The Duke

1
The Duke

• His gift lay in the inspiration he shared with
  his musicians
  
• He composed and arranged for particular
  instrumental voices
  
• He thought of musical textures in terms of
  colors
  
• He composed on the run
• the band often made suggestions while rehearsing
• composed 952 works including
• 3 sacred concerts
• 21 suites
• 3 shows
• 3 movie scores
• a ballet

2
The Dukes Musicians

• very loyal
• career and their lives
• Trombonist Joe Nanton (died at age 44) spent 20
  years in the band
  
• Saxophonist Johnny Hodges spent 40 years with the
  Duke
  
• Billy Strayhorn 29 years
• Saxophonist Harry Carney spent 40 years in the
  band (died 6 months after the Duke)
  
• Ellington returned their loyalty and paid them
  well
  
• in 1951 Industry average was 2500 per week
• the Duke paid 4500 per week

3
The Dukes Early Years

• b. Washington, D.C. April 19, 1899
• nicknamed Duke by a friend while still in grade
  school
  
• began study of the piano after being hit
  accidentally with a baseball bat
  
• discovered that playing the piano attracted the
  girls
  
• turned down an art scholarship from NAACP in 1917

4
The Dukes Early Years

• Formed a small band, acted as his own agent and
  owned his first Cadillac and house before he was
  20
  
• 1923 went to New York - band hired by the
  Kentucky Club - stayed 4 1/2 years
  
• jungle sound (introduced by trumpeter Bubber
  Miley in 1925) became one of the bands theme
  sounds
  
• 1926 - began to sell compositions to Irving
  Mills
  
• Mills became Ellingtons manager - booked the
  band and arranged for recordings (and received
  45 of the proceeds)

5
The Dukes Early Years

• 1927 - the Cotton Club (Harlems top nightclub
  during the prohibition era)
  
• Gradually increased the size of the orchestra
  from 9 to 15
  
• Johnny Hodges, alto sax, joined in 1928
• Bubber Miley (dying of tuberculosis)was replaced
  in 1929 by trumpeter Cootie Williams
  
• Jaun Tizol (trombone) in 1929
• Lawrence Brown in 1932
• The band attracted all kinds of virtuoso talent
• Recordings widely distributed in Europe
• European tours in 1933, 1939, 1948

6
Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967)

• Association with Billy Strayhorn began in1939
• Strayhorn became known as Swee Pea
• His first composition for Duke was Lush Life
• wrote many tunes for the band including
• Something to Live For
• After All
• Take the A Train
• Played piano with the band
• Impossible to distinguish his playing from Dukes
  without looking at the liner notes

7
The Duke

• Many personnel turnovers in the 1940s and 1950s
• Cootie Williams joined Benny Goodman in 1940 (but
  returned in 1962)
  
• 1942 - Jimmie Blanton died
• The band still flourished as Duke replaced the
  musicians with great players including
  
• Paul Gonsalves and Clark Terry
• The Duke wrote many memorable compositions
• full-length stage show Jump for Joy
• appeared in two films

8
The Duke

• Big band popularity began to slip by 1950
• July 7, 1956
• Newport Jazz Festival
• Gonsalves played 28 choruses
• Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue
• Piano - Duke Ellington
• Alto sax - Russell Procope and Johnny Hodges
• Trombone - Britt B. Woodman, Quentin L. Jackson,
  John Conrad Sanders
  
• Bass - James Woode
• Drums - Sam Woodyard
• Trumpet - John W. Cook, Willis R. Nance, Clark
  Terry, William Cat Johnson
  
• Tenor sax - Paul Gonsalves, James Hamilton
• Baritone sax - Harry H. Karney

9
the 1960s

• Probing different musical areas
• suites with African, Far Eastern and other themes
  such as
  
• Harlem
• The River
• Played with traditional great players
• Louis Armstrong, Count Basie
• and with new wave musicians
• Charles Mingus, John Coltrane
• Became obsessed with music and allowed nothing to
  interfere with it

10
Harlem

• composed in 1950 aboard the Ile de France
• Ellington said it was a commission by Arturo
  Toscanini as part of a Portrait of New York
  Suite
  
• Ellingtons band recorded it in 1954
• 1955 Don Gillis performed it in Carnegie Hall
  with the Symphony of the Air

11
from Music is my Mistress

• We would like now to take you on a tour of this
  place called Harlem. It has always had more
  churches than cabarets. It is Sunday morning. We
  are strolling from 110th Street up Seventh
  Avenue, heading north through the Spanish and
  West Indian neighborhood toward the 125th Street
  business area. Everybody is nicely dressed, and
  on their way to or from church. Everybody is in a
  friendly mood. Greetings are polite and pleasant,
  and on the opposite side of the street, standing
  under a street lamp, is a real hip chick. She,
  too, is in a friendly mood. You may hear a parade
  go by, or a funeral, or you may recognize the
  passage of those who are making Civil Rights
  demands. (Hereabouts, in our performance, Cootie
  Williams pronounces the word on his trumpet -
  Harlem !)
• Performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra,
  Neeme Jaravi, conductor (Chandos 9226) or the
  Duke Ellington Orchestra (Jazz Heritage 513583L)

