Both of these compilations of a famous album with bonus material have previously been on the Essential Jazz Classics label, which comes from the same (public) domain in Barcelona. As such, Sweet Thunder was reviewed in Jazzwise 122, while a Sony Legacy version of BB&B was reissued as recently as Jazzwise 152. SST earns its star-rating by adding to that suite not only three short contemporary tracks but the awesome ‘A Tone Parallel To Harlem’ and the humorous ‘Controversial Suite’ (and it might be five stars, but for the continued use of the wrong take of ‘Up And Down’). By contrast, the other album here is superior to its EJC version, which jumbled the bonus tracks (the 1950 extended versions of ‘Mood Indigo’ and ‘Sophisticated Lady’ and the 16-minute ‘Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald’) among the movements of BB&B is a most weird and unsatisfactory manner. The Sony Legacy versions of both these had mainly alternate takes as bonuses, making them more suitable for Ellington specialists, whereas the extra material on these versions is nearly all excellent.

So what about the music, which is eminently recommendable to non-specialists? In the space available, it's impossible to point out all the delights, but in their solo duties Hodges, Carney, Gonsalves, Terry, Nance, Baker, Anderson, Jackson and Woodman all show their individual sounds to great effect. When these sounds are combined in different ways, the ensemble enlivens and embodies the compositional ideas of Ellington and Strayhorn, while the two vocals of Mahalia on BB&B are unique, in her output and Duke's. There are, of course, important back-stories (Shakespearian characters for SST, the difficult history of USA's black citizens in BB&B) and the original album-notes here add to one's appreciation. But, though crucial to Ellington's inspiration, it's not necessary to know any of this to feel the strength of the music.