The Duke Ellington Society has adopted the term "usual suspects" to describe the more common of Ellington songs ("Mood Indigo", "Take the 'A' Train", "Solitude", etc.) used in the various covers and tributes that have taken place over the years. Fortunately, there are those that venture beyond the obvious.Tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton's new release is entitled Across the Tracks. His Ellingto...
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I didn't get a chance to post a notice about the Billy Strayhorn special before it aired, so I hope all those interested in Ellingtonia got a chance to see it. It was nice to see anything about jazz on television. My complaint, (and it's one I always seem to have to state ) is that Strayhorn is always built up at the expense of Ellington. Somehow, it doesn't matter that Ellin...
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i love a big new discovery. especially when it's using MOG All Access :)
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Listen to a beautiful tune while you browse the statsYesterday I admitted to being a stick in the mud, when it comes to new music. It doesn't mean I don't like discovering music, it's just that I don't get as much of a thrill from new new records..As you can see from my list, most of my "discoveries" are of the archaeological variety..there's also the tribute listening factor, for artists that...
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Duke Ellington (1899 - 1974) was one of the most influential musicans in the history of recorded music and the greatest figure in the history of jazz. Since his death in 1974, Ellington's popularity has risen in stature among music critics and scholars. Ellington helped elevate jazz to a level reserved solely for classical artists thanks in no small part to his polite, reserved yet always elega...
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He was simply called "Duke." Not after John Wayne, for this smartly dressed man was born long before Wayne had ever appeared in movies under his professional name. His full name was Edward Kennedy Ellington (1899 - 1974). "Duke" became his nickname due to his mother's influence when it came to his major influences coming from elegant women who spoke eloquently and politeness. His father instill...
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Duke Ellington had wanted to extend the length of the average jazz composition beyond the limits of 78 rpm 10 inch discs which ran to about 3 minutes in length and on 12 inch discs with 4 minutes lengths. His first composition on a double sided album was "Reminiscing in Tempo" which was spread onto four 10 inch 78 rpm sides in 1935. It wasn't until 1943 at his first Carnegie hall concert that he e
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"I'm Beginning To See The Light" was composed during World War 2 while Duke Ellington and his big band were staying at the Hurricane Room. Joya Sherrill was the original vocalist on this song's first recording. Richard Hayman writes an exuberant chart that enables Louie Bellson and the Duke to completely swing the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler.
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Duke Ellington liked to call his music "American music" rather than "jazz." And he loved to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category." In this category, he included his musicians in his band, many of whom were well admired musicians in the jazz community. Occasionally, he would write a piece of music with their special signatures incorporated into the compositions. After 1939, he had
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Nobody is sure about just what a "Mooche" actually is much less why this was chosen. However, we do know that Duke Ellington was always experimenting with composition. In this one, "The Mooche" made use, for the first time, the use of the human voice as another instrumental coloring to the already full orchestral pallette. Baby Cox was the vocalist on two record sessions. As with many shadowy c...
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Duke Ellington led his big band from 1923 until his death from lung cancer in 1974. Early on, he had his group of reliable members in his band by 1935 with many more additions down through the years of such great musicians such as Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, Jimmy Blanton and others. Many of these members stayed with the band right up to Duke's passing away in 1974. Son Mercer Ellington organiz...
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"Mood Indigo" was written in 1930 in less than 15 minutes while Duke Ellington was waiting for his mother to finish making dinner. The piece was recorded the next day. It was his first hit. After a powerful beginning by the orchestra, the main melodic theme is played excellently by the Pops Orchestra with Ellington providing some progressive chords. The whole arrangement by Richard Hayman is sm...
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...If you’ve relegated Duke Ellington’s body of work to your Ken Burns incidental music file and consider his contributions to jazz to be a relic like, say, the Rosetta Stone, to be acknowledged as important but now rendered useless to the language because the lexicon has moved past wherever it was previously—if you park your car in that garage, then I’d suggest you pick up a copy of New O
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Duke Ellington and Henry Nemo collaborated in 1938 for a Cotton Club Show in which "I Let A Song Out Of My Heart" was written but then cut. The song that been cut later became Duke Ellington's major hit. Richard Hayman writes a forceful arrangement that leaves room for Duke Ellington and his men Charles Lamb and Louie Bellson to improvise.
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Recorded in October 1928 on the same record date as "The Mooche," "Hot and Bothered" has a faster pace and an effervescent vocalise by Baby Cox with Lonnie Johnson playing with an equally fast yet clean guitar solo. Johnson, on these records, may have been recorded too close but this closeness sounds so right that it's never a bother. Barney Bigard plays a lightning fast performance on his lowe...
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