flawless and to enjoy the great Ben Webster for this short period is not to be missed. The sound quality throughout is excellent, though sometimes a bit muffled but not unexpected considering the age of the recordings. The booklet's liner notes are printed awfully small, so be prepared to put the bifocals to use. But don't miss this musical trip with the great maestro at his swinging best.

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*Product available on Desertcart Argentina*
*Store origin: AR*
*Last updated: 2026-02-17*