Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-O"

This article was downloaded by: [University of North Texas] On: 06 October 2013, At: 22:44 Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Jazz Perspectives
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjaz20
Duke Ellington's East St. Louis ToodleO Revisited

Michael Baumgartner Published online: 29 Jan 2013.
To cite this article: Michael Baumgartner (2012) Duke Ellington's East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited, Jazz Perspectives, 6:1-2, 29-56, DOI: 10.1080/17494060.2012.729703 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17494060.2012.729703
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions
Jazz Perspectives, 2012 Vol. 6, Nos. 12, 2956, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17494060.2012.729703
Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Michael Baumgartner
East St. Louis Toodle-O (in its original spelling) is one of the few Duke Ellington works which had accompanied the composer, pianist and bandleader from his very early career up to the 1970s. During his lifetime, Ellington conceived six different arrangements of East St. Louis. The rst of these arrangements was cut to record no less than six times between November 1926 and March 1928, the most of all early Ellington compositions.1 Victor waxed a slightly altered version in late 1927. A third arrangement, part of the repertoire until 1937, was recorded for the rst time in 1930. A completely revised, fourth arrangement has survived as a fragmentary short score (penciled by Ellington) and was recorded in 1937, ten years after the rst version, under the title The New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo for Irving Millss shortlived Master Records label. Ellington wrote a fth arrangement in 1947, which has survived as a Carnegie Hall concert live recording, and as a holograph short score with parts copied by Tom Whaley. A sixth arrangement dates to 1956, recorded on the album Historically Speaking. There is a holograph short score, with partsprobably also copied by Whaley. These six arrangements of East St. Louis are signicant in Ellingtons oeuvre and they give a glimpse into the bands working methods. They further show how a single work servedfor over forty-ve yearsas a playground for experimentation with form, structure, instrumentation, improvisation and solo order. East St. Louis is not the only early composition to which Ellington returned throughout his career. Others that also remained in the bands book are Black and Tan Fantasy, Creole Love Call, The Mooche and Mood Indigo. However, East St. Louis was Ellingtons rst major success which subsequently enjoyed sustained prominence. East St. Louis is by far the most recorded early Ellington composition. Between November 1926 and February 1932, it was released on twelve occasions on various labels. In comparison, The Mooche was released six times in the same time span, Jubilee Stomp ve times, Black and Tan Fantasy four times and Mood Indigo and Creole Love Call each three times. This large selection of East St. Louis recordings allows for an excellent case study, which can address essential questions in regards to
1
Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013
In the same period, Black and Tan Fantasy, in comparison, was recorded four times (including the unissued takes). At this place, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Steven Lasker and Gus Wildi for numerous, valuable contributions, to Walter van de Leur, John Howland, Steven F. Pond, and the anonymous reviewers for many constructive comments and suggestions and to Matthew Evans-Cockle for copy editing this paper.
# 2012 Taylor & Francis
30
the output of the early Ellington band. These concern issues of authorship, improvisational practices in 1920s jazz, and the relation between recordings and live performances that are based on the same scores. East St. Louis was Ellingtons rst moderately complex composition to be recorded. It was written shortly before Black and Tan FantasyEast St. Louis twin composition, as it were, since it has a similar structure. Both works consist of a string of more or less independent sections. East St. Louis incorporates two contrasting sections, almost antithetical in mood. In its earliest arrangement (1926), Bubber Miley plays a bluesy thirtytwo bar AABA theme in C minor over a brooding, repeated eight-bar passage, twice ascending and descending in minor thirds. This theme is contrasted with a more lighthearted, ragtime-tinged C-section, which appears towards the end of the work, rst as a full statement (for two trumpets and a trombone), then as a trio variation (soprano saxophone and two clarinets) and nally abbreviated. Two solos appear between the opening AABA and nal C-sections, rst a trombone solo by Joe Tricky Sam Nanton over the chords of the C-section and then a clarinet solo over the chord progression of the Astrains. The composition concludes with a coda, a restatement of the A-strain with Miley soloing over the eight-bar passage in minor (see Table 1). The rst recording of East St. Louis makes one wonder how Ellington and his band members managed to raise the level of their composing, arranging, and performing in such a relatively short time span. After all, none of the roughly one dozen sides, which the Washingtonians recorded before East St. Louis, demonstrate any of the qualities found in East St. Louis. Most of these tunes are based primarily on standard pop song forms. Without any further access to original scores or playlists from Ellingtons early career, the picture will remain incomplete.
Table 1. East St. Louis Formal Plan Comparison.

Voc (29 November 1926) Br (14 March 1927) Col (22 March 1927) Cam (ca. 8 March 1928) Path (same day as Cam) 3 saxes / p / tuba or b Miley (muted tp) n/a Nanton (open tb) Clarinet solo Brass trio (open?) OKeh (19 January 1928) Vic (19 December 1927)
Intro (vamp on A) A1/A2/B/A1 C3/C2 (solo) on CC (solo) on AA (solo) C1/C2 (full statement) C3 (trio) C2 (full statement) A1
3 saxes / p / b Miley (muted tp) n/a Nanton (open tb) Bigard (cl) Brass trio (open?)
3 saxes / p / b (new scoring) Miley (muted tp) Harry Carney (bar) Nanton (muted tb) Rudy Jackson (cl) Brass trio (open) n/a n/a Miley (muted tp)
2 clarinets / soprano sax Harry Carney Brass trio (open?) Brass trio (open?) Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp)
Note: Voc = Vocalion; Br = Brunswick; Col = Columbia; Cam = Cameo; Vic = Victor.
Jazz Perspectives
31
East St. Louis was Ellingtons third composition after Choo Choo and Parlor Social Stomp which he recorded, but the rst number to radically differ from his earlier recordings, because of its intricate arrangement, the logical compositional ow, and a unique distribution of solos and tutti sections. How much experience in composing did Ellington have prior to November 1926? Did he write other tunes next to East St. Louis, Birmingham Breakdown (recorded at the same date as East St. Louis), Parlor Social Stomp, and the piano composition Jig Walk? Which tunes did he and his musicians play during their live gigs? How many of these works were original compositions? These questions exemplify the kind of murky terrain early Ellington scholars have to navigate. Precisely for this reason, the rst part of this paper produces more questions than answers.
