Jump to content

Isfahan (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Isfahan"
Single by Duke Ellington
from the album The Far East Suite
Released1967
RecordedDecember 1966
GenreJazz
Length4:02
4:11 (alternative take)
LabelBluebird/RCA
Songwriter(s)Billy Strayhorn
Duke Ellington
Producer(s)Brad McKuen
Duke Ellington singles chronology
"Mynah"
(1966)
"Isfahan"
(1967)
"Depk"
(1966)

"Isfahan" is a jazz piece credited to Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington and released on Ellington's 1967 album The Far East Suite; Isfahan is a city in Iran. It features long-time Ellington soloist Johnny Hodges on alto saxophone. It was originally called "Elf" when Strayhorn[1] composed it, months before the 1963 Ellington orchestra world tour during which the group traveled to Iran.

Legacy

[edit]

Isfahan is widely considered as a jazz standard.

In The Penguin Guide to Jazz, Richard Cook and Brian Morton have suggested that "Isfahan is arguably the most beautiful item in Ellington's and Strayhorn's entire output."[2]

In 1988 the song was presented in Studio Sessions New York 1963 by LMR label and later on by the Saja Records.[3]

Notable covers

[edit]

Personnel

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ David Hajdu, Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996, ISBN 0-86547-512-1, page 234.
  2. ^ Morton, Brian; Richard Cook (2010) [1992]. The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1001 Best Albums. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (10th ed.). New York: Penguin. pp. 437–438. ISBN 978-0-14-104831-4.
  3. ^ A Duke Ellington Panorama accessed June 28, 2010