12
The Last Days

• Diagnosed with lung cancer
• Toured Africa and Europe and conducted his Third
  Sacred Concert in Westminster Abbey in 1973
  
• Worked on his opera Queenie Piein the hospital
  where he had a piano in his room
  
• Queenie Pie Reggae
• Died on May 24, 1974

13
The Ellington Orchestra in a Sacred Concert

• Awards
• Duke and his band voted top jazz organization
  76 times
  
• 119 awards
• 15 honorary degrees

14
Illustrations of Ellingtons diverse composing
and arranging skills

• The Classic Ellington sound
• In a Mellotone and Ko-Ko were recorded by the
  same personnel in 1940
  
• place responsibility on soloists
• demonstrate composing and arranging skills
• illustrate the responsibility Ellington placed on
  his musicians
  
• controlled expression, especially from the brass
  section through the use of mutes
  
• used by black bands to give them a bluesy quality

15
The Classic Ellington Sound

• In a Mellotone
• features Cootie Williams and Johnny Hodges
• Williams builds his solo around the increasingly
  active sax section so that it sounds like a
  spontaneous dialogue
  
• the sax section plays from a written score
• excitement builds as the soloists know what is
  going to happen in the score
  
• note the jungle sound
• recorded in 1940

16
timeline for In a Mellotone

• .00 Piano intro, bass fills
• .12 Saxes play melody in unison, fills by bones
  in soli, rhythm section is bass and brushes on
  snare
  
• .41 2nd chorus, same scoring
• 1.08 Piano interlude
• 1.10 Cootie Williams straight and plunger, saxes
  fill in, balanced dialogue
  
• 1.43 Growl in solo
• 1.54 more growls in solo, saxes more active
• 2.10 Tutti
• 2.17 Johnny Hodges uses double-time phrasing
  piano plays accmpt for the first time
  
• 2.32 Brass play long notes in accmpt
• 2.36 Solo break in double time
• 2.45 Solo remains in double time
• 2.54 Tutti band plays melody, solo fills by alto
  sax
  
• 3.09 End

17
The Classic Ellington Sound

• Ko-Ko
• features two trombonists Juan Tizol (first
  chorus) and Joe Nanton (straight mute and
  plunger)
  
• band plays a rare complicated back-up to
  Ellingtons piano solo
  
• Jimmy Blanton - walking bass solo
• the fills are shouts for the entire band
• Ellington was one of the first band leaders to
  use the bass as a solo instrument
  
• Ellingtons melody and unusual arrangement were
  very bold in the 1940s

18
timeline for Ko-Ko

• .00 Intro, bari sax plays low note, bones play
  short chords
  
• .12 Muted bone plays melody, sax soli fills
  (call-response)
  
• .30 T-bone solo (straight and plunger), bone
  section plays chords w/open and closed bell
  technique, piano plays chords as fills
  
• .48 Another solo chorus for T-bone
• 1.05 Saxes play in unison, T-bones punch, piano
  uses dissonant chords and angular scales
  
• 1.23 Tutti chorus all play complementary ideas,
  thick texture
  
• 1.42 Tutti lead-in to bass solo
• 1.44 Bass solo fill (walking)
• 1.53 Tutti fill
• 2.00 Shout chorus, saxes play melody, brass play
  long loud dissonant chords
  
• 2.17 Fade, bari sax returns to low notes
• 2.30 Ending
• 2.35 End

19
The Innovations of the Ellington Band

• Many arrangements were a collective effort
• Arrangements were built around the players
• The band developed new organizational concepts
  for the soloists
  
• use of the concerto format inspired by classical
  music
  
• the Sacred Concerts retained the Ellington sound
• Jungle Style
• a trumpet and trombone technique using throat
  growls
  
• Cuban or Latin Jazz (Caravan )
• The band is a monument in jazz history

20
Recommended Ellington

• Ellington at Newport (July 7, 1956)
• Columbia CK 40587
• The Duke Ellington Orchestra (Mercer Ellington ,
  conductor 1987)
  
• GRP - 9548
• Ellington/Basie - First Time (July 6, 1961)
• Columbia CK 40586
• Suite from The River (1971,recorded 1992)
• Chandos CHAN 9154
• Harlem ( 1950,recorded 1992)
• Chandos CHAN 9226
• Duke Ellington London - The Great Concerts
• Jazz Heritage 513583L

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Duke Ellington video