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The weather around here has been what meteorologists call, for lack of a more scientific term, variable. That means warm, cold, cloudy, sunny, rainy and—while all that is going on—fierce wind gusts blowing the beautiful fall leaves off the trees. Last evening, the cloudy and sunny elements combined to paint a sunset that lasted barely long for me to dash inside from the deck, grab a camera and get back in time to catch the final seconds of the show.
It was too windy for any mockingbird to be out. Besides, they’ve all headed south. But we’re in luck. We can hear Duke Ellington’s “Sunset And The Mockingbird.†Here are two versions, Ellington’s from The Queen’s Suite, and Tommy Flanagan’s from his album that took its title from the name of the piece.
Improvisations in 1959 were by Ellington on piano and Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet. Pianist Flanagan’s 1998 trio included bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash.