Duke Ellington once corrected a Finnish journalist who asked him about touring. “We don’t do tours,” said the maestro. “We do this 52 weeks a year. There’s no such thing as a tour. We just do it.” Uppsala 1971 documents the Ellington band just doing it, in Sweden, three years before the leader's death, still unstoppable and creatively vital. Sure, they cater to the crowd with “Rockin’ in Rhythm” and a nearly 20-minute “Medley” (don’t miss Harry Carney’s signature baritone sax feature on “Sophisticated Lady”). But Ellington also rolls out “Harlem”, one of his most ambitious extended works, with a trumpet intro from veteran Ellingtonian Cootie Williams. Paul Gonsalves, Duke’s central tenor sax voice after Ben Webster, has a mesmerising ballad feature on “Happy Reunion”. And that distinctive Ellington piano, central to the band’s music since the ’20s yet ever evolving, threads it all together. The set closes with a solo piano version of “Lotus Blossom”, written by Duke’s famed collaborator and musical soulmate Billy Strayhorn, who died of cancer in 1967—making this version a eulogy of sorts, deep and multilayered in meaning.