Ellington-a-thon

[Chuck Nessa]

Only one of the problems when dealing with downloads.

[JSngry]

• Purple Gazelle - 1962 [Duke Ellington]

aka "Angelica" when played w/Trane... that whole Afro Bossa album is a severely underrated/overlooked (imo) gem. There's a sustained depth of melodic & textural development that the "lesser" suites don't always display. This one of the "lighter" pieces, but it's in no way "lightweight", not with the voicings used, some of which are very, very "out". Yet another example of how in EllingtonWorld a perfectly good (or even great) song can take on the character of an "orchestral composition" thanks to the inventive and wholly idiosyncratic Ellington/Strayhorn ear for individual tonal colors used in conjunction with "dissonance".

[Chuck Nessa]

What Jim said.

Afro Bossa is a treasure chest to be explored for years.

[JSngry]

No shit. If there was ever a better synergy with Jimmy Hamilton than "Silk Lace", I've yet to hear it. I mean, that whole piece is just...beyond perfect. People who dig Horace Silver's more "advanced" works should check this one out. Hell, everybody (yeah, EVERYBODY!!!) should, it's that good a piece.

And you can download it for SIXTY-NINE CENTS from Amazon!!!

Save a trip to the turntable!

[jeffcrom]

Ellington-a-thon: 8

[Georgia Grind - 1926 [spencer Williams]

First of all, I've always loved this tune. It's an old blues, the tune sometimes known as "Shake That Thing." Spencer Williams may cleaned it up a bit and copyrighted it, but it's older than him. "Mama, mama, look at sis - she's out in the backyard, shakin' like this. She's doin' the Georgia grind."

I think of Ellington's recordings prior to the November, 1926 Vocalion session which produced "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" as kind of "prehistory." The ones I'm familiar with don't sound much like Ellington to me, but like an anonymous hot dance band. Ellington's "Georgia Grind" was recorded in March, 1926 for Perfect, and it's pretty dated compared to the music that came just eight months later. There's a corny fanfare introduction, then Ellington gives the tune a long-meter treatment, which means that the rhythm section is going twice as fast as the melody, so that it's a 24-bar blues instead of the usual 12 bars. This gives the tune a nervous feel; it kind of bounces rather than swings.

The band was expanded somewhat for this date. Bubber Miley was in the band by this point, but he's not on this session; he's replaced by two pretty anonymous trumpeters, Harry Cooper and Leroy Rutledge. Don Redman is added to the reed section, and has a decent solo on clarinet; I wonder if he had any input into the arrangements. The high point of the recording is probably Ellington's piano solo - it's really impressive, sounding a little like Fats Waller.

[jeffcrom]

New World A-Comin’ - 1943 [Duke Ellington]

"New World A-Comin'" was inspired by Roi Ottley's book of the same name, which (somewhat prematurely) predicted better conditions for black Americans after World War II. It was premiered at Ellington's December, 1943 Carnegie Hall concert, and a 1945 concert version from Evansville, Indiana was issued on V-Disc. There's a version for symphony orchestra, which I haven't heard, and Ellington played a solo version in the first Sacred Concert. It's basically a 12-minute concerto for piano with band.

I have a better opinion of this piece than I did 24 hours ago; I gave the V-Disc version a couple of listens and the Sacred Concert solo a spin. It's put together pretty loosely, but the main theme keeps coming back to hold things together. The piano part is kind of florid, but really doesn't get too far away from the melodies of the piece. Some of what seemed like flashy rambling at first made more sense with repeated listening. If I think of the piece as kind of a rhapsody for piano and jazz orchestra I can enjoy it and not be bothered by the loose construction.

The 1965 solo version from the Sacred Concert is shorter, but still presents all the sections, as far as I can tell. With no sonic contrast to the piano, it's a little harder to listen to - I can see it sort of running all together if you're not really paying attention.

A worthy piece, better than I remembered. And it's one of the least jazz-oriented things Ellington ever wrote - which is not a value judgment, just a description.

[A Lark Ascending]

New World A-Comin'

I think I first heard this in a strange concert at the London Jazz Festival in the late 90s that mixed some Weimar German classical takes on jazz with this and 'The River'. My memory could be playing tricks here, but I know Fred Hersch was involved in part of the concert and I'm almost sure he played this. Not sure if it was with orchestra or not. He also did a few Strayhorn pieces from his then contemporary 'Passion Flower' album.

I love the piece - the opening melody is so wistful, sad, ambiguous - in fact the whole piece seems to belie the optimism of the title. Even the rather grandiose ending doesn't seem like triumph but gritted determination.

To my unschooled ears you get that opening melody followed by a number of quite ragtimey themes that get juxtaposed against one another (and the opening theme) before the grand ending.

