Artistically the era of "swing" and of the big bands was dominated by
the orchestra of
Edward "Duke" Ellington (1899),
the first great composer (and self-arranger) of jazz music (and one of the
most prolific in the entire history of music).
A Washington pianist, raised in a middle-class family, who had moved to New York in 1923, he first proved his
skills as a composer with the Washingtonians,
that included drummer William "Sonny" Greer:
Choo Choo (november 1924), a novelty that imitated the sound of a train,
East St Louis Toodle-Oo (november 1926), originally credited to the Kentucky Club Orchestra, his first major artistic statement and the manifesto of
trombonist Joe Nanton's brash ebullience,
New Orleans Low-Down (february 1927), also by the Kentucky Club Orchestra, with a typical light-hard contrast between the two trumpets,
Black and Tan Fantasy (april 1927), a metaphysical fantasia that ended with a funeral march and was highlighted (the october version) by a dramatic trumpet solo,
Washington Wobble (october 1927), the first recording credited to the Duke Ellington's Orchestra,
Creole Love Call (october 1927), in which Adelaide Hall's wordless singing basically instructs the instruments how to play (thus reenacting the primordial relationship between blues vocals and jazz instruments),
Harlem River Quiver (december 1927),
and, again both credited to the Washingtonians,
Jubilee Stomp (march 1928), with another epochal trumpet solo,
and
The Mooche (october 1928), another stomp a` la Black and Tan Fantasy but featuring blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson.
Bubber Miley's wah-wah trumpet (originally an imitation of the blues shouting of Mamie Smith, whom he accompanied in 1921) was as essential as Ellington's piano. The growling sound of both his trumpet and Joe Nanton's trombone lent the
band's sound its "savage" appeal. Couple with Sonny Greer's primordial drumming,
they evoked the African jungle, and therefore was advertised as "jungle music".
But Ellington soon dispelled the notion of being a novelty act by
debuting his archetypical "mood" (impressionistic) pieces,
Misty Mornin' (november 1928), Awful Sad (october 1928)
and Hot And Bothered (october 1928).
In fact, even the most facile and danceable of Ellington's pieces
exhibited the ability to maximize drama and color within a three-minute song
that only Jelly Roll Morton had mastered before him.
In 1928 Ellington debuted his archetypical "mood" (impressionistic) pieces,
Misty Mornin', Awful Sad, and Hot And Bothered.
Between 1927 and 1931 Ellington performed at Harlem's "Cotton Club", in front of an audience that was mostly white. These shows were occasionally broadcasted live, a fact that made Ellington a nation-wide celebrity.
He owed it to white manager and publisher Irving Mills, the man who promoted his music as "jungle" music, who found him the contract at the "Cotton Club", and who made sure the shows were broadcasted on the radio.
He seemed capable of delivering tunes like an assembly line:
Doin' The Voom Voom (january 1929),
Flamin' Youth (january 1929),
Harlem Flat Blues (march 1929), credited to the Jungle Band and highlighted by Nanton's "talking" solo,
The Dicty Glide (march 1929),
Sweet Dreams Of Love (june 1930),
Sweet Jazz Of Mine (june 1930),
the raunchy stomp Old Man Blues (august 1930),
What Good Am I Without You (november 1930),
I'm So In Love With You (november 1930).
The collective interplay first achieved on Old Man Blues (august 1930)
crystallized with Rockin' In Rhythm (january 1931),
Echoes of the Jungle (june 1931) and Mystery Song (june 1931).
But these were the nail in the coffin of New Orleans' collective improvisation,
as they were painstakingly organized.
When that engagement came to an end (1931), Ellington began to show the
real breadth of his ambitions:
Creole Rhapsody, that was released in two versions (six minutes in january 1931 and eight minutes minutes in june 1931), both requiring more than a side (the first one took up both sides of a 10" record, the second one took up both sides of a 12" record),
the nine-minute suite Symphony in Black (october 1934),
and the splendid 13-minute Reminiscing in Tempo (september 1935),
possibly the first thoroughly composed jazz piece
(originally recorded over four sides)
were the longest jazz pieces ever committed to a record, challenging the
limitations of the medium (the 78 RPM
record could hardly fit three minutes of music),
and felt like jazz music's equivalent of a classical concerto;
while his melodic themes, that included
Mood Indigo (december 1930), in which he turned upside down the conventions of jazz by assigning the highest part to the trumpet, the middle to the trombone and the lowest to the clarinet,
It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing (february 1932), the birth certificate of swing music, the first major hit with a vocalist (Ivie Anderson on wordless scatting),
Sophisticated Lady (february 1933),
Daybreak Express (december 1933),
Solitude (january 1934) and
In A Sentimental Mood (april 1935),
were worthy of the most gifted of Tin Pan Alley's songwriters,
but with atmospheric and almost philosophical overtones that harked back
to classical music.
The group's ambience owed quite a bit to the majestic tones of alto
saxophonist Johnny Hodges (the first great master of the instrument) and
to the very long notes of baritone saxophonist Harry Carney
(both had joined in 1928).
