The Suites, New York 1968 & 1970

The Suites, New York 1968 & 1970 is volume five of The Private Collection, a series of compilation albums by Duke Ellington from his archive of unreleased music. The album includes "The Degas Suite", an unreleased soundtrack for an unfinished film consisting of paintings of horse races.

Also included is "The River", which was composed to accompany a ballet by Alvin Ailey that premiered on June 25, 1970, at New York State Theater in Lincoln Center.

Reception
The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow stated: "Ellington is mostly the lead voice but his star sidemen are heard from on these formerly very rare and somewhat unusual performances. Clearly his genius was strong enough to fill three lifetimes full of new music and this CD contains some melodies that might have been more significant if he had lived long enough to find a place for them."

Track listing

 * Recorded at National Recording Studio, New York on November 6, 1968 (tracks 1.1-1.11), November 23, 1968 (track 1.1), December 3, 1968 (track 1.7), at Universal Studios, Chicago on May 25, 1970 (tracks 2.1-2.5 & 2.12), at National Recording Studio, New York on June 3, 1970 (tracks 2.7-2.10), June 8, 1970 (track 2.6) and June 15, 1970 (track 2.11).

Personnel

 * Duke Ellington – piano
 * Cat Anderson – trumpet
 * Dave Burns – trumpet
 * Willie Cook – trumpet
 * Mercer Ellington – trumpet
 * Money Johnson – trumpet
 * Frank Stone – trumpet
 * Cootie Williams – trumpet
 * Lawrence Brown – trombone
 * Buster Cooper – trombone
 * Cliff Heathers – trombone
 * Chuck Connors – bass trombone
 * Johnny Hodges – alto saxophone
 * Russell Procope – alto saxophone, clarinet
 * Norris Turney – alto saxophone, flute
 * Harold Ashby – tenor saxophone
 * Paul Gonsalves – tenor saxophone
 * Harry Carney – baritone saxophone
 * Jeff Castleman – double bass
 * Joe Benjamin – drums
 * Rufus "Speedy" Jones – drums
 * Elayne Jones – tympani
 * Walter Rosenberg – glockenspiel
 * Dave Fitz – xylophone, marimba