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Duke and Ellington and Bubber Miley
‘Duke’ Ellington
(1899-1974)
Widely regarded as one of the leading
figures in American Jazz in the period
from the 1920s until his death in 1974.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQp
ZT3GhDg
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1899-1974
Washington to New York
American jazz composer, bandleader
and pianist.
He was for decades a leading figure in
big-band jazz and remains the most
significant composer of the genre
“the most significant composer of the genre”
Successfully combined innovative
elements of jazz with the dance band
format.
 Creative use of instrumental timbres,
orchestration, and other compositional
devices.
 Use of extended and/or complex forms.
 Ellington was a major contributor to the
repertory of jazz and to the “jazz language.”
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“a leading figure in big-band jazz”
Ellington was also successful as bandleader:
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He hired players with distinctive playing styles
and wrote tunes that featured them.
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Some of his players stayed with the band for
decades.
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Appearances in films (Black and Tan Fantasy,
Check and Double Check, Anatomy of a
Murder).
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Distinctive musical style(s), including the
“jungle sound.”
Ellington’s Early Career
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Serious about music as a teenager and learned
to play the piano, began emulating local ragtime
pianists.
Formed his own group “Duke Ellington’s
Serenaders” and, by 1920, was making enough
at music to support his wife and son
Moved to New York in 1923 with the
“Washingtonians,” a group that included Sonny
Greer, Otto Hardwick, and Artie Whetsol. He later
added Bubber Miley, Tricky Sam Nanton, and
Harry Carney
Pieces such as East St. Louis Toodle-O (1926)
and Black and Tan Fantasy (1927)
New York in 1923
He began his career playing in dance
bands around Washington DC, before
moving to to NY join a small band called
the Washingtonians.
 Here he was exposed to the full range of
new jazz styles, notably Harlem Piano,
the blues, New Orleans and Chicago
jazz styles.
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Cotton Club 1927
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Many of Ellington’s early pieces were
written for revues and tableaux staged
at the Cotton Club, in Harlem, where the
band was in residence for five years
from 1927.
Many of Ellington’s pieces were exotic in
character, utilizing the “jungle sound for which
he was noted.
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The Cotton Club (1927-32)
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one of New York's premier nightspots, located in
Harlem at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue.
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Frequented by celebrities and socialites. Listeners
nationwide could hear Ellington’s orchestra via
broadcasts on NBC.
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The band expanded to 12 pieces – 3 reeds, 3
trumpets, 2 trombones, piano, banjo/guitar, bass,
and drums.
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Ellington recorded over 180 “sides” between late
1927 and early 1931, including The Mooche (1928)
and Mood Indigo (1930).
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Black and Tan Fantasy is an example of
Ellington’s ‘Jungle’ style, created to
accompany ‘African culture’ floor shows
at the Cotton Club,
The “Jungle Sound”
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Most characteristically, the growling sound of Bubber
Miley’s plunger-muted Trumpet - This ‘growl’ effect is
produced using a combination of straight mute, a
‘gargling’ noise in the throat, and a plunger mute to
shape the sound (“wah-wah” effect)
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Reeds (especially clarinets) in extremes of the
registers
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featuring heavy drums, low saxophone textures
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Use of the tom-toms and other “special effects” in the
drums
Expressive and varied
As it was created with a floor show in mind
it had a more expressive and varied
purpose than jazz for social dance,
allowing Ellington to experiment with
sonorities and structures that were new to
the genre, so becoming a form of concert
music.
 It appears in the film Black and Tan
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy4CL2L
0ono
A study of contrasts- both within
and outside the piece.
The title.
 The main theme adapts a white spiritual
(The Holy City), turning it into a minor
blues.
 The 12-bar minor blues contrasted with
8-bar phrases not in blues form.
 Chopin’s “Funeral March”.
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imaginative
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new tone colours within the big band
line-up, extending the ‘reeds- plus-brass’
combination into a much more
imaginative sound world.
Bubber Miley
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He wrote specifically to exploit the skills
of the players in his band. For example,
in Black and Tan Fantasy, the Trumpet
Solo work is for Bubber Miley
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Focus on the individuality of the
improvised solo sections, are all
fingerprints, even at this early stage, of
Ellington’s mature style.
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The line-up :
Piano- Duke Ellington
Trumpets- Bubber Miley and Louis Metcalf
Trombone- Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton
Saxophones - Otto Hardwick, Rudy Jackson,
Harry Carney
 Banjo- Fred Guy
 Bass - Wellman Braud
 Drums - Sonny Greer
After Black AND TAN
The Swing Era (1933-1942)
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(1943) English bandleader Jack Hylton brought
the Ellington band overseas for performances in
Britain, Holland, and France.
Performances in dance halls, theaters, and clubs;
radio broadcasts; recording; film appearances.
In addition to extended works such as Black,
Brown and Beige, Ellington continued to compose
shorter works (limited by the 3 minute format of the
78 RPM record) such as Harlem Air Shaft, Cotton
Tail, and Main Stem.
Billy Strayhorn joined Ellington as arranger,
composer, and pianist in 1939; he remained until
his death in 1967. Strayhorn contributed such
works as Take the “A” Train.
The 1940s and 1950s
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On January 23, 1943, Ellington performed his extended
work Black, Brown, and Beige at Carnegie Hall. Ellington
performed there several more times over the next few
years.
In contrast to the relative stability of personnel during the
thirties, Ellington's orchestra experienced a great deal of
flux in the mid-to-late forties. Ellington left the Victor record
company in 1946 and, after a short time with the Musicraft
label, signed with Columbia.
Economic pressure and changes in musical preferences
caused problems for big bands.
Ellington continued to turn out longer works as well as the
music for the Otto Preminger film Anatomy of a Murder.
Ellington's triumphant appearance at the 1956 Newport
Jazz Festival
The band continued to travel in the US and in Europe
(1950, 1958, and 1959).
1960-1974
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Ellington continued to write, record, and tour.
He received numerous awards, prizes, and honorary
degrees.
Several international tours, including Europe, the Middle
East and India in 1963, Japan in 1964, Latin America and
Mexico in 1968, and the Soviet Union in 1971. These
journeys sometimes inspired new compositions, as with the
Far East Suite (1964), the Latin America Suite (1968), the
Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (1970), and the Goutelas Suite (1971).
Ellington composed music for three Sacred Concerts
between 1965 and 1973.
He recorded with various other musicians, among them
Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, and
such younger luminaries as John Coltrane, Charles Mingus,
and Max Roach.
His memoirs, Music is My Mistress, were published in 1973.
Ellington passed away from cancer on 24 May 1974.