EKE BBB

DAVE TOUGH

SLIDE HAMPTON

STUFF SMITH

COLEMAN HAWKINS

ZUTTY SINGLETON

SLAM STEWART

PAPA JACK LAINE The Reliance Brass Band in 1910. left to right: Manuel Mello, Yellow Nuñez, Leonce Mello, Seated: Jack Papa Laine, Baby Laine, Clink Martin, Tim Harris.

Under permission.... Let´s start with Artists already "biographied" (does this "palabro" exist?) by patricia. TRUMMY YOUNG

Word! PD may be a "character", but he´s a nice guy, who has made me discover tons of wonderful music. Wish he were (here and at AAJ) posting again.

Stride piano. Lots of ticklers on my CD-player lately: Fats, James P., the Lion, Lambert, Roberts, Sutton, Wellstood... And Duke´s always in heavy rotation at my place...

Billions of thanks for your superb bio of Coleman Hawkins... looks like this is going to be one of the best threads round here! Maybe we could add a few photos...

Actually there are a lot of good standards I never get tired of... These are some of my "most repeated standards": Body and soul What is this thing called love Yesterdays The man I love Lover man I cover the waterfront Willow weep for me Take the A train Tea for two All the things you are St. Louis blues I´ll remember april Just one of those things Honeysuckle rose Night and day You go to my head Embraceable you After you´ve gone Mood indigo I can´t get started with you ´round midnight I got rhythm On the sunny side of the street How high is the moon Caravan I got it bad (and that ain´t good) Perdido Stardust Night in Tunisia Some might be considered "jazz standards" as oposed to Tin Pan Alley songs. Note there "a few" Ellingtonia up there!

Randy Weston select

Can´t choose only one, Milan! I love the Jungle music period, the Blanton/Webster era, and even the transitional period (mid-to-late fourties)... Early fifties, the Newport years, the 60-70´s (where Duke composed some of my favorite suites)... I like the small group recordings, the big band sound.... I even love those weird vocals through the fourties... Studio, live, broadcastings, transcriptions, private sessions.... Song form recordings, larger form recordings (concertos, suites), sacred music... With good sound quality, with poor sound quality... Simply just can´t pick one!

Mine was the Django Reinhardt set, not so long ago

A good guide to vocals included through the recorded Ellington can be found at A DUKE ELLINGTON PANORAMA website (click "Vocalists" link)

I think my favorite vocals in Ellingtonia are Adelaida Hall´s wordless singing in 1927 (October, 26) version of "Creole Love Call" for Victor

Happy B-day, Dex!

Great thread, patricia. Another good chance to read your valuable bios! May I suggest BEAN/HAWK? Or should I suggest a drummer?

May I bring this old BNBB thread ´bout SweatPea´s contribution to the orchestra and how he changed Duke´s compositions? Note Chuck hasn´t changed his opinion…

Ellington was somehow criticized because his vocalists didn´t get the high standards of his instrumentalists. What do you think about it? Here´s an excerpt from an article by Robb Holmes, including a few Ellington quotes from "Music is my mistress": Ellington had his imperfections, both personally and musically. It has been noted by others that his vocalists rarely lived up to the high standards of his instrumentalists. Many writers have wondered at this, but Duke explained it, perhaps unwittingly, in his memoirs. When he discusses singers, Duke repeatedly picks one aspect for praise: "a tribute to her diction and articulation" (Joya Sherrill)... "every word was understandable" (Betty Roche)... "I should mention first his clear, understandable enunciation" (Al Hibbler)... "his perfect enunciation of the words gave the blues a new dimension" (Joe Williams). Diction was all-important to Ellington. In his memoirs, he recounts how Miss Boston, the principal of his elementary school, "would explain the importance of proper speech.... When we went out into the world, we would have the grave responsibility of being practically always on stage.... She taught us that proper speech and good manners were our first obligations, because as representatives of the Negro race we were to command respect for our people." He learned his lesson well, and he applied it to his singers. Duke never insisted that when Johnny Hodges blew a note, the listener had to be able to tell immediately whether it was an E- flat or a D. It has been said that one of his most important innovations was in deploying his instruments as though they were voices, but he seems to have been unable to treat his voices as instruments. He chose his singers at least partly on the basis of a non-musical consideration, and it showed. Apparently, Billie Holiday did not pass the test. (She recorded with Duke once, at the age of sixteen.) Perhaps Ellington's attitude toward singers represents a lapse in his usually impeccable taste, but even so, it was an integral part of his personal value system, which drove him to rise ever higher, becoming a sophisticated citizen of the world and a composer of the first rank. And for all that his method of choosing singers may have been flawed, he did not choose so badly. Ellington's vocalists suffer in comparison with his instrumental voices, but they can be compared favorably to most band singers of the era. Ivie Anderson, Betty Roche, Herb Jeffries, Al Hibbler... each had his or her strengths, and each produced some memorable performances. Even so, it is worth noting that Duke's most memorable vocal recordings are those in which diction is irrelevant: the wordless vocals, from Adelaide Hall's plaintive wail on Creole Love Call in 1927, to Kay Davis's 1947 solo on Transbluecency, to Mahalia Jackson's hummed final chorus on Come Sunday in 1958.

Jungle music: the Cotton Club Era One of my favorite (is there any non-favorite, period?) eras from the Duke Ellington big band. I love their Jungle music, Bubber´s sound with the plunger mute, Nanton´s growling trombone, the smoother tone of Whetsol, Bigard´s brilliant clarinet, the first gems added by Hodges and Cootie... Ellington, with the irreplaceable help of their colleagues, composed some of his landmarks: East St. Louis toodle-oo (it was the Band´s theme, long before "A-train"), Black and tan fantasy, Jubilee Stomp, Down in your alley blues, Creole love call, The blues I love to sing, Black beauty, The mooche, Swampy river, The blues with a feeling, Double check stomp, Mood indigo, Rockin´ in rhythm... Fortunately for us, they recorded millions of sides! These are my recommendations for their recorded work: -Recordings made for Brunswick and Vocalion, now owned by MCA: Every existing recording Ellington made for Brunswick between 1926 and 1931 is included in the three-disc set, Early Ellington (Decca Jazz GRD-3-640), including several alternate takes. A number of the same recordings can be found also on The Brunswick Era, vol. 1 1926-29 (Decca MCAD-42325) and vol. 2 1929-31 (Decca MCAD-42348). -Those made for Columbia, Okeh and others, now owned by Sony: The Columbia holdings are represented by a two-disc set, The Okeh Ellington (Columbia C2K 46177), covering the years 1927-30. Very good sound. -Recordings made for Victor, now owned by BMG: Selected Victor recordings recordings have been released on three CDs: Early Ellington, 1927-1934 (Bluebird 6852-2-RB); Jungle Nights in Harlem, 1927-1932 (Bluebird 2499-2-RB); and Jubilee Stomp (Bluebird 66038-2), which covers 1928-34. Of course, if you have the Centennial Edition box... DON´T BUY THESE BLUEBIRD CDS!!! -The best way to cover 1924-27 years could be Classics 539 (24-27). This disc includes ten sides that predate the first Brunswick session, three of which are Ellington co- compositions, interesting for collectors or Ellington freaks (do you know any Ellington Freak? )

For the "neatly linked" operation: Another two recent Ellingtonian threads One for the Ellington fans - the vocalists The Strayhorn planet So, discuss all Duke here, except vocalists and SweetPea...

Thanks for starting this thread, ubu!

No duplication at all. The Frog vol.2 "Kansas city breakdown" ends on July 18, 1929 session and the Hep set begins with October 23, 1929 session.