Canon Fodder Playlist
Canon Fodder
Playlist for Chapter 9 in Ellington the Composer by Jack Chambers
20 Greatest Duke Ellington Big Band Recordings
(no vocals, no piano solos, no Strayhorn, one symphony movement)
presented in order starting with #20
20 "Jack the Bear" 3:15 (Ellington) Chicago, March 6, 1940. The Blanton-Webster Band Bluebird [RCA 3CD 1986]. Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams, Rex
Stewart tp; Tricky Sam Nanton, Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol tb; Barney
Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick, Ben Webster, Harry Carney reeds;
Duke Ellington p; Fred Guy g; Jimmie Blanton b; Sonny Greer d
Solos: Blanton, Ellington, Bigard, Williams, Nanton, Blanton.
Ellington was mesmerized by his new young bass player, Jimmie Blanton, only
20 years old when Ellington developed this big-band feature for him, showing off
his resonant pizzicato that magically kept the beat while simultaneously
fashioning counter-melodies. Here he is singled out fashioning calls and
responses to the large ensemble, and then underscoring their release into
swinging choruses. Blanton’s precedent led other jazz bassists to aspire to
create melodic undercurrents while maintaining its essential function by
marking the time signature. “Jack the Bear” elevated the bassist into the
solo hierarchy of the big swing bands. Ellington expected it to launch
Blanton into a trendsetting career, but it proved to be a career peak.
Thirteen months later he left the band, debilitated by tuberculosis, and he
died in 1942.
19 "Creole Love Call" 3:10 (Ellington/ Miley/Jackson) New York, October 26, 1927. Early Ellington 1927-1934 (Brunswick CD [1989]). Bubber Miley,
Louis Metcalf tp; Joe ‘Tricky Sam’ Nanton tb; Otto Hardwick, Rudy
Jackson, Harry Carney reeds; Duke Ellington p, Fred Guy banjo, Wellman
Braud b, Sonny Greer d, Adelaide Hall vocalization
Solos: Hall, Miley, Jackson cl, Hall.
Ellington recruited the ingenue Adelaide Hall to add vocalization to his beguiling melody. He opens with deep harmonies played by a clarinet trio (Jackson, Hardwick and Carney) over which the silky soprano voice of Hall intones a wordless countermelody. After solos by Miley and Jackson, the clarinets return and Hall sounds out a blues chorus of her own, again wordlessly, but this time with raspy effects, a tougher, more emphatic statement. Hall’s vocalizations convey the ‘love call’ of the title in two contrasting guises, the first with come-hither cooing and the second with a dash of raunch. Ellington’s deft touch shines with the clarinet ensemble but his manipulation of Hall’s vocal effects steals the show.
18 La Plus Belle Africaine 11:07 [edited] (Ellington) Coventry Cathedral, Coventry,
England, February 21, 1966. Duke Ellington in Coventry (Storyville
[2018]). Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Mercer Ellington, Herbie Jones tp;
Lawrence Brown, Buster Cooper, Chuck Connors tb; Johnny Hodges, Russell
Procope, Jimmy Hamilton, Paul Gonsalves, Harry Carney reeds; Duke Ellington
p; John Lamb b; Sam Woodyard d
Solos: Hamilton, Lamb, Carney, Hamilton.
La Plus Belle Africaine is propelled throughout by an eight-bar ostinato,
carried principally by the bass player, and then covered by the piano player
when the bassist solos, and it is parroted rhythmically by the drummer all
through. The clarinet plays a simple melody over the ostinato, and is
abruptly interrupted by the cascading brass in a twelve-bar shout that
recurs as if demarcating movements. The ostinato is then taken up by the
piano while the bassist solos with the bow. After the brass shout marks the
end of the bassist’s outing, there is a ruminative orchestral interval that
momentarily interrupts the ostinato, with trombones and other harmonic
elements adding coloration to the rhythmic undercurrent. The piece fades
away over the ebbing bass ostinato. This composition flows more directly
from the rhythm trio than perhaps any other orchestral work by Ellington. In
“Daybreak Express” and other essentially rhythmic works, the pulse was
carried by the whole orchestra. Here the clarinet, arco bass and baritone
saxophone caress the beat instead of punctuating it, seemingly floating on
it. The heartbeat of the piece is down low, in the piano, bass and
drums.