Authorship in Early Ellington Compositions: The Case of East St. Louis Authorship in early Ellington compositions is often hazy. It has remained unclear to what extent Ellington is the sole author of many of his early compositions and whether other band members actively participated in the creation of these works. The genesis of East St. Louis may shed some light on the subject. The copyright credits name Miley as co-author with Ellington. As will be argued below, East St. Louis also bears traces of other contributors as well. To unravel questions of authorship I will begin by exploring the subtle distinctions between Ellington and his band members as composers, arrangers, borrowers, and improvisers. Since no scores or sketches have survived of the two early recorded arrangements of East St. Louis, one can only hypothesize as to who wrote the main melody, the minorkey eight-bar passage, the C strain and trio variation, who arranged the C strain and trio, who determined the order of the solos and the soloists and who had the idea of the main theme recapitulation as a coda, of withholding the C-strain theme until the end, of using contrasting sections, and of initially interpolating the C strain. Miley told his friend, Roger Pryor Dodge, that the inspiration for East St. Louis came one night in Boston as he was returning home from work. Miley kept noticing the electric sign of the dry-cleaning store Lewandos. The name struck him as exceedingly funny and it fashioned itself into Oh Le-wan-dos.2 This event most likely occurred during the rst extended tour to New England in the summer of 1926 of The Washingtonians, Ellingtons early banda few months before East St. Louis was rst recorded.3
Roger Prior Dodge, Bubber. H.R.S. Society Rag (October 1940), 11. See also the respective music example there. Reprint in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 455. 3 According to Mark Tuckers reconstruction in Ellington: The Early Years (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991, 187f.) of their itinerary, the Washingtonians did not play in Boston, but in many places around the capital of Massachusetts, such as Waltham, Brockton, Dedham etc. Since the band headquartered in Salem and Lewando was a dry-cleaning chain throughout the Boston area, Mileys initial spark might have ignited in Salem. Miley must have communicated his discovery to the rest of the band, since Ellington recalled later that every time the musicians saw a Lewando Cleaners sign they would start singing: Oh, Lee-wan-do! (Duke Ellington, in collaboration with Stanley Dance. The Art Is in the Cooking, Down Beat (7 June 1962), 1315. Reprint in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 332338: 335).
2
32
Dodge astutely notes that the minor Lewandos triad hook is prominently audible in Charlie Greens trombone solo on Fletcher Hendersons 1924 recording of W. C. Handys The Gouge of Armour Avenue.4 Greens solo became especially popular with trombonists, and was probably common musical knowledge ever since Green had rst played it, a little more than two years before the rst recording of East St. Louis.5 Pursuing Dodges lead, Mark Tucker concludes that bars 1723 of Greens solo correspond, approximately, to the rst (and closing third) A strain of East St. Louis, and bars 18 of Greens solo to the second A strain.6 Not only are there many resemblances in the melody line, but both solos are also played over an eight-bar strain in minor, muted and at the same tempo ( = circa 163). East St. Louis suggests that Ellington and/or Miley had directly borrowed a melody from another musician. Ironed-out, Greens improvisation became Ellingtons theme. It is not known who composed the accompanying eight-bar opening strain in minor, originally scored for alto, tenor and baritone saxophones and tuba (see Example 1).7 Gunther Schuller attributes the composition of this passage to Ellington.8 While this is plausible (although not proven), it would be equally important to know whether Ellington or Miley harmonized and instrumentalized the A strain (Schuller assumes it was Ellington). Miley may have played a considerably more important role in contributing to early Ellington compositions than usually acknowledged. Trombonist Joe Nanton supports this hypothesis: Bubber was an idea man. For instance, wed have a printed orchestration. . . Bubberd always have some stuff of his own and soon wed have a trio or quartet on the part. . .9 It is unknown whether the Cstrain theme may have been conceived under similar circumstances. The C-strain melody line and accompaniment seem borrowed too. Martin Williams has noted that the C strain suggests one of the themes of Scott Joplins and Louis Chauvins Heliotrope Bouquet (1907).10 Tucker adds that basic outlines of its sixteen-bar chord progression can be found in many songs and ragtime pieces, among them Joplins Maple Leaf Rag, A. J. Pirons I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, and W. C. Handys Memphis Blues.11 Both musicians, Ellington and Miley, were arguably well versed in ragtime and its derivates which were widely played by many New York bands. There is, however, one reason to attribute the authorship of the C strain to Ellington. The harmonization of the C strain is not as much conceived linearly as vertically, which is to say, chordally. It is possible (but not proven) that Ellington developed
Pryor Dodge. Bubber Miley, 253. Ibid., 253. 6 See the comparison of Mileys solo in East St. Louis and the one by Green in The Gouge of Armour Avenue in Tucker, Early Years, 249250. 7 See the transcription of the vamp and theme. 8 Gunther Schuller, Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 327. 9 Inez, M. Cavanaugh, Reminiscing in Tempo: Tricky Sam Goes Over the Great Times He Had with Duke, Bubber, Freddie Jenkins. Metronome (February 1945), 17, 26; reprinted in Tucker (ed.). Ellington Reader, 466. Nanton attributes the composition of East St. Louis solely to Miley (Ibid, 467). 10 Martin Williams, The Jazz Tradition. Second Revised Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 103. 11 Tucker, Early Years, 252.
4 5
Jazz Perspectives
33
Example 1. Opening strain, as played in all early versions (except on Victor). the C strain on the piano, out of an existing ragtime composition, by gradually altering the musical material through a process of improvisation. The result is a ragtime strain, scored in an idiomatic stride piano style, but played both by the brass section and in a variation by the reed instruments. The melodic, closing gure at the cadence is the same as the one that Nanton plays at a cadence in Take It Easy. This use of the same gure in two tunes further suggests that the band streamlined its compositions collaboratively during rehearsals. Borrowings as from Heliotrope Bouquet and Greens trombone solo in The Gouge of Armour Avenue were not uncommon in early Ellington compositions. For instance, the theme of Creole Love Call, played by three clarinets, is based on Jimmie Noones clarinet solo in King Olivers Camp Meeting Blues of 1923.12 Similarly, the rst chorus of Black and Tan Fantasy is based on Stephen Adamss spiritual, The Holy City, and the nal bars quote Chopins Funeral March.13 Furthermore, the organ-like opening section of the Immigration Blues resembles Turner Laytons Dear Old Southland, a 1933 recording in which Ellington quotes the spiritual Deep
Wolfram Knauer, Ellington, Duke, Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 2nd edition, (Kassel and Stuttgart: Brenreiter and Metzler, 20017), col. 269. 13 See, among others: David Metzer, Shadow Play: The Spiritual in Duke Ellingtons Black and Tan Fantasy, Black Music Research Journal vol. 17 no. 2 (Autumn 1997), 137158, here 140.
