Hello, jazz fans, and boys and girls of all ages. I promised that I’d add some comments to my post this morning on Edward Kennedy Ellington, because he is such an important figure to jazz, and to American music in general. In the following comments, I am going to rely on my own knowledge, and draw upon material from Marl Gridley’s book, “Jazz Styles”.
Ellington led a group from 1923 until 1974, making it the most stable and longest-lived band in jazz history, with some musicians remaining 20 years, even 30 years, at a stretch. His musicians had strong, unique styles of their own, and together they made an all-star unit. Many of their improvisations were so good that they became permanent parts of the band’s repertoire, as if they were composed. Ellington cleverly and imaginatively mixed and matched their work with his in such a way that no other band in jazz history could claim the breadth or depth his group. Duke wrote more than 2000 compositions, as well as enormous numbers of arrangements.
As I mentioned this morning, Duke Ellington (1899-1974) contributed three-fold to the American music scene: as bandleader, as pianist, and as composer. As a piano soloist during the first three decades of his career, Ellington performed often in the stride-style piano tradition of James P. Johnson. Thereafter, he usually performed in his own original style, which was still quite percussive (don’t forget that the piano is considered a percussion, not a string, instrument). His playing had an unerring swing feeling, and he became noted for unusual harmonies and voicings. As an accompanist, Duke was highly praised by his sidemen for his vitality and imagination in finding ways to frame their phrases, always using a spare style.
As a composer, Ellington wrote many tunes (I mentioned some of the most famous in my previous post). Nearly all jazz musicians have played Ellington tunes during their career, and many have devoted entire albums to his music. Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn recorded entire albums of the Ellington songbook, and groups as eclectic as the World Saxophone Quartet have paid tribute to Duke’s compositions.
Ellington wrote many longer pieces, and he is acclaimed for having taken jazz into the format of “extended works”. Some of the best known include “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” (which is a major feature on the “Newport, 1956” recording) and “Black, Brown, and Beige”, a 50-minute tone poem to the history of the American Negro. Some of his longest works were film scores, such as the music for “Anatomy of a Murder”, which starred Jimmy Stewart.
One of Duke’s greatest skills as an arranger was that of capitalizing on the uniquely personal sounds of the individual artists in his band. When writing for a group of instruments, he did not write parts that were anonymously assigned to the instruments (lead trumpet, 2nd trumpet, etc.) as most arrangers do. Instead, Ellington wrote parts suited to the particular sounds and capabilities of each player in his band (such as Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, etc.) For example, if a chord were scored for three trumpets, Ellington made use of the particular tone quality of each player, and he distributed the parts of the chord to them to create the overall color he wanted that chord to have. Other times, he would have one trumpet player use a mute, another with no mute, and a third player play with a tonal quality that only that man could extract from his horn. Ellington also scored this way for the saxophones and trombones as well.
Another notable skill employed by Duke is what is called “voicing across sections” of the band. While most arrangers routinely write passages that pit the sound of one section of the band against another (e.g., trumpets against saxes), Ellington often wrote passages to be played by combinations of instruments drawn from different sections of the band. The most famous example of this can be heard in the 1940 recording of “Mood Indigo”, where he voiced clarinet with muted trumpet and muted trombone, thus combining instruments from three different sections of the band.
Another unique sound pioneered by Ellington originated with the jobs he played for floor shows at New York night clubs, which wanted exotic “jungle sounds”. Partly to satisfy the club’s demand for exotic sounds, and partly due to his admiration for New Orleans jazz, Ellington scored for the growl style associated with trumpeter Bubber Miley and trombonist Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton.
Some of the great sidemen with Ellington’s groups included: clarinetists Barney Bigard, Jimmy Hamilton, and Russell Procope; trumpeters Bubber Miley, Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, Ray Nance, Cat Anderson, Clark Terry, and Johnny Coles; trombonists Joe Nanton, Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol, Britt Woodman, and Quentin Jackson; saxophonists Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, and Harold Ashby; bass players Jimmy Blanton, Oscar
Pettiford, and Jimmy Woode; and drummers Sonny Greer, Louis Bellson, and Sam Woodyard.
Diversity and breadth characterized Duke’s music, and the pieces in his repertory were filled with variety. As I noted in my first post, Duke’s music can be broken down into broad categories, or books:
1. An impressionistic book with arrangements that place more emphasis on orchestral colors and shading than on rhythmic swing (such as “On a Turquoise Cloud”, and “Transbluency”).
2. A book of romantic ballads (such as “Prelude to a Kiss”, and “Sophisticated Lady”).
3. An exotic book, which included pieces such as “Caravan” and “Bakiff”, as well as suites such as “Latin American Suite” and “Toga Brava Suite”.
4. A concert book in which each pieces is a long work with much less improvisation than was usually found in his music. Examples include “Black, Brown and Beige”, and “Deep South Suite”.
5. A book of concertos in which each piece frames the style of one Ellington band member. Examples include “Echoes of Harlem” (written for Cootie Williams), and “Boy Meets Horn” (written for Rex Stewart).
6. A book of sacred concerts, which brought Ellington to use choirs, new vocal soloists, organ, and dancers.
7. A book of swinging instrumentals, each with improvisational solos, catchy ensemble themes, and punchy accompaniment.
In addition to all the music contained in these “books”, Ellington also composed several operas, a couple of ballets, and about ten musical shows.
In my first post, I provided a short list of some of the best of Duke’s recordings. It is noteworthy that Amazon.com currently lists some 550 CD’s of Duke’s music (admittedly repetitive). I won’t add much to the previous list, except for the following:
1. Duke Ellington: All-Star Road Band, recorded in 1964 and released on the Signature label (produced by Bob Thiele).
2. The LaserLight 5-CD set I listed above is titled “Happy Birthday, Duke” (volumes 1-5).
There are also recordings of the music of Ellington, but not played by his band. Two of the better recordings are the direct-to-disk recording, “For Duke”, on the M&K label; and “The DMP Big Band Salutes Duke Ellington”, which is a 5.1 DTS surround recording.
Well, before I wear out my welcome, let me close and wish everyone good listening.