La Plus Belle Africaine:
17 "Cottontail” 3:08 (Ellington)
Hollywood, May 4, 1940. Blanton-Webster Band Bluebird [RCA 3CD
1986]. Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart tp; Tricky Sam Nanton,
Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol tb; Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick,
Ben Webster, Harry Carney reeds; Duke Ellington p; Fred Guy g; Jimmy Blanton
b; Sonny Greer d
Solos: Williams, Webster, Carney, Ellington.
“Cottontail” stands as a kind of marvel of high-velocity precision. The progression from Cootie Williams’s muted trumpet in the first chorus to a full-throated brass ensemble in the last (sixth) chorus forms a crescendo, but the tempo is up and unwavering from the start. The second and third choruses are turned over to tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, who rides over the wailing band figures with unbridled enthusiasm. It seems climactic at this point but there is more to come, first in a romping brass ensemble and then in a remarkable reed chorus (said to have been worked out by Webster with his section mates, and the germ of Ellington’s composition). “Cottontail” is a show stopper, bold and defiant.
16 “Black Beauty” 3:16 (Ellington) Hollywood, CA, July 14, 1960. The Unknown Session, originally CBS (Fr) LP 1979. Essential Jazz Classics, EU (CD [2011]). Ray Nance tp, Lawrence Brown tb, Johnny Hodges as, Paul Gonsalves ts, Harry Carney bs, Duke Ellington p, Aaron Bell b, Sam Woodyard d.
Thirty-two years after he composed “Black Beauty” as an elegy for singer/dancer Florence Mills (1896-1927), Ellington revivified it for a small band. He plays it first as a piano trio, evoking the 1928 original impressionistically, and then his melancholy mood is picked up by the octet in a counter-melody behind Ray Nance’s lead. Lawrence Brown solos, muted, playing the melody with such grace as to make it sound new again. Eddie Lambert (1999, 221) says, “It seems incredible that twelve such perfectly balanced and polished performances of totally new arrangements could be turned out in one recording session.” None shines brighter than “Black Beauty.”
15 “Jeep's Blues” (Ellington,
Hodges) 4:36 Newport, R.I., July 8, 1956.
Ellington at Newport Complete (Columbia 2CD [1999]). Willie
Cook, Cat Anderson, Ray Nance, Clark Terry tp; Quentin Jackson, Britt
Woodman, John Sanders tb; Jimmy Hamilton cl, Russell Procope as,
Johnny Hodges as, Paul Gonsalves ts, Harry Carney bs; Duke Ellington
p, Jimmy Woode b, Sam Woodyard d
Solo: Hodges.
Though most of the musical discussion about this famous concert has centered on “Diminuendo in Blue and Crescendo in Blue” with Paul Gonsalves’s rollicking 27-chorus interval, the consummate musical moment actually belongs to Johnny Hodges with his keening, magisterial rendition of “Jeep’s Blues,” his wail riding the crest of the band in full shout and the roar of the crowd rising in waves around them. In his most passionate invocation of the melody, Hodges momentarily quells the crowd. He had recently rejoined the band after five nondescript years on his own, and his playing here and elsewhere had renewed vitality. Ellington and Hodges had played this declamatory blues dozens of times since its debut in 1938 and they would play it dozens more in their remaining eleven years, but this Newport performance has no rival.
14 “Bula” a.k.a. “Afro-Bossa” (Ellington) 4:23 Fine Studios, NYC January 5, 1963. Originally Afro-Bossa, Reprise LP 1963, Discovery Records CD [1992]. Cat Anderson, Roy Burrowes, Cootie Williams tp; Ray Nance cor, violin; Lawrence Brown, Buster Cooper tb, Chuck Connors btb; Russell Procope as, cl; Johnny Hodges as, Jimmy Hamilton cl, ts, Paul Gonsalves ts, Harry Carney bs, cl; Duke Ellington p, Ernie Shepard b, Sam Woodyard d.