12
34
River.14 He reused the same spiritual material of the Immigration Blues in the middle section of The Blues I Love to Sing (rst recorded in 1927). The different contributions to East St. Louis shed light on the broader question of authorship in early Ellington compositions. Regardless of copyright credits, it is safe to assume that East St. Louis and probably also other early Ellington compositions were written in a collaborative process that may frequently have involved borrowing material.
Formal Aspects in East St. Louis

The C strain has been dismissed by various commentators. Martin Williams nds it inappropriate, weak, out of place, and perhaps affected15, to James L. Collier it is sunny and a little aimless,16 to Peter Gammond a jovial but slightly inane jumpy rhythm17 and its variationplayed by the reed sectionis to Schuller a trite polka-like phrase.18 Yet this C strain, in fact, the entire structure of East St. Louis, can be better understood when seen in a broader historical perspective. The composition stands at the intersection of New Orleans practices and New York/ Chicago innovations. Ellington is equally indebted to both ragtime and Tin Pan Alley practices,19 as shown in the combination of the thirty-two bar AABA form in C minor and the eighteen-bar C strain in the relative major key.20 The formal structure of East St. Louis markedly differs from Ellingtons other 1926 and 1927 compositions, such as Parlor Social Stomp, Birmingham Breakdown, Hop Head, and Washington Wobble, which all are based on the older ragtime strain-form principles.21 East St. Louis, on the other hand, presents more than just a series of contrasting thematic and key areas, and a string of solos. As Tucker observes, Ellington withholds the secondary theme until the piece is well underway.22 Even though Nanton solos on the harmonic progression of the secondary theme (in the relative major of E) after Mileys thirty-two bar opening chorus, this secondary theme is not heard until towards the end of the composition, performed by the whole band. East St. Louis has a hybrid structure, which places its conception beyond the standard forms of mid-1920s jazz compositions, such as the blues, ragtime multi-strain form, verse-chorus song, and the AABA chorus song. The combination of a blues-inected
Schuller, Early Jazz, 335. Williams, Jazz Tradition, 102. 16 James Lincoln Collier, Duke Ellington, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 112. 17 Peter Gammond (ed.), Duke Ellington: His Life and Music, (New York: Da Capo Press, 1977), 73. 18 Schuller, Early Jazz, 328. 19 This is not to say that Tin Pan Alley writers would not have been inuenced by the ragtime idiom. 20 The AABA form is hardly perceivable, since it only occurs once in its complete form, mostly because the bridge appears only once. 21 Ellingtons original composition, Parlor Social Stomp, which was recorded prior to East St. Louis (in March 1926), follows a ragtime multi-strain-form. The composition is based on the succession of several 16-bar sections: IntroductionABBA1transitionC (trio)C1 (trumpet solo)D (alto sax)D1 (trumpet)D2 (see for a detailed discussion Tucker, Early Years, 157). 22 Ibid., 251.
15 14
Jazz Perspectives
35
melody over the eight-bar passage in minor and the ragtime-inuenced C strain towards the end of the composition, creates a highly effective and original composition, based on stark contrasts between minor and major keys, between somber and light, between solo and tutti sections and between diverse instrumental colors.
First Arrangement: The Kentucky Club Era Tucker assumes that East St. Louis must have been in the Washingtonians repertoire by October or November 1926.23 Even though the initial idea for the composition came in the summer of 1926 the short motif in question probably only grew into a full composition when Irving Mills had made arrangements with Jack Kapp of Vocalion, a subsidiary of Brunswick Records, to record a few Ellington numbers. Indeed, music publisher and songwriter Harrison Smith, who was briey Ellingtons manager, recalled that Kapp asked Duke to knock out a tune for Vocalions East St. Louis trade.24 Ellingtons rst session would be recorded with the General Electric sound equipment which was inferior to the then state-of-the-art Western Electric system. Presumably, the opportunity to record for a somewhat prestigious label for the rst time, with an electric over a mechanical recording sound system, must have given Ellington an additional impetus to submit an extraordinarily well crafted composition.25 Kapp titled East St. Louis at the actual Vocalion session of 29 November 1926, which suggests that the work had probably not been in the repertoire of the Washingtonians.26 Kapp, and perhaps also Mills, may have pieced together the title from a short announcement, published in Variety roughly half a year before the recording date: Jonas Perlberg, dance promoter, has discovered a new dance, the toad-de-lo which he ran across in St. Louis.27 Ellington may have constructed the explanatory anecdote after the Vocalion session, once East St. Louis had become the Washingtonians rst signicant hit:
Ibid., 250. Letter to Marshall Stearns, [n.d.], IJS vertical le. And Irving Mills told Pat Willard, one of Ellingtons publicity people, the same thing (interview with Brooks Kerr, 20 March 1985), Tucker, Early Years, 308. 25 It is not known whether Kapps ledger entries n[ot] g[ood] for A Night in Harlem and Who Is She relate to the inferior quality of the composition, performance or recording. It is, however, known that Kapp rejected the other two Ellington originals recorded that day (Steven Lasker, Booklet of The Original Decca Recordings: Early Ellington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings of Duke Ellington 19261931. 3 CD Set. GRP Records, GRD 3-640, 1994, 39). 26 Tucker, Early Years, 250. See also the facsimile of the respective company ledger in Lasker, Booklet of Original Decca Recordings, 3839. 27 Variety, 9 June 1926, 42. The toddlean African-American dancewas fashionable in World War I and gained widespread popularity among whites in the early 1920s. Derived from an African-American shaking dance, the toddle is closely related to the shimmy and in the 1920s also to the Chicago. The C strain of East St. Louis could be best danced as a toddle. For a history of the dance see: Chadwick Hansen. Jennys Toe Revisited: White Responses to Afro-American Shaking Dances. American Music vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 1987), 119. Tucker discusses the different spellings of toodle-o, as they appeared on the numerous recordings of Ellingtons tune (On Toodle-oo, Todalo, and Jennys Toe. American Music vol. 6 no. 1 [Spring 1988], 8891). See also the last installment of the discourse between Hansen and Tucker: Chadwick Hansen. Reply to Tucker. American Music vol. 6 no. 1 (Spring 1988), 9192.
