A great deal of Ellington’s music is programmatic, attempting to describe specifi c places, people, or events. As a rule, programmatic music is most suc-cessful when it can be appreciated with no knowledge of the subject. For ex-ample, it is not necessary to know that Beethoven set out to depict a pastoral scene, complete with sudden storm, in his Sixth Symphony to appreciate the logic and beauty of his music. Th is is also true of Ellington’s arresting “Black and Tan Fantasy”; still, its tongue-in-cheek attitude is more compelling if we understand his satirical point.
Unlike the Cotton Club, which refused to admit blacks, other Harlem clubs catered exclusively to African Americans. And some, which were regarded as a pinnacle of liberality, invited members of both races; these were known as the “black and tan” clubs. Ellington’s piece has been interpreted as a response to the idea that these small, overlooked speakeasies absolved a racially divided society. “Black and Tan Fantasy” contrasts a characteristic twelve-bar blues by Miley with a fl ouncy sixteen-bar melody by Ellington. Miley’s theme, the black part of the equation, was based on a spiritual he had learned from his mother. Ellington’s, the tan part, draws on the ragtime traditions that lingered in the 1920s. As the two strains merge in a climactic evocation of Chopin’s famous “Funeral March” theme, the piece buries the illusions of an era. While the black and tans disappeared, the “Fantasy” remained a steady and much revised number in Ellington’s book—an American classic.
7455_e05_p110-137.indd 135
7455_e05_p110-137.indd 135 11/24/08 3:07:07 PM11/24/08 3:07:07 PM
136 ■ CHAPTER 5 NEW YORK IN THE 1920s
LISTENING GUIDE
black and tan fantasy
DUKE ELLINGTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Duke Ellington, piano; Bubber Miley, Louis Metcalf, trumpets; Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton, trombone;
Otto Hardwick, Rudy Jackson, and Harry Carney, saxophones; Fred Guy, banjo; Wellman Braud, bass;
Sonny Greer, drums
■ Label: Victor 21137; The Best of the Duke Elling-ton Centennial Edition (RCA 63459)
■ Date: 1927
■ Style: early New York big band
■ Form: 12-bar blues (with a contrasting 16-bar interlude)
What to listen for:
■ the growling timbre of Ellington’s horns
■ clash between blues harmony and contrasting pop-song material
■ the expressive use of mutes by Miley (trum-pet) and Nanton (trombone) in their solos
■ Ellington’s stride piano
CHORUS 1 (12-bar blues)
0:00 Over a steady beat in the rhythm section, Miley (trumpet) and Nanton (trombone) play a simple, bluesy melody in the minor mode. The unusual sound they elicit from their tightly muted horns is an excellent example of timbre variation.
0:25 A cymbal crash signals the appearance of new material.
INTERLUDE (16 bars)
0:26 The harmonic progression suddenly changes with an unexpected chord that eventu-ally turns to the major mode. The melody is played by Hardwick (alto saxophone) in a
“sweet” style, with thick vibrato, a sultry tone, and exaggerated glissandos.
0:38 During a two-measure break, the band plays a turnaround—a complicated bit of chro-matic harmony designed to connect one section with the next.
0:42 Repeat of the opening melody.
0:54 The horns play a series of chords, then stop. The drummer plays several strokes on the cymbal, muting the vibration with his free hand.
CHORUS 2
0:58 Over a major-mode blues progression, Miley takes a solo. For the fi rst four bars, he re-stricts himself to a high, tightly muted note.
1:06 Miley plays expressive bluesy phrases, constantly changing the position of his plunger mute over the pixie mute to produce new sounds that seem eerily vocal (wa-wa).
CHORUS 3
1:23 Miley begins with a pair of phrases reaching upward to an expressive blue note.
1:25 The cymbal responds, as if in sympathy.
1:26 In the next phrase, Miley thickens the timbre by growling into his horn.
CHORUS 4
1:47 The band drops out while Ellington plays a cleverly arranged stride piano solo.
1:51 The left hand plays in broken octaves: the lower note of each octave anticipates the beat.
1:58 Ellington plays a striking harmonic substitution.
CHORUS 5
2:11 Nanton begins his solo on tightly muted trombone.
2:15 He loosens the plunger mute, increasing the volume and heightening the intensity of the unusual timbre.
2:27 Nanton precedes his last phrase with a bizarre gesture, sounding somewhere between insane laughter and a donkey’s whinny.