Ellington called it “a gutbucket bolero in a primitive rhythm, executed in a pre-primitive manner.” In concert performances, he always identified it as “Bula”; though on this definitive studio take he called it “Afro-Bossa,” and made it the title tune of the LP that it appeared on. That title may have been intended to catch the fancy of fans of a passing fad called “bossa nova” (Portuguese for ‘the new thing’), an easy-listening samba imported from Brazil, but “Bula” has no roots in Brazil. It offers tougher rhythms and voluble brass. The brilliantly orchestrated accelerando starts with an almost inaudible paradiddle on the snare drum and builds to a roaring grand-prix finale.
13 “Happy-Go-Lucky Local” 5:33 Chicago, January 17, 1954. Ellington ’55 (Capitol CD [1999]). Clark Terry, Cat Anderson, Willie Cook, Ray Nance tp; Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, Alfred Cobbs tb; Russell Procope, Rick Henderson, Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Hamilton, Harry Carney reeds; Duke Ellington p, Wendell Marshall b, Dave Black d.
This definitive studio recording was made eight years after the first recordings in 1946. It has two memorable themes, unified by (what Ellington calls) “a steady medium tempo,” with the “suggestion of boogie-woogie rhythm.” The first theme is a brilliant evocation of the train motif, entirely composed, with the train onomatopoeia projected aurally by interjections from an instrumental mélange of two alto saxophones, a baritone saxophone, a high trumpet, and a plunger-muted brass choir. The power and the glory of the mixed ensemble hardly seems conceivable by anyone but Ellington. The second theme moves it up an emotional notch with a riff-based motif (known as the “night train” theme as it was called when it became a plagiarized hit song). This second theme is perfectly calculated as the free-swinging release from the highly disciplined first theme, introduced with a stop-time orchestral fanfare and ending with a stratospheric trumpet emulating the happy-go-lucky local’s whistle as it fades into the distance.
12 "Black and Tan Fantasy” (Miley, Ellington) 3:23 New York, November 3, 1927. The Okeh Ellington (Columbia Jazz Masters CD1 [1999]).
Jabbo Smith, Louis Metcalf tp; Joe Nanton, tb; Harry Carney cl,
bs, Rudy Jackson cl, ts, Otto Hardwick ss, as, bs; Duke
Ellington p, Fred Guy banjo, Wellman Braud b, Sonny Greer d
Solos: Smith, Ellington, Smith, Nanton, Smith.
In 1935, a prescient New York reporter proclaimed, “When Duke Ellington wrote ‘Black and Tan Fantasy,’ little did he realize that this was the beginning of country-wide recognition for himself and the Cotton Club.” But Ellington was obviously fully aware of its worth. He recorded it three times on three different labels in a six-month span in 1927. This third version, with trumpet prodigy Jabbo Smith subbing for co-composer Bubber Miley, shows fine polish but also glows with youthful pizzazz. Ellington arranges two contrasting themes, the first a twelve-bar blues played with grit by muted trombone and trumpet, and the second a sweet sixteen-bar melody played by alto saxophone. The blues prevail, as the ensemble gives way to variations by trombone, piano and trumpet. The sombre mood is capped by a surprising coda from Chopin’s Funeral March. This composition held a place in Ellington’s repertoire for the remaining forty-seven years.
11 “Solitude” (Ellington) New York, October 14, 1957. The Complete Ellington Indigos (Jazz Beat CD [2008]). Willie Cook, Cat Anderson, Clark Terry, Harold Baker, Ray Nance tp; Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, John Sanders tb; Jimmy Hamilton cl, Russell Procope as, cl; Johnny Hodges as, Paul Gonsalves ts, Harry Carney bs; Duke Ellington p, Jimmy Woode b, Sam Woodyard d.
One of Ellington’s most memorable melodies is here re-made as a concerto grosso for his piano and band. His re-invention of this 1934 ballad was easily overlooked on its LP release where it was surrounded by old dance tunes by several songwriters. The concerto setting of this arrangement partly masks the melancholy that underlies Ellington’s melody, overwhelmed at least superficially behind the emphatic brass accents and the solemn reeds led by the baritone saxophone. The melancholy is there, of course, beneath the grand surface, never more poignant than in Ellington’s opening piano chorus and his abstract cadenza. Sadly, Ellington never played this arrangement in public, thus burying a shining instance of his piano mastery as well as his compositional creativity.