24 23
36

We were talking about this old man, after a hard days work in the eld, where he and his broken walk [are] coming up the road. But hes strong, in spite of being so tired, because hes headed [home] to get his feet under the table and to get that hot dinner thats waiting for him. And thats the East St. Louis Todalo.28
This idyllic portrayal of the old, hard-working man stands in stark contrast to the events which had actually occurred in East St. Louis, Illinois, nine years prior to the Vocalion recording date. Black, southern migrants, seeking industrial employment in the northern cities to gain economic advancement and freedom from racial injustice, clashed violently with white, local workers reacting to the migration.29 The white rioters, led by brutal ringleaders, intended to cleanse the city of African Americans. Indeed, following the uprising, the population of black residents fell by between 15,000 and 23,000 members, a gure representing more than half of the African American inhabitants of East St. Louis.30 Denise von Glahn argues that, by using East St. Louis as his theme song for a number of years, Ellington subtly kept racial consciousness in the forefront of his work.31 However, since he did not choose the title himself, Ellington in all likelihood did not connect the atrocious events of 1917 with his rst signature tune. East St. Louis quickly gained considerable recognition. It was Ellingtons most popular early work between the release of the Vocalion record on 20 January 1927 and the rst Brunswick recording session a month later, on 28 February 1927. Regular broadcasts as the signature tune from the radio studios of Loews station WHN, as well as the occasional remotes from the Kentucky Club, furthered the commercial success of the Vocalion record. In order to cash in on the songs success, Kapp and Mills recorded East St. Louis one more time and released it on the agship label of the company, Brunswick. Kapps expectations must have been high for the rst Ellington session for Brunswick, since none of the three 28 February takes were issued.32 The next Brunswick date, 14 March was entirely devoted to East St. Louis. The orchestra needed three attempts before a single successful take was recorded. Tucker observed that for the recording session for Gennett little less than a year earlier (30 March 1926) the problems originated in the band:, [t]he lack of ensemble unity . . . may have stemmed in part from the addition of extra players and from inadequate rehearsal.33 However, this no longer explains the cumbersome recording process for the Brunswick date. The band had reached a different level, and had been gaining quite a reputation in New York. Meanwhile, a top manager now supervised the band while its recording sessions were conducted by the leading executives in the record business. With the move
Ellington, in an interview with Jack Cullen for station CKNW, Vancouver, Canada, 30 October 1962. Reprinted in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 338341. 29 Charles L. Lumpkins, American Pogrom: The East St. Louis Race Riot and Black Politics, (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2008), 77 and 74. 30 Lumpkins, American Pogrom, 124. 31 Denise von Glahn, The Sounds of Place: Music and the American Cultural Landscape, (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003), 145. 32 The metal parts were presumably destroyed soon after the session, and no test pressings are known to have survived. 33 Tucker, Early Years, 169.
28
Jazz Perspectives
37
into the limelight, the expectations grew. Ellington and his band members may have been under similar pressures at the third recording of East St. Louis for Columbia, only eight days after the Brunswick session. It took three takes to get a satisfying result, which Columbia released a little less than three months later (10 May 1927).
Improvisational Practice Among Jazz Soloists in the 1920s These early recordings of East St. Louis represent an invitation to address the still unsolved problem regarding the improvisational practice that was customary in early jazz. Jazz scholars agree that solos hardly ever are completely improvised. In fact, in early jazz recordings, solos were often carefully planned, and tended to be based on earlier conceived material. While the macrostructure of the solo would remain unchanged, the soloist could experiment with details, for instance by adding embellishments, or altering phrasing and articulation. Because of its multiple recordings, East St. Louis is one of the few 1920s jazz tunes that offer an excellent vehicle to investigate the genesis of such solos. Nantons trombone solo, in particular, gives a detailed view on how a soloist conceived a memorable solo. Previous commentators have offered contradictory evaluations of Nantons solo in East St. Louis. The trombone specialist Kurt Dietrich, for instance, nds the solo rather jaunty, in stark contrast to the atmosphere of gloom that pervades much of the piece.34 Eddie Lambert on the other hand, observes that Nantons trombone solo becomes notably more vigorous from the Vocalion to the Path recordings.35 Schuller states that Nantons slightly stiff but good-natured solo is the same on the Brunswick and Columbia recordings. Indeed, when listening to the two solos, it is evident that Nanton cultivated a solo style based on only a few notes.36 A comparison of the solos on all seven early East St. Louis recordings further reveals that Nanton plays the same solo every timeexcept on the Victor recording. Still, Berini and Volont claim that Nantons solo on the Path-Actuelle recording is not on the level of the previous versions regarding the execution, taken into consideration the decidedly faster tempo which destroys the theme37 (see Example 2). Hence, the solo in East St. Louis does not grow more vigorous, as suggested by Lambert, but ratherin the words of Schulleronce the improvisations were set, they remained unchanged for a certain period.38 Why the solo is identical on all the recordings except the one on Victor is unknown. Was it Ellington who strove to preserve the shape of the composition once it had been established? Or was it Nanton who decided to stick to a given solo? Were they answering to their audience who may have expected that a solo should sound as heard on the record? Did Nanton decide to play the same solo on recorded versions of East
Kurt Dietrich, Dukes Bones: Ellingtons Great Trombonists, (Rottenburg, Germany: Advance Music, 1995), 28. Eddie Lambert, Duke Ellington: A Listeners Guide, (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999), 9. 36 Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, op. cit., 51. 37 Antonio Berini and Giovanni M. Volont, Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, (Firenze: Ponte alle grazie, 1994), 129. 38 Schuller, Early Jazz, 328.
