I finally finished the new biography of Duke Ellington (Gotham, 2013) in which I have been engrossed for weeks. This is a scholarly work, with lots of biography meat for a reader to sink their teeth into, plus notes, bibliography, discography, and photos. Lots of photos. Ellington's life is not candy-coated here; Teachout lets us know that we might not have liked this "Aristocrat of Jazz" had we met him. He was a womanizer who cheated on his wife and his mistresses, and refused to give the long-suffering Mrs. Ellington a divorce. (Reportedly, this was in order to supply an excuse for not marrying the girlfriends who came after her.) He was a procrastinator who wouldn't finish his musical compositions until the very last minute, so his musicians would have to be accurate sight-readers in the studio or on the stage--there was rarely time to practice one's part. He also liked to use melodies and riffs that he heard his band members come up with without giving them credit or later on paying them a measly $25.
But now that we have those negatives out of the way, Duke Ellington is widely regarded as the best jazz composer of the twentieth century, and some go so far as to call him his century's most innovative composer of music, period. He's the one who standardized jazz big band instrumentation after years of experimentation with the sounds of the instruments in various combinations: four (or five) trumpets, four (or five) trombones, five saxophones in three or four sizes with some doubling on clarinets, and a rhythm section consisting of drums, guitar, bass, and, of course, the Duke himself on piano. It was in Ellington's band that the tuba was replaced with the string bass for a warmer sound. His band's sound was innovative because of this instrumentation, but also because Ellington composed differently. Rather than composing melodies and harmonizing them with colorful jazz chords, he wrote, according to Teachout, in a mosaic style. He composed songs in modules that he rearranged while disregarding the traditional rules of musical composition and form.
One of my favorites, "Satin Doll" (listen to that bass! and those saxophones!)
This unorthodox style brought him success. President Nixon awarded him the Medal of Freedom in 1969, and in 1999 (for his hundredth birthday) he was awarded a special Pulitzer posthumously. Ellington was a gentleman and was asked by the State Department to tour the world with his band as jazz ambassadors. Sweet gig, huh? Guess what, though: Ellington did not like the word 'jazz' and preferred to be referred to as a 'musician' or 'music composer.'
His career had its peaks and valleys. Last week in this blog, I focused on his Harlem Renaissance (1920s and early 1930s) heyday. Big bands fell out of favor eventually, and Ellington tried to compose longer, more complex works for Broadway shows, symphonies, and ballet. The Ellington band had all but faded out of the public's eye when they appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956 and blew the roof off the place. Have you seen the 1959 movie "Anatomy of a Murder"? Ellington scored some of that film's music. Ellington was a man of faith, and tried his hand at sacred music, too, with some success. Here's a clip from one of those sacred music concerts...
Duke Ellington performed with his band until just a few weeks before his death from lung cancer in 1974. He was remembered as a man who took care of his family, bringing his parents, sister, and son to live at Sugar Hill (New York) with him as soon as he was able. He took care of his musicians, paaying them well and shielding them from racial discrimination when they toured in the early days. Rather than trying to find hotels willing to accommodate the Black musicians, they traveled in their own Pullman train cars!
This is a substantial book, rich in detail about Ellington's life, the places he lived and played, and the times in which he lived. When I read a big book like this, I like to create a mind map to remind myself of its interesting parts. Take a look:
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