10 “Mood Indigo” (Ellington, Bigard, Mills) 3:06 Victor Studios, New York, December 10, 1930. The Okeh Ellington (Columbia 2CD [1991]). Cootie Williams, Artie Whetsol, Freddie Jenkins tp; Joe Nanton, Juan Tizol tb; Barney Bigard cl, Johnny Hodges as, Harry Carney cl, bs; Duke Ellington p, Fred Guy g, Wellman Braud tuba, Sonny Greer d.
This haunting melody captured “the mood of the century,” as a reviewer in Madras, India, declared. Ellington ingeniously harmonizes the unhurried melody for an instrumental trio in which the muted trombone plays the highest notes, above the muted trumpet, and the clarinet comes in at the bottom in its lowest, chalumeau register. Ellington’s bridge ruffles the mood momentarily, but the main melody soon makes its winsome, and winning, return. This novel instrumental combination “produced a sound previously unheard in any form of music,” as Gunther Schuller noted. The effect, magically, is equal parts sensuality and sorrow.
9 A Tone Parallel to Harlem (Ellington) 13:47 New York, December 7, 1951. (Originally Harlem Suite, title often shortened as Harlem) Ellington Uptown (Columbia CD [2004]). Duke Ellington cond; Francis Williams, Shorty Baker, Willie Cook, Clark Terry, Ray Nance tp; Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, Juan Tizol tb; Willie Smith as, Russell Procope cl, as; Jimmy Hamilton cl, ts; Paul Gonsalves ts; Harry Carney bs, bcl; Wendell Marshall b, Louie Bellson d.
“This kaleidoscopic, marvellously descriptive tour of Harlem,” as John Hasse aptly called it, is scintillating in its symphonic adaptation (by Luther Henderson) and brimming with life in its original big band garb. Ellington introduces it with a two-note motif played on trumpet that sounds like a sing-song recitation of the word “Harlem.” That motif recurs in sixteen instrumental guises in the first half, providing touchstones for the kaleidoscopic tour. The second motif, a kind of hymn, also takes on many guises, most reverentially by a clarinet trio grounded by the bass clarinet. It is a rich and mature paean to the Harlem Renaissance that nurtured Ellington and many other innovators two or three generations after the Emancipation Proclamation. Ellington called Harlem “the world’s most glamorous atmosphere,” and in this tone parallel he captured that glamor in soaring inspiration.
8 “Feet Bone” (Ellington) 3:03 Newport Jazz Festival, RI, July 3, 1958. Live at Newport 1958 (Columbia Legacy 2CD [1994], Mosaic Singles [CD 2007]). Cat Anderson, Ray Nance, Clark Terry, Shorty Baker, Cootie Williams tp; Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, John Sanders tb; Russell Procope as, Johnny Hodges as, Jimmy Hamilton, cl, ts, Paul Gonsalves ts, Harry Carney bs; Duke Ellington p, Jimmy Woode b, Sam Woodyard d.
An outstanding example of what bassist Jeff Castleman (1967-69) meant when he said, “I’m inclined to think that, rather than an ensemble, what we have is a fifteen-piece quartet!” (Dance 1970, 216). Ellington opens the piece on piano, setting the train-like tempo, and then he is joined by bass and drums. When he gets to the eighth bar he verbally calls in the band: “Hah! Hah!!” If it all seems rather impromptu to this point that impression disappears as soon as the orchestra takes up its role. First the trombones play sixteen bars beautifully modulated, and then they give way to the reeds for their chorus, and then the muted trumpets play their chorus. The section recitations are warmups for a calculated crescendo that has all three sections playing counterpoint with one another. It all seems impeccably rehearsed, though the trappings suggest it was a whim. It is a masterwork, though inexplicably Ellington never played it again in public.