34 35
38
Example 2. Transcription of Nantons trombone solo, as played in all early versions (except on Victor). St. Louis but would he change it at live performances? Richard Sudhalter offers an explanation as to why early jazz musicians stuck to recorded solos: the need to conserve, to render permanent, seems part of the overall context of the time, logical reaction to a basically fugitive idiom.39 It was, of course, also in the interest of a particular soloist to keep a successful solo unaltered, as it would solidify his originality.
Second Arrangement: The Cotton Club Era The Victor version presents a reworked arrangement. While Tucker has commented that Ellington re-orchestrated the opening strain,40 Schuller has noted a reordering of the individual sections (see Table 1).41 Between Mileys statement of the theme and Nantons solo, Ellington inserts a baritone solo for Harry Carney. Probably in order not to exceed the three-and-a-half minute limit of the ten-inch record, Ellington has omitted the C-strain reed trio and the ten-bar C-strain recapitulation of the tutti brass-section, before Mileys A-strain coda. On the Victor recording, it appears as if one hears rst three consecutive solos, then the tutti brass-section and nally Mileys closing statement, instead of two solos, the tutti brass-section, the reed trio, a shortened recapitulation of the tutti brass-section and Mileys coda, as on the other recordings. This impression is deceiving. Carneys solo on the Victor recording is actually a slightly altered rendition of the reed trio and the recapitulation of the tutti brass-section. In other words, Ellington shifted the nal C strain on the Victor recording towards the beginning of the work, after the opening AABA statement. Since virtually the same musical material is
Richard M. Sudhalter, Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 19151945, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 428. 40 Tucker, Early Years, 253. 41 Schuller, Early Jazz, 3289.
39
Jazz Perspectives
39
played by a single instrument (instead of three), the much criticized nal C strain now seems decisively lighter. Viewed in this light, the 19 January 1928 OKeh recording must be placed between the Victor and the Vocalion, Brunswick and Columbia records. On the OKeh version, Carney plays the same eight bars that appear on the Victor recording; however these bars appear in their original place, that is, towards the end of the piece, before the recapitulation of the tutti brass-section. For the Victor arrangement the tempo has been considerably slowed down. The Vocalion recording is at = 163, and the Victor recording at = 131. While for Schuller the slower tempo drags,42 for Tucker it enhances the mysterious mood for the piece.43 There may also be another reason for the choice of a slower tempo. Ellington and his band recorded for Victor on 19 December 1927, two weeks after they began their tenure at the Cotton Club, on 4 December 1927. The different mood of this version may reect a change in musical taste, since the merry, quasi Charleston feeling of the 1926 Vocalion recording has been replaced by a more somber sound. The Victor arrangement is made shortly after the start of Ellingtons tenure at the Cotton Club, and it conforms to the novel jungle sound, reportedly called for by its management.44 While the jungle is a complex concept that mixes among others primitivism, atavistic African American culture, white modernism, racism, black sexuality, exoticism etc.in the eyes of the white owners of the Harlem clubs, the jungle was a calculated marketing strategy to attract a white, wealthy mid- and downtown Manhattan clientele. Early Ellington compositions such as East St. Louis, Black and Tan Fantasy, and Immigration Blues became associated with jungle music. In particular, the malleability of East St. Louis allowed Ellington to adapt the composition to the aesthetic prerogatives of the jungle idioms. In this respect, the new arrangement on Victor represents the jungle sound par excellence. All the essential ingredients are in place, such as a slow tempo and the mysterious sounding opening strain (now scored lower, in the key of F minor). The new instrumentation no longer calls for three saxophones and tuba in closed-position voicings, but for a mixture of instruments, such as three saxophones in open voicings, piano and bowed double bass, which provides a more colorful timbre. That a jungle sound effect is intended is further suggested by Nanton, who no longer plays his solo open, as before, but muted, with the same growl technique as Miley in the opening section. In addition, Rudy Jackson begins his clarinet solo with a growl too, to continue with a rough tone in the chalumeau register. Finally, the cheerful C strain has given way to Carneys ominous baritone solo on the chord progression heard earlier in the tune. Still, these new features of the reworked arrangement do not indicate a decisive adaptation to meet the various jungle sound clichs. It is possible that this version of East St. Louis was coined to accompany a dance routine. Such a dance number
Ibid, 329. Tucker, Early Years, 255. 44 For a detailed discussion of the jungle idiom, 1920s New York society and Ellington, see Lisa Barg, National Voices/Modern Histories: Race, Performance and Remembrance in American Music, 19271943. Diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2001. See also, in the present issue, Kimberly Hannon, Beyond the Cotton Club: The Persistence of Duke Ellingtons Jungle Style [ed.].
