Isfahan (song)

"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.

"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)

Legacy

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

Personnel

See also

References

  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
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