7 “Village of the Virgins” (Ellington) 5:09 New York, June 15, 1970. The Private Collection: The Suites, Vol. 5 (SAJA Records [1987]). Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Mercer Ellington, Fred Stone tp; Chuck Connors, Booty Wood, Julian Priester tb; Russell Procope as, cl; Norris Turney fl; Harold Ashby ts, cl; Paul Gonsalves ts; Harry Carney bs, cl; Duke Ellington p, Wild Bill Davis org, Joe Benjamin b, Rufus Jones d.
Admittedly more majestic in its symphonic adaptation (by Ron Collier) for the ballet The River, this big-band sketch on which the adaptation is based projects much the same dignity. Ellington introduces the hymn-like twelve-bar melody on piano with bass accompaniment, and then he clothes the melody in rich and varied textures by a succession of instrumental ensembles, each more graceful than the last. After forty-eight bars, the orchestra plays a rising four-bar crescendo, and then returns to the hymn with still more varied textures. The melody is reverential in all its forms, and arguably a more heartfelt reflection of Ellington’s spirituality than anything in the contemporaneous Sacred Concerts.
6 "Flirtibird" (Ellington) 2:12 Hollywood, June 2, 1959. Anatomy of a Murder (Columbia [CD 1999]). Cat Anderson, Clark Terry,
Shorty Baker, Gerald Wilson tp; Ray Nance tp, vln; Quentin
Jackson, Britt Woodman, John Sanders tb; Johnny Hodges as,
Russell Procope as, Jimmy Hamilton cl, ts, Paul Gonsalves
ts, Harry Carney bs; Duke Ellington p, Jimmy Woode b, Jimmy
Johnson d
Solos: Hodges.
“Flirtibird” captures the voluptuous character of Laura (Lee Remick) in Otto Preminger’s movie, Anatomy of A Murder (1959). She is “the girl who’s always flirting” (as Ellington says). The theme he fashioned for her is sensuous and sultry, a scintillating matchup of sound and sense. It recurs in many guises in Ellington’s score but the definitive version is played by Johnny Hodges on alto saxophone in a straightforward two-minute statement with the band providing subtle nudges that do not distract him or us. “Ahhh, Lee Remick,” Ellington sighed. “She came in and listened to me play the thing and I said, ‘This is you,’ and she listened and she said, ‘Oh, yeh, that’s me, yeh.’ Just like that.”
5 “Daybreak Express” (Ellington) 2:54 Chicago, December 4, 1933. Early Ellington 1927-1934 (Bluebird CD [1989]). Cootie Williams, Arthur Whetsol, Freddy Jenkins, Louis Bacon tp; Lawrence Brown, Joe Nanton tb; Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick, Harry Carney reeds; Duke Ellington p, Fred Guy gtr, Wellman Braud b, Sonny Greer d.
“Daybreak Express” is Ellington’s masterpiece of “railroad onomatopoeia” (as Albert Murray termed it) but for all its spot-on imitation of a train in motion, it is completely musical, a complex of musical effects founded on a bedrock of swing rhythm, technical virtuosity and ensemble precision. Its opening accelerando resolves it into a powerhouse rush across the imagined landscape. The impression of the train’s motion is awe-inspiring, the clack of iron wheels on the rails, the hoot of the whistle‚ no detail is missing. And yet its appeal comes from its musical integrity. It has always fascinated music lovers of all stripes, especially musicians. The final wheeze as the daybreak express reaches the station supplies a fitting finale for an intense, and inimitable, listening experience.
4
“Echoes of Harlem” (Ellington) 4:40 broadcast from the downtown Cotton Club, New
York City, May 15, 1938. Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club (Storyville [CD 2010]). Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams tp;
Rex Stewart cor; Joe Nanton, Juan Tizol, Lawrence Brown tb; Barney
Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick, Harry Carney reeds; Duke
Ellington p, Fred Guy g, Billy Taylor b, Sonny Greer d
Solo:
Cootie Williams.
A consummate example of Ellington’s gift for constructing musical edifices in which his star soloists can put their special talents in high relief, Ellington opens with a piano vamp that seemingly escorts trumpeter Cootie Williams into the spotlight. Once there, Williams crafts the beautiful blues melody in syncopation with the vamp. The reed section then interpolates a handsome chorus (brought forward from a 1932 composition “Blue Mood”). Ellington returns with the piano vamp, bringing on Williams for a climactic variation on the theme, now more heated and assertive. Through it all, Ellington and Williams frame a melancholy that the jaunty vamp and the brash trumpet cannot hide. It is a striking instance of the symbiosis between the composer and his soloist.