Listened to the V-Disc version followed by the two takes from the Sacred Concert. I much prefer it without the band - the orchestration tends to play up the grandiosity, making it come across a bit Warsaw Concerto. Played solo it just seems to flow better and feels less intent on shouting out how seriously it wants to be taken.

A fragment is used in a fascinating broadcast on the first of the Treasury discs, the one dedicated to Roosevelt who had just died. That's a very moving sequence all round and the opening theme of NWA-C fits beautifully.

[jeffcrom]

New World A-Comin'

Listened to the V-Disc version followed by the two takes from the Sacred Concert. I much prefer it without the band - the orchestration tends to play up the grandiosity, making it come across a bit Warsaw Concerto. Played solo it just seems to flow better and feels less intent on shouting out how seriously it wants to be taken.

Interesting reaction - I prefer the variety of the orchestral passages to the eight-plus minutes of piano sound, but I certainly understand what you mean.

[jeffcrom]

Ellington-a-thon: 8

VIRGIN ISLAND SUITE - Island Virgin, Virgin Jungle, Fiddler On The Diddle and Jungle Kitty - 1965 [Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn]

The Virgin Island Suite is another of the longer Ellington pieces that goes up in my estimation the more I hear it. My first reaction on hearing it years ago was that it seemed hastily thrown together, even if "Virgin Jungle" had a pretty strong melody. Now I'm impressed with how well the parts flow together, and with what great music Ellington got out of limited resources. (By the way, I took the liberty of rearranging the titles of the movements into the correct order above.)

I've listened to the suite several times in the last couple of days, and the first thing that struck me is that the instrumentation is sparer than I had realized, at least for the first three movements. The first two movements seem to be scored for one trumpet, one trombone (I think), four reeds, bass and drums. "Fiddler on the Diddle" is played by an even smaller group - Ray Nance on violin, three saxes (Procope, Gonsalves, and Carney, I think), bass and drums. The full band is not used until the last movement, and Ellington himself doesn't play at all.

"Island Virgin" is a simple little bossa, played mostly in unision, with only a few harmonized passages. But it gets more and more interesting as it goes along. Ellington's note choices are perfect, especially behind Jimmy Hamilton's clarinet. "Virgin Jungle" is darker and more mysterious, with more great Jimmy Hamilton clarinet. And like I said, it's got an excellent, strong melodic line. "Fiddler" seems like something Ellington just tossed off to feature Nance, but what great three-part writing for the saxes! And "Jungle Kitty" is one of the few Cat Anderson features by Elllington that shows what a great jazz trumpet player he was - most of Ellington's writing for Cat just used his high register melodramatically. Anderson plays pretty high here, but in an organic way - it fits right into what he's improvising.

The suite as a whole has a really nice flow - the "happier" movements (1 & 3) alternate with the more menacing and intense movements (2 & 4). And Ellington saves the full band (and the flashiest soloist) for the climax. Basically a simple piece, but a good one.

"Virgin Jungle" seemed to have had some currency on the jazz scene in the 1980s - it was recorded by James Newton in 1985 and Steve Lacy in 1988. Both are excellent versions - I think Ellington would have liked the colors in the Newton version. And Lacy's version is especially touching in that it's Sam Woodyard's last recording - he died two months after his guest appearance here.

Edited October 29, 2010 by jeffcrom

[papsrus]

What Jim said.

Afro Bossa is a treasure chest to be explored for years.

Put it on the old wish list.

This thread has prompted me to pick up some of the collections of Ellington's early recordings. Among them, the Okeh recordings on this 2 CD set:

Got it used for next to nothing at amazon, and was not expecting much in the way of sound quality after reading about what sounded like the near criminal overuse of noise reduction on these recordings. Gotta say, I'm quite pleasantly surprised. I've heard noticeably worse transfers where nobody blasted the sound engineers.

I suspect there's another agenda at work in some of the criticisms.

[lipi]

And you can download it for SIXTY-NINE CENTS from Amazon!!!

So...did everyone here already know the Reprise Mosaic is available for download at Amazon? It was (pleasantly) shocking news to me:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016O6WBU/

[mjzee]

And you can download it for SIXTY-NINE CENTS from Amazon!!!

So...did everyone here already know the Reprise Mosaic is available for download at Amazon? It was (pleasantly) shocking news to me:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016O6WBU/

It's also available from eMusic for 60 credits:

eMusic

[A Lark Ascending]

Given the discussion above I thought I'd put the whole of Afro-Bossa together for the next installment. I'm not sure if it was intended to be a suite but it seems to have a coherence.