43 42
40
most likely opened the Cotton Club oor show, as East St. Louis was Ellingtons signature tune. One can also assume that Ellington and his band adhered to the same arrangement as recorded on Victor. The duration of this arrangement presents an ideal basis for a tightly choreographed novelty number for chorus girls. The hypothesis that the Victor recording captures the arrangement used for the 1927 Cotton Club show is supported by the fact that at the same date, another tune written for that show, Harlem River Quiver by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, was recorded.45 Both tunesas part of the same showwere recorded to promote Ellingtons new, prestigious engagement as well as Fieldss and McHughs Cotton Club show. East St. Louis, in its new arrangement, was used in Victors aggressive marketing strategy. While negotiating the recording contract with Mills, the company most likely requested a new arrangement from Ellington for their release, knowing that Columbia and Brunswick (the Vocalion version was practically unobtainable at that time) each had their own versions of East St. Louis on the market. Even though Victor was the fourth company to record the piece, it was released almost a year later, on 7 December 1928. Apparently, the dynamics of the record industryEast St. Louiss availability on other labelswarranted the delayed release. In addition to those of Brunswick and Columbia, the market was ooded with the dimestore record version that the Path-Cameo conglomerate made in March 1928, over two months after the Victor session. This rendering (which carried the Vocalion arrangement) was released on four different labels, Path-Actuelle, Cameo (sold mainly in Macys department stores) and their subsidiaries Lincoln and Romeo. A closer look at all Victor Ellington releases in 1928 reveals the labels sales strategy (see Table 2). Before East St. Louis, Victor issued Creole Love Call and The Blues I Love to Sing (both with vocals by Adelaide Hall) as well as Harlem River Quiver and Black Beauty on the hit-sides. On the ip-sides were, respectively, Black and Tan Fantasy, Blue Bubbles, Washington Wobble and Jubilee Stomp. Most of the numbers (on both sides) had never been released. The exceptions are Jubilee Stomp and East St. Louis. The latter was already available on three other labels when it was recorded, and actually on seven labels when it was issued. Since East St. Louis was no longer a new number, but still widely popular, for it was regularly broadcasted and performed live as the signature tune, Victor must have decided to release it because theirs was a new arrangement representing Ellingtons novel Cotton Club style, and, perhaps even more importantly, because the quality of their recording was superior to that of the other labels. For similar reasons, OKeh also delayed the issue of their East St. Louis version. It was recorded on 19 January 1928 and not released until 25 December of the same year. Columbia probably urged its subsidiary OKeh (as of November 1926) to delay the release in order to avoid competition with the issue of the parent company, since
45 Abel Greens review of Harlem River Quiver at Ellingtons debut show at the Cotton Club remarks: One coocher, boyish bobbed hoyden, said to be especially imported from Chicago for her Annapolis proclivities who does the Harlem River Quiver like no self-respecting body of water. The teasinest torso tossing yet, and how! (reprinted in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 31).
Table 2. Ellingtons record releases, 1928 (Victor Records).

Hit-Side Creole Love Call (0) Flip-Side Record Number Release Date Hit-Side Recorded Flip-Side Recorded 26 October 1927 26 October 1927 19 December 1927 26 March 1928 26 March 1928 30 October 1928 Artist Name on Label Duke Ellington And His Orchestra Duke Ellington And His Cotton Club Orchestra Ozie Wares Hot Five
Black and Tan Fantasy 21137 (1) Harlem River Quiver (0) Washington Wabble 21284 (0) The Blues I Love to Sing (0) Blue Bubbles (0) 21490 Black Beauty (1) Jubilee Stomp (4) East St. Louis Toodle-Oo (3) (Got) Everything But You (0) Santa Claus, Bring My Man I Done Caught You Back to Me (0) Blues (0) 21580 21703 21777
3 February 1928 26 October 1927 8 June 1928 19 December 1927 17 August 1928 26 October 1927 5 October 1928 26 March 1928 7 December 1928 19 December 1927 21 December 1928 30 October 1928
Number in parenthesis: tune available on other labels at the date of the recording session
Jazz Perspectives
41
42
East St. Louis had gained such popularity under its original title.46 Evidently, neither renaming East St. Louis to Harlem Twist nor changing the bands name to Lonnie Johnsons Harlem Footwarmers succeeded to disguise the true origins of the recording. The new title builds on Harlems reputationprimarily geared towards white audiencesas magnet where the Cotton Club and other speakeasies were located, and where the nightlife promised skimpy-clad light-skinned girls and frantic jazz music. While the Footwarmers were presumably an invention of OKehs marketing department, Lonnie (Lonzo) Johnson did indeed exist.47 The delay of Victors and OKehs release of the East St. Louis recordings might be indicative of the commercial success that the composition had achieved. On the other hand, these record companies may have realized too late that the market was ooded with East St. Louis records from other labels, all produced within the time-frame of only a year and a half.
Third Arrangement: East St. Louis Without Bubber Miley After Ellington had recorded East St. Louis seven times in two different arrangements between late November 1926 and early March 1928, the tune had moved into the background in the early 1930s, presumably because of a steady growth of the bands repertoire. Nonetheless, Ellington recorded a new arrangement on 3 April 1930 with the Mills Ten Black Berries48 for Velvet Tone and Diva, two Columbia subsidiary labels. East St. Louis was released in their respective race series, 5 June that same year. Much had happened in Ellingtons career since March 1928. He had built up a considerable repertoire with a good number of major hits such as The Mooche, Black Beauty, Cotton Club Stomp, Doin the Voom Voom, and Rent Party Blues. At the same time, the bands radio exposure had grown signicantly.49 In 1929 alone, it appeared in two Cotton Club revues,50 both times with scores by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, as well as in Florenz Ziegfelds production of Show Girl, which ran from 2 July to 5 October. Ellington was also featured in Dudley Murphys nineteen-minute RKO
This assumption is backed up by the fact that the ip-side of OKeh 8638 contains Move Over by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. Since Move Over was issued for the rst time on OKeh 8638, it was no competition for Columbia and could be presented under the orchestras proper name. 47 During his stay in St. Louis, three years earlier, the guitarist won a blues singing contest. The award included an OKeh contract for a series of race records. Since Johnson was a recording artist of the label, the company felt entitled to borrow his name for a record, made with another artist. 48 A stipulation in the Victor contractsigned between the company and Ellington/Mills at the beginning of 1929stated that the label had the exclusive right to advertise Ellingtons records under his own name. For recordings with any other company, Ellington had to use a different name. 49 From December 1927 to February 1929, the orchestra could only be heard locally in New York over WHN and its sister station WPAP (Ken Steiner. Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC: September 1930February 1931, The International DEMS Bulletin (Duke Ellington Music Society) (December 2008March 2009), http://www.depanorama. net/dems/083.htm (accessed 25 August 2010). Then, from 11 February to 23 September 1929, their music was relayed from coast-to-coast over the CBS network with its nationwide afliates, every Monday and Thursday evening (from 6:30 to 7:00 pm) presumably from the WABC station itself and every Wednesday night (at 11 pm) from the Cotton Club (Lasker, Booklet of The Original Decca Recording, 46). 50 Springbirds (opened on 31 March) and Its the Blackberries (opened on 29 September).
