In Concert 1960 features six selections taken from a concert that the
Duke Ellington Orchestra performed in Santa Monica, California. The personnel listing is slightly suspect (it is doubtful that there were four trombones on the date) but the key players are properly named: trumpeters
Ray Nance and
Willie Cook, tenor saxophonist
Paul Gonsalves, and clarinetist
Jimmy Hamilton. The band performs a stretched out version of "Take the 'A' Train" (with Nance taking Betty Roche's vocal), two numbers that are part of suites ("Red Carpet" and a version of "Newport Up" that finds
Hamilton stealing solo honors), "Matumba" from "A Drum Is a Woman," a version of "Perdido" (
Gerald Wilson's famous arrangement that clearly misses the departed Clark Terry), and a fine run-through of "Diminuendo in Blue & Crescendo in Blue." Strangely enough, altoist
Johnny Hodges does not have any solos during the 48-minute program. Although the music offers no new revelations, the renditions are quite worthwhile and the band is in good form.