Ellington-a-thon: 9

Afro-Bossa (1963)

• 
  
  
• Afro-Bossa (Bula)
  
• Purple Gazelle (Angelica)
  
• Absinthe (Billy Strayhorn)
  
• Moonbow
  
• Sempre Amoré
  
• Silk Lace (Caline)
  
• Tigress (Telstar) (Strayhorn)
  
• Angu
  
• Volupté
  
• Bonga (Empty Town)
  
• Pyramid (Ellington, Irving Gordon, Irving Mills, Juan Tizol)- 1938
  
• Eighth Veil (Ellington, Strayhorn)- 1946
  

Edited October 31, 2010 by A Lark Ascending

[jeffcrom]

Ellington-a-thon: 8

Cincinnati Daddy - 1929 [Duke Ellington]

I couldn't remember anything about "Cincinnati Daddy," so I went back to the Early Ellington collection of Brunswick recordings. It's mostly a string of solos over a "Ballin' the Jack" type chord progression, although there is a little bit of composed melodic material. Not much to it, but since the solos are by Cootie, Hodges, Tricky Sam, and Bigard, it ain't too shabby. Maybe Ellington (or the record company) thought there wasn't enough to it, because it wasn't released until 34 years later.

Edited November 1, 2010 by jeffcrom

[JSngry]

Given the discussion above I thought I'd put the whole of Afro-Bossa together for the next installment. I'm not sure if it was intended to be a suite but it seems to have a coherence.

Yeah, I used "suite" earlier, but "concept album" is probably more accurate.

[A Lark Ascending]

Back a few steps, but listening twice to the Afro-Bossa/Concert for the Virgin Islands disc, I was really taken by the version of 'Chelsea Bridge' . Some superb tenor there - Gonsalves I assume (Jim's going to tell me it's Jimmy Hamilton!), snaking breathily all over the piece. In fact he seems to be very much centre stage with the other instruments just adding subtle colouring.

And isn't the sound of the bass gorgeous on these discs?

Edited November 1, 2010 by A Lark Ascending

[jeffcrom]

Back a few steps, but listening twice to the Afro-Bossa/Concert for the Virgin Islands disc, I was really taken by the version of 'Chelsea Bridge' . Some superb tenor there - Gonsalves I assume (Jim's going to tell me it's Jimmy Hamilton!), snaking breathily all over the piece. In fact he seems to be very much centre stage with the other instruments just adding subtle colouring.

And isn't the sound of the bass gorgeous on these discs?

Yes, that's Gonsalves. Hamilton and Gonsalves both have strong, meaty sounds, but Gonsalves' is "bushier" if that makes any sense.

I'm going to be late to this party - I ordered Afro-Bossa from one of my local brick-and-mortar stores a couple of days before you posted Chapter 9, based on Chuck and Jim's raves. Not sure when it will be in my hands.

Edited November 1, 2010 by jeffcrom

[A Lark Ascending]

Back a few steps, but listening twice to the Afro-Bossa/Concert for the Virgin Islands disc, I was really taken by the version of 'Chelsea Bridge' . Some superb tenor there - Gonsalves I assume (Jim's going to tell me it's Jimmy Hamilton!), snaking breathily all over the piece. In fact he seems to be very much centre stage with the other instruments just adding subtle colouring.

And isn't the sound of the bass gorgeous on these discs?

Yes, that's Gonsalves. Hamilton and Gonsalves both have strong, meaty sounds, but Gonsalves' is "bushier" if that makes any sense.

I'm going to be late to this party - I ordered Afro-Bossa from one of my local brick-and-mortar stores a couple of days before you posted Chapter 9, based on Chuck and Jim's raves. Not sure when it will be in my hands.

Yes, 'bushier' does make sense - he always sounds to me like he's tumbling beyond the regular...in a very good way! One of the reasons I'm intrigued by him is that he is cited as an influence on our own Tony Coe. You can definitely hear the similarities in Tony's tenor playing.

Hopefully this is a flexible thread - room to post about Afro-Bossa at a later date.

[JSngry]

I had a buddy who used to joke that Paul Gonsalves was so tough that he didn't really have to play any lines to swing, his tone swung hard enough just by itself.

That might have been meant as a joke, but it's pretty much the truth too!

[A Lark Ascending]

Ellington-a-thon 10

• 
  
  
• Barefoot Stomper 1965 [Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn]
  
• Blue Harlem 1932 [Duke Ellington]
  
• Cotton Tail Shuckin’ And Stiffin’ - Hot Chocolate - Cotton Head 1940 [Duke Ellington]
  
• Fleurette Africaine Les Fleurs Africaines - Little African Flowers 1962 [Duke Ellington]
  
• Hello, Little Boy Hello, Little Girl 1950 [Duke Ellington/Chubby Kemp]
  
• Homesick, That’s All 1945 [Gordon Jenkins]
  
• I Hear A Rhapsody 1941 [Dick Gaspare/George Fragos-Jack Baker]
  
• Jamaica Tomboy 1959 [Jimmy Hamilton]
  
• Mademoselle De Paris 1962 [Paul Durand]
  
• My Old Flame 1934 [Arthur Johnson-Sam Coslow]
  

Edited November 6, 2010 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

Fleurette Africaine (Les Fleurs Africaines - Little African Flowers) 1962 [Duke Ellington]

One of my all time Ellington favourites - a sultry, moody glide down an African River. Would make a great theme tune to a film of 'Heart of Darkness' - and wouldn't have been out of place on The Far East Suite moodwise.