46
Jazz Perspectives
43
production Black and Tan, lmed in mid-August, and he participated in no less than twenty-three recording sessions, which made his music available to an even wider audience. During the late 1920s, the line-up of the band changed considerably. Juan Tizol joined the orchestra as a second trombonist in July 1929.51 Ellington further enlarged the trumpet section with Arthur Whetsel (substituting for Louis Metcalf52) and Freddy Jenkins.53 Finally, in January 1929 Ellington dismissed Miley, because of his alcoholism, and consequent unreliability in keeping up with the bands schedule and commitments.54 On Johnny Hodges recommendation, Ellington hired the seventeen-year-old Cootie Williams from the Fletcher Henderson orchestra.55 The departure of Miley made Ellington write a new arrangement for East St. Louis, since the solo part in the AABA section had to be assigned to other instrumentalists. As no other trumpeter could ll Mileys shoes when it came to mutes, Ellington decided to score the A-strain theme for two (or possibly three) trumpets. In addition, he changed the lead in the B strain to a call-and-response passage between the alto and baritone saxophones and muted trumpets (and possibly trombones). He further changed the form of the composition, for the 1930 recording. He considerably simplied the complex structure of the earlier arrangements which are a hybrid between Tin Pan Alley and ragtime (the interlocking of the A, B and C sections). Ellington entirely cut the full brass C-strain statement, the subsequent reed trio and the concluding brass recapitulation, while the solo routines over the A and C strains now only were over the latter. In other words, solos were restricted to the chord progression of the C strain, so that this third arrangement followed the headsolohead structure. Ellington replaced Nantons routine with his own piano solo, followed by Carney on baritone with Whetsel playing a counterpoint on muted trumpet, then Jenkins soloing on open horn and nally Bigard on clarinet. Repeating the C strain four times left considerable room for the soloists.56 A special feature of this new arrangement was Ellingtons unaccompanied Harlem stride piano solo. This arrangement shows both features of 1920s and early 1930s jazz. The headsolo head structure57 with an emphasis on the soloists is indicative that the band moved away from the strain-based form of the 1920s. Yet, the banjo accompaniment, the drums emphasizing two and four, Ellingtons stride piano and Jenkins New Orleans style solo hark back to the 1920s and earlier. The foregrounding of the C strain, nally,
Eddie Lambert and Barry Kernfeld, Tizol, Juan, Grove Music Online, accessed on 3 July 2010. See, for this date, Barry Kernfelds entry Metcalf, Louis in the Grove Music Online, accessed on 20 July 2010. The change from Metcalf to Whetsel must have happened between 25 June and 10 July 1928. Metcalf still attended the Brunswick recording session of 25 June. The 10 July session for OKeh was however played by Whetsel. With regards to the spelling of Whetsels name, it has often been misspelled as Whetsol. 53 Vail, Dukes Diary, part I, 15. 54 Miley missed the recording sessions for Brunswick, on 21 March 1928, when Take It Easy, Jubilee Stomp and Black Beauty were waxed, for Victor on 30 October and 10 November 1928 and for Cameo on circa 5 December 1928. 55 Vail, Dukes Diary, part I, 16. 56 In all likelihood longer and more solos were added for live performances. 57 It is likely that the complete AABA was performed in live performances, and cut here, due to the time limitations of the 78 rpm disc.
51 52
44
lends the arrangement an aura of lightness and exhilaration, which the earlier arrangements lack. Ellington has replaced the dark jungle mood with a lighter tone, which suggests that he has abandoned a deliberate jungle idiom. The buoyant accompaniment characterizes the changing aesthetics of the orchestra in the early 1930s. Ellingtons prolic recording schedule and the regular radio exposure from the Cotton Club had secured him national prominence. The only medium which the orchestra had not yet sufciently exploited was cinema.58 Mills, however, had begun to take steps in this direction by engineering a contract between Ellington and the two comedy radio superstars Amos n Andy for their lm project Check and Double Check.59 Alongside East St. Louis, the lm contains four original songsWhen Im Blue, The Mystery Song, Three Little Words and Old Man Blueswhich were probably all recorded in preproduction by the all white RKO-studio orchestra, in early August.60 The ballroom scene, with East St. Louis as the theme song and followed by Three Little Words, was shot at a soundstage of the RKO Studios in Hollywood on 14 August 1930. Ellington and his orchestra perform these two tunes onscreen during the ball. Beginning with the last two bars of the A-straina compressed chorus-end-introduction61and continuing with the A-strain coda of the Diva/Velvet Tone arrangement, with a ritardando in the last two bars, East St. Louis accompanies a panorama shot of the ball room and acts as a signal for the invited guests to make their way, towards the stage where they are to attend the presentation of Three Little Words. A few months later Ellington and his orchestra were back at the Cotton Club for the winter season. Of the fty-one broadcasts aired from the Cotton Club between 29 September 1930 and February 1931, only six reportedly opened and/or closed with the signature tune East St. Louis.62 A holograph short score63 (conductor score?) (see Example 3) in the Duke Ellington Collection at the National Museum of American History opens with an East St. Louis arrangement which is virtually identical with the one recorded in 1930 and the one for the lm Check and Double Check. This arrangement is the rst number of a three-part medley, including Birmingham Breakdown in the middle and Black and Tan
58 Ellingtons and the bands rst lm appearance were in the short lm Black and Tan, directed by Dudley Murphy, in the previous year. 59 According to Mercer Ellington, this contract came about thanks to the nationwide attention the band achieved from their regular radio broadcastings (Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, 34). 60 Vail, Dukes Diary, part I, 38. 61 Wood, Graham, The Development of Song Forms in the Broadway and Hollywood Musicals of Richard Rodgers, 19191943 (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 2000), 79. A chorus-end-introduction contains the last four bars of the chorus. 62 See the NBC log books (Library of Congress). These log books, with the Corrected Trafc Sheets, list song titles with other details for twenty-seven programs (Steiner, Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC). 63 Pencil short score on A.B.C. STANDARD MUSIC PUBLICATIONS, INC. New York City 12-staves paper, 4 pp. National Museum of American History Archives Center (NMAH), Smithsonian Institution. Duke Ellington Collection (DEC), Series 1, Box 109, Folder 9. This manuscript is one of the earliest surviving Ellington holographs in the Smithsonian Institution. Ellington may have not written down any arrangements before 1930, or the material got lost. From the 1930s on, as the band grew, there was more need for worked out arrangements. Ellington appears to have started to keep his holographs after 1930s. Many of the early manuscripts are sketchy. Ellington presumably used them to write down ideas, shape, overall structures etc., and maybe even have the parts copied out. More scholarly work, however, is required to determine the precise function of early Ellington manuscripts.
