‘Chico Cuadradino’, by Duke Ellington And His Orchestra
Today’s song is from the beautiful but short album (36 minutes!) ‘Latin American Suite’, mainly recorded in 1968, the evening of the maestro’s career.
Duke Ellington always absorbed influences from the music he heard as he toured the world, and ‘Latin American Suite’ is no exception. Written during his first tour of Central and South America in 1968, Ellington premiered several of the pieces during concerts in the Southern hemisphere, though he didn’t record it until returning to the U.S.
This record was the first major work by Ellington after the death of his long time co-writer Billy Strayhorn. It’s sometimes considered half-baked (and in truth the compositions aren’t especially complex) but I love it: the band swings hard (hard!), and one can only imagine what it must have been like, seeing this band live.
‘Chico Cuadradino’ is a driving blues, co-written by his son Mercer, and features a boisterous trombone solo by Buster Cooper.