The 'Money Jungle' version is, of course superb - despite having an insistent pulse, the trio somehow manage to give it slightly hesitant feel; you get the sense they are feeling their way through and creating on the spot.

I've got lots of other versions, all of which are a step smoother. But it seems to bring out the best in players - the mood and circular feel clearly brings out the poetry in them. Two from Gary Burton (one on Loft Fake Anagram, one on Real Life Hits); a lovely James Newton version from his Ellington disc - The African Flower; an extremely sultry version by Renee Rosnes with marimba off Art and Soul; and a marvellous piano solo version by Vijay Iyer from his recent solo disc.

Hard to have a top ten favourite Ellington tracks - but this one is definitely in my top 50!

That James Newton record also has a great extended jam on Virgin Jungle. And both the Iyer and Newton have fun with Black and Tan Fantasy.

[jeffcrom]

Ellington-a-thon: 9

Afro-Bossa (1963)

I wanted to go back a step, since I got my copy of Afro-Bossa a few days ago and have listened to it several times so far. As others have said, it's quite an album, and does have a lot of unity. The title tune is really remarkable; it's one of Ellington's altered, disguised blues. It reminds me of "Crescendo in Blue" - it steadily builds, not just in volume, but also in complexity and intensity, while exhibiting constantly changing tone colors. It's a wonderful thing.

The point about the tone colors is one of the keys to the whole album, it seems to me. This is one of Ellington's most colorful sets of music. It's amazing what he could get out of a standard dance band instrumentation, although at least half of the story was the amazing group of musicians (with their incredible sounds) that he had.

"Pyramid," first recorded in 1938, was the biggest surprise to me. The Afro-Bossa version makes the original sound like a sketch - there's so much more going on, and (again) the colors are amazing. The 1938 version was built around the unique sound of Juan Tizol's valve trombone, and it's great, but the new one seems so much richer.

The only low point, to me, is "Eighth Veil." I don't like Ellington's Cat Anderson features for the most part, at least the virtuoso, high-note kind of pieces. I much prefer those pieces when Ellington let Anderson be a jazz trumpeter, like "Jungle Kitty" from the Virgin Islands Suite." But as these kind of pieces go, "Eighth Veil" is one of the better ones.

By the way, Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron recorded a version of "Sempre Amore" on their Soul Note album of the same name. They obviously couldn't reproduce Ellington's tone colors, but their version is slow, austere, and beautiful.

[Hot Ptah]

Is that the "My Old Flame" with Mae West on vocal? She sounds very Mae West-like on it, just like she talks in her films. In other words, she does not burst out with a stunningly surprisingly vocal tone. It is a real oddity which I have always liked for what it is.

[jeffcrom]

Ellington-a-thon 10

Blue Harlem 1932 [Duke Ellington]

This one is based on the chords of "A Good Man is Hard to Find," I think - down to the tag that gives "Good Man" such an odd structure. Not a masterpiece, but very nice. It's another "string of solos" tune - Cootie, Wellman Braud, Joe Nanton and Bigard. Nanton's solo is over a short minor-key section thrown in to give the piece some contrast.

To me, the main appeal of "Blue Harlem" is the chorus by the four-piece saxophone section. Ellington had always used a three-piece reed section until this date. Johnny Hodges had replaced Otto Hardwicke in 1928, and when Otto wanted to return to the fold in 1932, Ellington handled the situation in a typically Dukish way - he just added a saxophone to the section. Just about every other big band was using a three-piece sax section at this point; even Benny Carter, whom I had thought of as the father of the four-piece sax section, didn't use four reeds until a year later. And I know that some discographies list just three saxes, but Hardwicke is definitely back.

Edited November 8, 2010 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

Ellington-a-thon 10

Cotton Tail Shuckin’ And Stiffin’ - Hot Chocolate - Cotton Head 1940 [Duke Ellington]

I woke up this morning thinking about this piece. The Ben Webster solo is amazing, and the ensemble variations toward the end are great, but listen to the melody. It's riff-y sounding, but the first eight bars are through-composed. It's swinging, but boppish. The first note is kind of offbeat, literally and figuratively. It's an unusual note with which to begin a melody - it's the second scale degree; the ninth when looked at harmonically. Then, in the fifth bar, the melody lands on on the flat fifth - and that odd note is accented and is the longest note in the melody. It's a simple, yet brilliant melody.