jeffcrom

A Blowhard's Guide to Ellington will be published in installments this fall, beginning in the November 3rd Weekly World News.

Trip never was the classiest label. That record is a new one to me. The original issue was on the Obe label - I've got a reissue of that one. It's "Toudie" Heath there, too. This record has never connected with me the way I expected. Maybe I'll give it another try soon.

Just listened to "Controversial Suite" for the first time in a while. Yeah, it's fun and games, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Did anyone else notice how much the double-stopped bass passages in the "Later" movement (best heard around 3:19) sound like "La Plus Belle Africaine" from 15 years later? Well, like I said, it took me a long time to notice - it's a stretched, altered, disguised blues. Ellington was pretty good at that. Years ago, after reading that his "The Clothed Woman" was the first atonal jazz composition, I checked out that piece. It ain't atonal, it's also a blues, although it's stretched to the limit. (Oops, sorry to peek ahead.) Now the unemployed pseudo-critic will expound on "The Mystery Song:" This is the other piece from the current list that I'm really passionate about. Who else could have come up with that sound in the first chorus? The combination of the harmonies and Ellington's voicing of them, played pianissimo by muted brass, results in something totally original. (And is Harry Carney's bari sax in there, too? I'm not sure.) And while nothing else in the piece is as incredible as that first chorus, the rest is no letdown. The sax section in the second chorus is just delicious - and it was only three pieces at this point. Was there any other sax section in jazz that sounded this good in 1931? I also like the fact that Ellington didn't just point to someone to solo after the sax chorus - Barney Bigard improvises above and around Carney's light, beautiful statement of the melody. It doesn't really sound to me like Bigard quite grasps the harmonies Ellington plays behind him, but he plays what he knows, and that's good enough. And there's something different going on in the alternate take. It sounds like the brass players are using a different kind of mute - straight mutes in the master take and cup mutes in the alternate, maybe? A minor masterpiece, sez I. And since it was from the same session, I listened to "It's Glory" before "Mystery Song." I had either forgotten or never noticed that it's Ellington's take on the chords of "Sweet Sue."

Picked these up on 78 yesterday to enhance my listening pleasure, had the choice of three copies of Creole Rhapsody, went for very clean Brunswick UK, the 2 Victors were obtained in early UK HMV 78s which both appear to date from 1932 , so I'm guessing they're first issues. As for the music particularly enjoyed Limehouse Blues Jeffery is jealous.

Well, I guess that's better than the jazz musician joke with the punchline, "Your pizza's here." And since I offended someone here recently with a joke, I'll try to take this one in stride.

Well, I feel that I've said so many stupid things in the last few blindfold tests that I was going to take a break. But you managed to both flatter me and throw down the gauntlet - so I'm in for a download.

Not me, anymore.

Knights of the Steamtable George Russell Lydia Lunch

"Cool Rock" was only issued years after Ellington's death, on a Laserlight CD of the same name. It's a legit issue, authorized by the Ellington estate and with liner notes by Stanley Dance. The piece sounds like the kind of thing Ellington probably dashed off in 45 minutes, which means it's still better than much big band jazz. It's got a real Basie flavor, down to Duke's spare piano interjections, and Sam Woodyard plays one of the tastiest shuffle beats I've ever heard throughout. Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams are the soloists, so there you go. It's kind of a throwaway piece Ellington tried and discarded, and it's still pretty great.

I have this on CD; Marsh's playing is outstanding, even by his standards.

Just wanted to reiterate my opinion that this CD, A New Orleans Visit Before Katrina (Arhoolie), contains 20 minutes of the best New Orleans brass band music recorded in recent years - three tunes by the mighty Treme Brass Band. The Treme consists of Benny Jones on snare drum, Uncle Lionel Batiste on bass drum, and whoever they could get for the gig. On this occasion, they put together a great group, including Kermit Ruffins on trumpet, Corey Henry on trombone, Stack Callier on tenor, and British clarinetist Sammy Rimmington. The music was recorded in 2005 on parade, and is much more exciting than anything from the Treme's three studio albums. This is what a New Orleans brass band really sounds like on the street, down to the the grand marshall's whistle trying to clear the dancers out of the street ahead of the band. The rest of the album is pretty good Louisiana music, too.

Thanks, paps. Thing is, I listened to the Brunswick recording of "Creole Rhapsody" about a week ago, and still didn't hear the blues form and content of the trombone duet theme. After all those years of listening, I had never noticed that until tonight.

Listening to singers that can actually sing? Ten years or so I made a joke at Dylan's expense to a guitarist friend. His response to voice his theory that the four pillars of American pop singing are Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Dylan. It was really pretty hard to argue with, and I've listened to Dylan differently ever since. My vinyl right now: Sunny Murray - Big Chief (Eremite reissue) Murray was really developing as a composer at this point.

