Bernie Gregoire wrote:

>My sense about Ellington is that his composition and arranging efforts were
>actually primarily focused on his sidemen.  He stated on several occasions
>that his output was created especically to the individual strengths (sound
>and improvisational styles) of his soloing musicians, especially Harry
>Carney, Bubba Miley (in the very early days), Cat Anderson and his unique
>trombone choir comprised of Tizol, Jackson and Woodman.

However, Ellington's greatest trombone trio were Lawrence Brown, Juan
Tizol, and the great Joseph "Tricky Sam" Nanton.  Three unique voices who
separately could say ANYTHING and together were -- well, listen to the
unbelievable "Braggin' in Brass" from 1938.

Bill S