3 “Northern Lights” (Ellington) 3:30 New York, February 25, 1959. in The Queen’s Suite first release on The Ellington Suites (orig Pablo Records 1976, OJJCD [1991]). Harold Baker, Clark Terry, Cat Anderson, Ray Nance tp; Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, John Sanders tb; Johnny Hodges, Russell Procope, Jimmy Hamilton, Paul Gonsalves, Harry Carney reeds; Duke Ellington p, Jimmy Woode b, Jimmy Johnson d.
It is impossible to separate the natural spectacle from the music it inspired in this movement of The Queen’s Suite. “[O]ne night when Harry Carney and I were en route from Three Rivers, Quebec, to North Bay, Ontario, we saw the greatest display of all. …We could not see the players, only shadows and reflections of performers passing back and forth between a brilliantly lit backdrop.… It was the greatest stage production I’ve ever seen.… It was eerie and rather terrifying.” The specter of the green aurora gyrating in the northern night sky became, for Ellington, a dance. He scribbled a few bars of notation on a scrap of paper and eventually realized it as a stately, almost ritualistic and somehow ominous musical sublimation. He said, “‘Northern Lights’, to me, represented majesty” (MiMM 113).
2 “Stalking Monster” (Ellington comp, Luther Henderson symphonic score) 7:48
Sundyberg, Sweden February 8, 1963. Night Creature second movement, on The Symphonic Ellington (orig. Reprise
Records, Discovery CD [1992]). Duke Ellington Orchestra with
Stockholm Symphony Orchestra
Solos: Ellington p, Nance
vln, Hodges as, Brown tb, Ellington p.
“Stalking Monster” exists as the second movement of Night Creature, a symphonic work commissioned in 1955 for Symphony of the Air, a summer concert series in New York. It must have been adapted from a band sketch because those are the only conditions in which the orchestrator Luther Henderson worked with Ellington, and further circumstantial evidence comes from Ellington’s integration of some of his most identifiable soloists in ‘speaking’ roles, though not evidently extemporaneous. The band sketch was never discovered, let alone played. Ellington says the piece is “based on that imaginary monster we all fear we shall have to meet some midnight—but when we meet him I’m sure we shall find that he, too, does the boogie woogie.” Certainly the monster in Ellington’s portrayal is more boogie woogie than boogeyman. The music is playful, with quick runs up the scale matched by equally quick runs down it. The rhythm moves from spritely, with marimba colorations, decidedly unthreatening, to steady four beats to the bar and back again. It is a sustained delight with novel combinations and shades of the jazz mainstream.
1 “Madness in Great Ones” (Ellington) 3:26 New York, Columbia 30th
Street Studios May 3, 1957. Such Sweet Thunder (Columbia Legacy CD [1999]).
Cat Anderson, Willie Cook, Clark Terry tp; Ray Nance tp,
vln; Britt Woodman, Quentin Jackson, John Sanders tb;
Jimmy Hamilton cl, ts, Paul Gonsalves ts, Johnny Hodges
as, Russell Procope cl, as, Harry Carney cl, bs; Duke
Ellington p, Jimmy Woode b, Sam Woodyard d
Solo:
Cat Anderson.
Ellington’s portrait tracks Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, as he plays havoc with the seemingly contented royal household in which his uncle Claudius has killed the king, Hamlet’s father, and wed the queen, Hamlet’s mother. The underscore of melodious swing by the reed section reflects the hypocrisy that is deranging the prince, and the blaring brass exclamations that rip into it reflect Hamlet’s jangled psyche. Listeners do not need to know anything at all about Shakespeare’s Hamlet to appreciate the magnificent tension between the conventional sections of American jazz bands when they are arrayed as warring factions. The finale, a scorching cadenza by high-note trumpeter, sounds like he is trying to blow his brains out. It is a fitting coda to an artistically impeccable score.
Comments
Post a Comment