Exist Yesterday.

Q:Ellington. Name 'em. It's only a half-century's worth of records.

You son of a bitch. It’s like killing children.

I have to go with compositions, because no way in hell am I deciding whether the “Solitude” from Money Jungle is better than the 1935 and-His-Orchestra platter. (And consequently not counting Strayhorn compositions, which narrows it down a tiny bit.) So.

“Black Beauty” (1928) is the alpha and the omega. Play it at my funeral and let me sadly vamp to wherever it is I’m going.

“Mood Indigo” (1930) is an impossibility given flesh. The hell with Wilson, Eno, and all other Brians: the Duke sculpted sound first and best.

“Dimminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” (1938, rev. 1956) is the resurrection and the life. Know the 1938 double-sided 78 backwards and forwards, then hear the 1956 Newport Festival rendition.

“Black, Brown and Beige” (1943) is sacred music. I don’t even know that I’m worthy to listen to it.