In 1953, Ellington moved to Capitol Records from Columbia, citing the better promotion offered by his new label. Two years later, he moved on again. Capitol handled other more popular artists including Peggy Lee, Nat ‘King’ Cole and Les Paul, and treated Ellington much the same, releasing a raft of singles, some involving vocalist Jimmy Grissom, others featuring soloists, yet others on the novelty spectrum.

Annotator Ian Bradley has collected them all plus some hitherto unreleased items from the period. To say that the orchestra was in tip-top condition is almost a given with this personnel, albeit minus Johnny Hodges and Lawrence Brown (then underway with their small non-Ducal group).

The mellow-sounding Nance is the most frequent trumpet soloist, the frighteningly capable Anderson regularly aiming for and attaining mind-numbing high notes. Grissom, described by Terry Teachout as ‘among the most insipid’ of Ellington’s male vocalists, sings on eight tracks, his crooning style hard to enjoy although he comes into his own shouting the blues on ‘Ballin’ The Blues’ with Woodman and tenorist Hamilton prominent as Duke finishes in boogie fashion.

‘Satin Doll’ makes its first-ever recorded appearance as the second item in this 31-track compilation and ‘Warm Valley’ is as perfect as ever while Strayhorn’s ‘Boo-Dah’ swings hard with Nance again, Hamilton on clarinet and Duke giving it a final flourish. Although the then-current mambo craze is over-stressed here, there are other glories to enjoy, this well-presented collection portraying an interesting if under-sung period in the Ducal career.