Duke Ellington - Money Jungle (1963)

BLUE NOTE 25 "BEST" ALBUMS MONTH* (JULY 2026)

Note: the CD I listened to was the dismal 1987 reissue with 6 bonus tracks.

Ellington was a living legend by 1962 when producer Alan Douglas decided to have Ellington record a piano trio album with jazz legends twenty years his junior. Ellington wrote new tunes as well as reusing some earlier material. Each man played his own style and at times it sounds like three alpha dogs fighting over one bone. I understand the music, I appreciate the talent, I understand the critic's love for the album and it's lasting legacy; I just don't enjoy listening to it.

Ellington - piano
Charlie Mingus - bass
Max Roach - drums

Original liner notes by George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "Here is a wonderful Duke on piano, superb work from Mingus and solid rhythm support from Roach."
• Downbeat: ★★★★★
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

In addition to being named as one of Blue Note's 25 Best Albums, Money Jungle was placed at #134 on Pitchfork's list of the 200 Best Albums of the 1960s and merited mention in the book The New York Times Essential Jazz Library by Ben Ratliff.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: before I get to the tracks themselves, let me mention that this 1987 reissue is a hot mess that should never have been released. Adding alternate takes in strange places, changing the original sequencing, and remixed poorly. Somebody should have said something.

	1963 original		1987 reissue
1	Money Jungle	1	Very Special
2	Le Fleurs Africaines (African Flower)	2	A Little Max (Parfait)
3	Very Special	3	A Little Max (Parfait) alternate take
4	Warm Valley	4	Fleurette Africaine (African Flower)
5	Wig Wise	5	REM Blues
6	Caravan	6	Wig Wise
7	Solitude	7	Switch Blade
		8	Caravan
		9	Money Jungle
		10	Solitude alternate take
		11	Solitude
		12	Warm Valley
		13	Backward Country Boy Blues

The standout track is Solitude. Of the others, I prefer Very Special, REM Blues, and Warm Valley.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
with Count Basie - First Time! The Count Meets The Duke (1962)

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*In 1987, the European offices of Blue Note records compiled a list of the 25 Best Blue Note Albums in an effort to promote sales of classic Blue Note albums released on CD for the first time. Albums selected for the list were originally released in the years 1953-1967.

At the time, the Blue Note label had been subsumed by the EMI group. This allowed the selections to be made from other EMI labels, namely Capitol, United Artists, and Liberty. Therefore, the list-makers were able to look outside the Blue Note label and squeeze in titles by artists such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, & Count Basie. It reads more like "albums we had the rights to, by 25 well-known jazz artists," making the list as much about artists as albums. As a marketing tool, it makes sense. As a starting place to build a Blue Note collection you could do worse. Of course, you could also do much better. But the thing exists, it caught my attention, and here we are.