113. Duke Ellington / Far East Suite (1967)

Last month, I rolled down the windows of my car after working a 12-hour day, twisted the cap off an ice cold Virgil's Orange Cream soda, and enjoyed the drive home while listening to this record. The Far East Suite is one of Duke's last recorded works, and one whose material might sport the familiar names and faces of orchestras past but its compositions have a unique flavor among others in the Duke canon. It's been on regular rotation at my house since that evening with the soda pop. Between the grooves are  yards of punchy counterpoint between reeds and brass, and some of Johnny Hodges' sweetest work on wax ("Isfahan"). And of course we are treated to equally fine work by the likes of Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Russell Procope, Harry Carney, et al. The recording is memorable throughout thanks to Duke's direction of the sublimely cohesive band. It is nice to hear Duke melding his percussive piano blues with sophisticated orchestral textures and touches of middle eastern music or orientalism in tracks like "Mount Harissa," "Ad Lib on Nippon" or the opening "Tourist Point of View." I was swept up by the tidal wave of sound, which is what usually happens when I listen to Mr. Ellington.

27. Benny Goodman / Vol II: Clarinet a la King (1989)

A great "best of" set with sides dating from 1939 to 1941, with Georgie Auld, Ziggy Elman, Charlie Christian, guest Cootie Williams, and many others. The previously unissued master of "Henderson Stomp" with Fletcher himself on piano is a fine highlight, so is "Zaggin' with Zig," after Ziggy Elman and "Solo Flight," a spotlight for Charlie Christian. The band is hot but the arrangements make the whole thing work, and I enjoy the creative ways the reeds play against the brass. In this era trumpets had a more diverse assortment of techniques to work with, either open or with mutes, and listening to the soloist use these in different contexts is exciting. Helen Forrest and Peggy Lee sing guest spots that buoy the program. Forrest has a bell like quality after the band's second chorus on "Bewitched," singing higher and clearer than before, a tone parallel to the upper register of Goodman's clarinet. The music is ebullient and uplifting, the lyrics coy or sassy ("It Never Entered My Mind," "Yes My Darling Daughter") with lots of lift and plenty of volume. It's easy to see how kids could dance to the stuff.