Saturday, 6 January, 17:00 (MST)
They Called Him Duke: The Struggles and Triumph of African-American Pioneer Duke Ellington
Ashley Khan and the CRJO
Hotel Congress, 311E Congress St Tucson, AZ 85701, USA
($20-$40 tickets | 5pm Presentation / 7pm & 9pm Shows) Welcome Ashley Kahn back to the Century Room all the way from NYC joined by a live band! Ashley’s multimedia presentation begins at 5pm, followed by two sets of music by the Century Room Jazz Orchestra
**Duke Ellington**
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington is a cultural giant and a musical pioneer. But why? Other than “Take the A Train”, what music should we remember him for? How many appreciate that he not only created the music that defined (and even named) the Swing era, but that he elevated Black American music to the level of art? How many understand that with his big bands and his compositions, he created a career formula for artistic and economic freedom. How many get that behind his tailored suits and sophistication, he was true revolutionary, using music to push for social justice and equality?
In fact, at a time when creating popular music was one of the few ways an African American artist could achieve a level of self-determination, Ellington’s entire career was a struggle for civil rights and personal respect. With images, music and videos, we will both examine and question his legend, to truly grasp the enduring stature of Duke Ellington and his music.
**Ashley Kahn**
Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning American music historian, author, professor and producer. He teaches at New York University’, co-wrote Carlos Santana’s award-winning autobiography The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light (Little, Brown, 2014), and is a producer of Carlos (2023), the documentary on Carlos Santana. He has written books on two legendary recordings: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, and one on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. His most recent book is George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. He also edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.
Kahn, who was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Jazz Journalists Association, broke into the music business as a tour manager and music festival producer, has held a variety of positions in radio, television, and online businesses. As a journalist, his byline has appeared in many publications and websites, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The New Statesman, and others, and his writing has garnered four ASCAP/Deems Taylor awards, and three Grammy nominations. In 2015, he was awarded a Grammy for his album notes to the John Coltrane release Offering: Live at Temple University, and in 2017, he received the Robert Palmer-Helen Oakley Dance Award for Excellence in Writing from the Jazz Journalists Association.
Details here.
Saturday, 13 January, 14:00 (CET)
Péniche le Marcounet, 14 Quai d'l'hôtel ville, Paris, France
Duke Ellington et La Tradition by Philippe Baudoin
DUKE ELLINGTON ET LA TRADITION :
Quand le Duke s’empare de la tradition, il la respecte et la bouscule tout à la fois, comme on pouvait s’y attendre.
À titre d’exemple : Ellington ne se contente pas d’interpréter magistralement Tiger Rag en 1929 sur deux faces de 78 tours ; il s’empare de cette fameuse structure harmonique pour composer au moins six nouveaux thèmes regorgeant d’inventivité.
Mais il emprunte aussi d’autres formules harmoniques tellement traditionnelles qu’elles n’ont pas de nom. Issues du folklore ou du ragtime, on ne les repère pas forcément à première écoute : résultat d’un savant travail d’enfumage typiquement ellingtonien. Je me suis livré à un exercice de décryptage, qui vous permettra de les découvrir.
Puis nous écouterons quelques versions de morceaux de jazz ancien qui, sous les doigts du Duke, ont acquis une nouvelle jeunesse (Frankie and Johnny, St. Louis Blues, Careless Love, etc).
(When the Duke seizes tradition, he respects it and shakes it up at the same time, as one might expect.
For example: Ellington not only masterfully performed Tiger Rag in 1929 on two sides of 78 rpm records; he takes advantage of this famous harmonic structure to compose at least six new themes brimming with inventiveness.
But he also borrows other harmonic formulas so traditional that they have no name. Coming from folklore or ragtime, we don't necessarily notice them at first listen: the result of a skillful work of typically Ellingtonian smoke. I carried out a decryption exercise, which will allow you to discover them.
Then we will listen to some versions of old jazz pieces which, under the Duke's fingers, have acquired new youth (Frankie and Johnny, St. Louis Blues, Careless Love, etc.)
Details here.
Sunday, 21 January, 15:00 (EST)
Ellington Effect Workshop Series No. 35: It Don't Mean A Thing
David Berger
Get a ticket here, or an annual membership here.
David Berger writes...
Composed and arranged by Ellington, Irving Mills is credited with the lyrics, but clearly the title, which in three short years would become America’s mantra, was Bubber Miley’s credo. By the time this piece was written and recorded, Miley had drunk himself out of the band—he was fired in 1929 and died of tuberculosis on Welfare Island in the spring of 1932 less than six months before this classic recording was made.
Although Black bands such as Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, the Blue Devils, and Bennie Moten had been swinging for years, the Swing Era officially began for White America in the summer of 1935 with Benny Goodman’s success at the Palomar Ballroom in California. The term “swing” entered the American vocabulary and became in Albert Murray’s words, “our national imperative”. It Don’t Mean A Thing is one of the earliest uses in a song title. Other titles using the word “swing” soon followed in abundance.
The basic aaba chord progression shares the same a section as Everybody Loves My Baby with a Honeysuckle Rose bridge. Ellington employed modernistic sophisticated chromatic chord substitution on the a sections.
The spirited vocal is by Ivie Anderson in her recording debut with Ellington. When Ellington decided to add a female vocalist to the band, his choices boiled down to Mae Alix and Ivie Anderson. Mae Alix was more well-known, but Anderson was darker complected, which Ellington felt would present less problems with the White public.
Anderson would remain with the band for 10 years, leaving due to chronic asthma, whereupon she returned to her native Los Angeles and opened Ivie’s Chicken Shack. She did a bit of performing with other bands, but the road proved too much for her. She died in 1949 at the age of 45.
Ellington often cited her excellent diction, but her pitch, rhythm, and personality (both musical and in every other way) were also on the highest level. Though not really a scat singer, she could rise to the occasion in small doses when called for, as on this tune.
This record was a major hit, and It Don’t Mean A Thing was quikly covered by thousands of bands. It stayed in the Ellington book for his entire career in the form of new arrangements and remains a jazz standard to this day. After Ellington’s death, It Don’t Mean A Thing was used in the Ellington Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies in an arrangement I ghosted for Al Cohn.
Personnel:
Recorded February 2, 1932, NYC. One take for Brunswick B112044-A (later released on Columbia).
Reeds: Harry Carney (alto/baritone saxes), Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Barney Bigard (tenor sax/clarinet),
Trumpets: Arthur Whetsel, Cootie Williams, Freddy Jenkins
Trombones: Tricky Sam Nanton, Juan Tizol
Guitar: Fred Guy
Piano: Duke Ellington
Bass: Wellman Braud
Drums: Sonny Greer
Lawrence Brown is listed in Timner as his first recording with Ellington, but there are only two trombones on this track. Evidently, the arrangement was written before Brown joined the band.
Soloists: Nanton (plunger tbn), Ivie Anderson (vocal), Carney (bari sax), Bigard (clarinet), Alto Solo
Form (key of C):
Intro: 10 bars
Trombone Solo: 32 bars (aaba)
Vocal Melody w/Bari and Clar solos: 32 bars
Alto Interlude 24 bars (12 bars repeated)
Alto Solo: 32 bars (Sax/Tbn Bridge)
Shout Half Chorus: 16 bars
Vocal Recap: 20 bars (8-bar bridge+12 bars final a + tag)
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