The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse cover

The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse

Released

Possibly the greatest album ever made by a septuagenarian: Recorded in 1971 and released a year after his 1974 death, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse has the kind of zest you’d associate with a much younger man. Not Duke’s own youth, but something like this version, a youthful contemporary with wide-open ears — it even incorporates rock rhythms in ways that sound utterly Dukish — with an offhanded casualness underlining even the most florid touches. Certainly, nobody in music made more of Marshall McLuhan’s theories, explicitly acknowledged in the album’s long spoken introduction.

Michaelangelo Matos

Recommended by

Suggestions
Afro-Bossa cover

Afro-Bossa

Duke Ellington
Cuba: The Conversation Continues cover

Cuba: The Conversation Continues

Arturo O'Farrill, Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra
The Epic cover

The Epic

Kamasi Washington
Super-Sonic Jazz cover

Super-Sonic Jazz

The Sun Ra Arkestra
Ritmo Caliente cover

Ritmo Caliente

Eddie Palmieri
Hey Leroy cover

Hey Leroy

Jimmy Castor
Palmas cover

Palmas

Eddie Palmieri
Blues in Orbit cover

Blues in Orbit

Duke Ellington