I'll start with "Creole Rhapsody." I've loved this piece from the first time I heard the 1931 Brunswick recording - and I kind of expected not to like it. I'm sure most folks here know the basics about it, but in case anybody doesn't: It's Ellington's first "extended" composition, recorded in January, 1931 in a six-minute version for Brunswick that took up both sides of 10" 78. He recorded a revised version six months later for Victor; this one took up both sides of a 12" 78 and was over eight minutes long. I've always like the Brunswick version better - until tonight. Now I'm not sure. The Brunswick version has three main themes, along with some interludes and transitions. The first theme is a simple, syncopated fanfare over which various soloists improvise, the second theme is a blues, and the third theme is an odd trombone duet. The first theme is just perfect for an extended composition - it's simple, memorable, and lends itself to variation and development (think of the first theme of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony). In the Brunswick version, it keeps coming back in different guises and with different soloists. It's the skeleton which holds the piece together, in my opinion. It was the third theme, the trombone duet, which surprised me tonight. It's always been my least favorite section of the Rhapsody; even though I thought it was cool that Ellington used unusual phrase lengths, I always thought that it sounded forced and stilted. Tonight I "heard" it for the first time - it's a blues! The harmonies are somewhat altered, but it's a blues. Instead of having three four-bar phrases, like most blues, it has two five-bar phrases and a six-bar phrase. (That last might be thought of as a four-bar phrase with a two-bar tag.) I love it! I now hear how that theme fits into the rest of the piece - it only took me twenty-something years. The Victor version replaces that third theme with a different one, a beautiful slow melody introduced by Artie Whetsol's trumpet. From the point that melody appears, two and a half minutes into the piece, it dominates the rest of the Victor performance. The first theme loses much of its importance - it never appears again in full, although it's hinted at in some very subtle ways. There's also an up-tempo section featuring Johnny Hodges in the Victor version - I hear this as an interlude, rather than a full-fledged theme (if it matters). As good as the new third theme is, I've always thought that its dominance of the last two-third of the Victor recording weakened the balance and unity of the piece. Tonight I'm not so sure. It's a different approach to the construction of the piece, but I'm not sure it's really inferior to the Brunswick. Another obvious difference between the two versions is tempo. The Brunswick version is played at a constant tempo throughout; the Victor version uses a different tempo for each section of the piece. There's a lot to be said for each approach. The steady tempo helps give the Brunswick a sense of unity, but that approach wouldn't have worked with the Victor's more varied set of melodies. And the band handles the tempo changes wonderfully - they really have the piece down by the time of the Victor recording, even with the changes Ellington made. I don't know that "Creole Rhapsody" is a masterpiece, but it's pretty good. Not only is it Ellington's first extended composition, but I guess it's the first real attempt to compose a jazz piece beyond the three-minute limit. And Ellington uses the elements that make jazz unique (like improvisation, individual tone colors, rhythmic approach) in an organic way - it certainly doesn't sound like Gershwin or Grofe. Sorry about the length of this post - I've been listening to and thinking about this music for many years, and it's still revealing things to me.

There are so many layers to this one. The mind reels....

My first reaction - too many near-masterpieces in one fell swoop here....

I'm very sorry to hear this. As an Atlantan, I always loved that Brown's Georgia roots informed so much of his music - the blusiness of "Buttermilk Bottom" (his tribute to a now-defunct Atlanta neighborhood, "Afternoon of a Georgia Faun's" ethereal nostalgia, the country-informed "Sweet Earth Flying." He was a deep thinker, an outstanding composer, and he had an original, distinctive playing/improvising style on alto. So long, Marion.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Birthday-Forever Excellent 58!

You don't. I have 28. Curse you, Big Beat Steve!

Inspired by TTK's hip, progressive Creative World thread: Stan Kenton - Fire, Fury and Fun (Creative World) Latter-day Kenton, from 1974, with Tony Campise and Peter Erskine in the band.

Well, I don't have as many CDs as Chuck, but do I win the Kenton 78 count with 18 discs? I also have a handful of CDs and a handful of LPs. I'll say thumbs up, and it took me years to come around to this position. I pretty much dismissed Kenton for a long time, but over the years I heard more and more music from him that struck me not just as interesting, but really amazing. After I heard "Themopylae" I was willing to forgive a lot of lesser moments.

The last one of these I know anything about is "Blue Jean Beguine." The recording I have is from a 1954 Gene Norman concert. In his spoken introduction, Ellington claims that it was dedicated to Norman, but I have my doubts - sounds like he was just flattering the promoter at his concert. It's a Cat Anderson composition and feature. It doesn't sound very Ellingtonian at all, so I presume that either Anderson did the arrangement himself, or somebody like Dick Vance (whom Ellington bought arrangements from at times) did the scoring. It's a piece of big-band exotica, but it could be anybody's band. I've heard worse Cat Anderson feature tunes, but otherwise it doesn't do a lot for me.

Okay, "Charlie the Chulo," which was from a Barney Bigard small-group date. How come Bigard's sessions were never as good as Johnny Hodges' or Rex Stewart's? It seems kind of unfair - Hodges gets "I'm In Another World" and "Day Dream," while Bigard gets "Charlie the Chulo." That being said, it's got some nice touches to be such a lightweight tune. Ellington does one of his favorite tricks - screwing around with the end of one chorus and the beginning of the next, so that you're unsure for a moment where the division is. And he manages to make four horns sound like more a couple of times. Bigard's got the beautiful New Orleans sound, Ben Webster comes on like gangbusters in his short solo, and there's a nice chase chorus between Ellington and Bigard. Not bad.

I know what folks are talking about with "A Train" and "Don't Get Around." I've heard them and played them so many times that it just gets tiring. Those two tunes are particularly popular with non-jazz bands who want to play a little jazz, and back in my leaner days I would take any gig offered, so I played with a lot of those bands. But if you can step back and listen to the originals with fresh ears, they're pretty amazing. I just listened to "Never No Lament" for the first time in a long time. If it's possible to forget that you've heard the melody hundreds of times, it's full of delights - the ensemble swing is perfect, and like Jim said about "A Train," it's full of changing colors. The sax section sound in particular is delicious. And like Jim, I like the Betty Roche version from Uptown. I don't like the Ray Nance vocal nearly as well - I think it's because I must have seven or eight version with him singing, and they're all the same.