Puerto Rican trombonist Juan Tizol (who had joined in 1929) introduced an exotic element with his compositions: Caravan (december 1936), that debuted Afro-Cuban rhythms in a swing context, A Gypsy Without A Song (june 1938), and Perdido (december 1941).
Ellington composed relatively few songs in the first half of the 1930s, and
a lot more at the end of the decade. Not surprisingly, the former are mostly
masterpieces and the latter are mostly disposable.
However, even the classics of Ellington's later years show how broad his
stylistic territory was, ranging from dance numbers to catchy tunes, from
mood pieces to abstract meditations:
the micro-concerto
Clarinet Lament (february 1936), also known as Barney's Concerto,
the ambitious Crescendo in Blue (september 1937),
the pensive Lost In Meditation (march 1938), originally titled Have a Heart,
Prelude To A Kiss (august 1938), another of his paradisiac melodies,
Braggin' In Brass (march 1938), a frantic piece which instead dispensed with melody altogether,
the dejected Ko-Ko (march 1940),
Jack the Bear (march 1940), propelled by bassist Jimmy Blanton (who had joined in 1939 but died in 1942), the greatest virtuoso yet of the instrument who turned the bass into a melodic vehicle,
Cotton Tail (may 1940), another tortuous melody with a brainy solo by tenor saxophonist Ben Webster (who had just joined),
Never No Lament (may 1940), an instrumental later adapted to lyrics as Don't Get Around Much Anymore,
the ebullient Harlem Air-shaft (july 1940),
Bojangles (may 1940), dedicated to tap dancer Bill Robinson,
Sepia Panorama (july 1940), a micro-concerto drenched in blues music that displayed Ellington, Blanton and Webster at their best,
Pitter Patter Panther (october 1940), the ultimate duet between Blanton and Ellington,
the tone poems Dusk (may 1940) and Moon Mist (february 1941),
Take The "A" Train (january 1941), composed by pianist Billy Strayhorn (who had joined in 1939),
I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good (june 1941), another showcase for Ivie Anderson's scat singing,
Main Stem (june 1942), a showcase for Hodges,
The 'C' Jam Blues (september 1941),
I'm Beginning To See The Light (december 1944),
Happy Go Lucky Local (november 1946),
and two more experiments with the human voice,
Transbluency (january 1946),
and On a Turquoise Cloud (december 1947),
Kay Davis' wordless masterpieces.
Ellington lost Williams in 1940, Blanton in 1941, Anderson in 1942, Webster in 1943, Tizol in 1944, cornetist Rex Stewart (who had been with him since 1934) in 1945, Hodges and Greer in 1951.
The last hit of his band was Satin Doll (april 1953).
Fleurette Africaine (september 1962), perhaps his last great melody, was a collaboration with Charles Mingus and Max Roach.
His mind and his heart were clearly no longer into songs.
To start with, the new format of the long-playing allowed him to think
differently.
Masterpieces by Ellington (december 1950) contained a 15-minute version of
Mood Indigo that sounded like the belated manifesto of his vision of
the entire orchestra as one large instrument, the instrument that he played.
Second, he was fascinated by the challenge of creating an extended format
for jazz music.
He already had under his belt
Echoes Of Harlem (december 1936), better known as
Concerto For Cootie, ostensibly a showcase for the trumpet of Cootie Williams (who had replaced Miley in 1929),
the three-movement orchestral suite Black Brown and Beige (premiered in january 1943), a musical recapitulation to the odyssey of black Americans,
the three impressionist suites Perfume Suite (december 1944), Deep South Suite (november 1946) and Liberian Suite (december 1947),
Jam-A-Ditty (january 1946), ostensibly a "concerto for four jazz horns",
and the two musicals Jump for Joy (july 1941)
and Beggar's Holiday (december 1946), an adaptation of John Gay's "Beggar's Opera".
Now he proceeded to compose ever more ambitious music:
the 14-minute tone poem Harlem (composed in 1950),
the profound Piano Reflections (april 1953),
the 12-movement suite Such Sweet Thunder (august 1956), inspired by Shakespeare and a collaboration with Billy Strayhorn,
the musical A Drum Is A Woman (september 1956), co-written with Billy Strayhorn and another artistic peak,
the pageant My People (august 1963),
the Far East Suite (december 1966), another Strayhorn collaboration (a suite of songs composed between 1963 and 1966),
the three-movement suite The Golden Broom And The Green Apple (premiered in july 1965 by the New York Philharmonic with Ellington conducting),
the suite La Plus Belle Africaine (july 1966),
the first Concert of Sacred Music (september 1965),
the Second Sacred Concert (january 1968) and
the third Concert of Sacred Music (october 1973),
that were three colossal compositions for gospel choirs, jazz band and dancers,
the Latin American Suite (premiered in september 1968),
the ballet The River (may 1970),
the six-movement The Queen's Suite (february 1959), perhaps his best suite,
the New Orleans Suite (april 1970) and
the opera comique Queenie Pie (unfinished in 1974).
He was trying to give a more organic structure to his genius.
In the process, he invented the future of jazz.
Ellington died in may 1974.
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