Duke Ellington

This is a huge body of work. For me the older stuff can be hard to listen to - I just have a lot of trouble getting past the noise and artifacts of the recording process.

Here are a few more to consider.

Duke Ellington Meets Count Basie - two bands playing as one

The Great Summit - Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington - fab

Side by Side - Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges

Back to Back - Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges

both these are small ensembles with Hodges on horn and Ellington clearly featured on piano

Francis A & Edward K - Old Blue Eyes and the Duke who cares for him as carefully as he does Ella and Rosemary Clooney - course you gotta like Sinatra to like this one

Live In Swing City: Swinging With The Duke - Wynton Marsalis and group out of Lincoln Center

I'm not sure if they'e available on cd, but on lp:

1) The Queen's Suite
2) Intimacy of the Blues

This is not "Take The A Train", middle of the fairway Duke Ellington BUT
these are two of the greatest records I've ever heard.

BTW "Take The A Train" and all of Duke's classics are absolutely worth owning and can be found on nmumerous "Best Of" compilations.

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll be checking out all of them very soon.

Jond: Thanks for the welcome. By the way, I will have to consider moving to speakers with a smaller footprint, possibly monitors. You went through something similar, right?

Thedautch: thanks for the recommendation, I've never been to E. on E. but have only heard good things about it. As soon as I find some time to check it out, I'll let you know.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned 'Blues in Orbit' Great songs and one of my favorite recordings

Blue,
Yes when we moved into a much smaller condo I trade my beloved Alon Lotus SE's for a pair of JMlabs Micro-Utopias. I thought I would miss the bass but not at all, the bass I have is tight and punchy and the transparency is addictive. Plus they're incredibly easy to drive! I highly recommend anything from the Utopia series, the Minis would give you a fair amount more bass then the Micros. Happy listening!!