1.20
7455_e05_p110-137.indd 136
7455_e05_p110-137.indd 136 11/24/08 3:07:07 PM11/24/08 3:07:07 PM
DUKE ELLINGTON BEGINS ■ 137
Perhaps the quickest way to appreciate the amazing progress jazz made in the 1920s is to listen to “Black and Tan Fantasy” back-to-back with Jelly Roll Morton’s “Dead Man Blues,” which also involves a satiric fantasy that invokes death and was recorded the previous year. Th e diff erences between them ex-ceed their key musical techniques—Morton’s polyphony and Ellington’s call and response. Far more signifi cant is the diff erence in perspective. Morton’s piece looked back, celebrating the traditions from which he sprang. Elling-ton’s looked at the present in a provocative way that promised a vital future.
In the music of Ellington and other composers and instrumentalists who achieved success in the jazz world of Prohibition New York, we hear little def-erence to jazz’s Southern roots. Th eir music channeled the city’s cosmopoli-tanism: it’s smart, urban, fast moving, glittery, independent, and motivated.
In liberating jazz from its roots, the Ellington generation is ready to take on everything the entertainment business and the world can throw at it. Th is sense of a second youth, of a new start, became a motive in the development of jazz, as each subsequent generation strove to remake it in its own image.
CHORUS 6
2:36 Miley returns for an explosive bluesy statement, featuring quick repeated notes. Each phrase is answered by a sharp accent from the rhythm section.
2:50 As the harmony changes, the band enters, reinforcing Miley’s moan.
CODA
2:57 With Miley in the lead, the band ends by quoting Chopin’s “Funeral March”—returning the piece to the minor mode.
ADDITIONAL LISTENING
George Gershwin / Paul Whiteman Rhapsody in Blue (1927) (Pristine Classical, MP3)
Bert Williams “Nobody” (1906); The Early Years: 1901–1909 (Archeophone 5004)
Art Hickman “Rose Room” (1919); Art Hickman’s Orchestra: The San Francisco Sound, vol 1 (Archeophone 6003)
Paul Whiteman “Whispering” (1920); Paul Whiteman: Greatest Hits (Collector’s Choice)
“From Monday On” (1928); Bix Restored, vol. 2 (Origin Jazz Library BXCD 04-06) Fletcher Henderson “Dicty Blues” (1923); Fletcher Henderson: 1923 (Classics 697)
“King Porter Stomp” (1928); Fletcher Henderson (Columbia/Legacy 074646144725) James P. Johnson “Carolina Shout” (1921), “Keep Off the Grass” (1921), “Worried and Lonesome Blues”
(1923); James P. Johnson, 1921–1928 (Classics 658)
“Charleston” (1924); Carolina Shout (Biograph BCD 105)
Duke Ellington “East St. Louis Toodle-oo” (1926); Early Ellington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings, 1926-1931 (GRP)
“Creole Love Call” (1927); Best of the Duke Ellington Centennial Edition:
The Complete RCA Victor Recordings, 1927–1973 (RCA-Victor 63459)
7455_e05_p110-137.indd 137
7455_e05_p110-137.indd 137 11/24/08 3:07:07 PM11/24/08 3:07:07 PM
7455_e06_p138-163.indd 138
7455_e06_p138-163.indd 138 11/24/08 3:13:22 PM11/24/08 3:13:22 PM
CURRENT A HEAD ■ 139
■ LOUIS ARMSTRONG (1901–1971)
Louis Armstrong is the single most important fi gure in the development of jazz. His ascension in the 1920s transformed the social music of New Orleans into an art that, in the words of composer Gunther Schuller, “had the potential capacity to compete with the highest order of previously known musical expression,” one in which musicians of every geographical and racial background could fi nd their own voice. He remains the only major fi gure in Western music to infl uence the music of his era equally as an instrmentalist and a singer. Within a decade, he codifi ed the standards of jazz, and his infl u-ence did not stop there. It penetrated every arena of Western music: symphonic trumpet players worked to adapt his bright vibrato, and popular and country performers adapted his phrasing, spontaneity, and natural sound.
Armstrong was also one of the most popular musicians of the twentieth century—the man who, more than anyone else, conveyed the feeling and pleasure of jazz to audiences throughout the world. Th e matter of his popularity is important, because it had cultural and political ramifi cations beyond music. Th ough raised in unimaginable poverty and racial segregation, he was able to present his music in a generous way that exhilarated