Jazz Perspectives
45
Example 3. Short score. Page 1 (of 4). Medley of early 1930s. NMAH, DEC#1, Box 109:9. (Used by permission of the Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution). Fantasy at the end. Ellington notated East St. Louis relatively detailed, Birmingham Breakdown and Black and Tan Fantasy, on the other hand, rather rudimentarily. Black and Tan Fantasy consists only of the rst twelve bars (the A strain), with the theme written down in three-part closed harmonies. Birmingham Breakdown
46
follows immediately after East St. Louis with a sixteen-bar introduction in C minor for the ensemble.64 The two breaks in bars 56 and 1314 feature an ad lib. passage for Johnny Hodges. As in the 1926 Vocalion and 1927 Brunswick recordings, the twenty-bar A strain in A major, which Ellington requests to be repeated, follows. It is not indicated in the holograph whether the rst A strain is reserved for Ellingtons piano obbligato and the second one with the rhythmicized chromatic chord progression for the brass section as on the Vocalion and Brunswick recordings.65 Ellington has only sketched the four-part chord structure for the saxophone section. His indication Brass close under the staff system leads one to believe that the brass section indeed played the syncopated hot jazz theme on top of the saxophone accompaniment. Ellington, however, does not indicate a repetition of the sixteen-bar introduction, as played on the earlier recordings. The short score segues after the A strain directly into the sixteen-bar B strain. The rhythmicized arppeggiated gure does not follow the syncopated version as in the two 1920s recordings, but is notated in straight crotchets with Ellingtons remark Lag.66 These crotchets correspond to Cootie Williamss solo of the 1937 version of The New Birmingham Breakdown which the band recorded for Master.67 The two stop-time breaks are to be lled with a short ad lib. lick by Hodges. Ellington requests a return to the A strain, followed by a repetition of the B strain. The sketch, however, does not reveal whether the A strain is to be played only once and the B strain twice as on the Vocalion and Brunswick recordings. In addition, Birmingham Breakdown does not end with two blues choruses as on the two 1920s recordings but with another, eight-bar break to be lled by Hodges, before a ve-bar chromatic passage, presumably for the saxophone section (Ellington labels one of the four voices with Ten[or]), leads into Black and Tan Fantasy. What purpose did Ellington create this score for, and when did he write it down? Is it possible that Ellington and his orchestra played this arrangement live? The playlists reveal that the medley was not performed on the road in the 1930s. Such an absence does not indicate with complete certainty that they had never played the arrangement live, since the playlists of the 1930s are scarce and sketchy. A second question concerns the issue why Ellington and his orchestra did not record this score. A quick survey through the recording history of the three medley compositions between the late 1920s and the next decade sheds light on the question. Ellington and his orchestra did not record Birmingham Breakdown between February 1927 and March 1937 (the month they recorded The New Birmingham Breakdown). They did, however,
The key of C minor corresponds with the C minor of East St. Louis. Why Ellington abondened F minor and went back to the original key remains unknown. Possibly, it is related to another signicant change: the performer of the lead voice. No longer does the whole trumpet section play the theme, but only Cootie Williams. According to Mercer Ellington, when Whetsel began to lose his lip [in the 1930s], Cootie began to play both lead and solos (Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, 46). 65 Schuller, Early Jazz, op. cit., 334. 66 Tucker, Early Ellington, op. cit., 221. See the transcription in Tucker, Early Ellington, op. cit., 223. 67 See Ellingtons holograph at the NMAH, Series 1A, Box 39, Folder 6, 1 p. Ellington also indicates Lag for the crotchet motive.
64
Jazz Perspectives
47
record Black and Tan Fantasy in the 1930s once before they recorded the new arrangement of The New Black and Tan Fantasy for Brunswick in January 1938. The hypothesis arises whether this sketch score reproduces an unrecorded medley for a Victor recording project launched on 3 and 9 February 1932. The two Victor dates are of particular importance. For the rst time, Ellington recorded two medleys, a format which would become increasingly important in his live performances. The rst included Mood Indigo, Hot and Bothered and Creole Love Call, the second East St. Louis, Lots o Fingers 68 and Black and Tan Fantasy. These longer, seven-to-eight minute arrangements were possible thanks to a new Victor invention, the Program Transcriptions seriesthe rst venture into commercial 33 rpm long-playing recording.69 Berini and Volont nd the 9 February 1932 recording of East St. Louis of notably inferior quality since it misses completely the ingenious inspiration, dominating the earlier recordings.70 However, this version is not much different than that of 1930. Both are in F minor and begin with the eight-bar introduction, followed by AABA. In both recordings, the trumpet section plays the rst and third A strain with growling wah-wah technique, to contrast the second A strain on open horns. However, the tempo of the 1932 version is considerably slower, with = 112 instead of 147 in the 1930 recording. The short score with the medley East St. Louis Birmingham Breakdown Black and Tan Fantasy reveals the same aesthetic concept as the recorded Victor medley, a hot jazz number wedged into the two jungle tunes East St. Louis and Black and Tan Fantasy. The timing between the recorded and sketched medley also corresponds (provided Ellington would have followed the same tempo as on the recordings): East St. Louis is approximately 1:20 minutes long on the 1932 Victor version, Birmingham Breakdown around 2:40 minutes (as on the 1927/28 and 1938 recorded versions), and the sketched fragment of Black and Tan Fantasy would probably have been around 3:00 minutes as on the 1932 Victor recording. Whether or not this short score was the base for a rejected medley for the 1932 Victor project, the medley is remarkable. Ellington combines three of his most important early successes. Since these three compositions were the only 1920s tunes, which Ellington rearranged in a 1930s up to date style for his enlarged band (all with New added in the title), these compositions continued to be an important asset of the bands repertoire in the 1930s.
Ellington had based the harmonic progression of Lots o Fingers on the one of James P. Johnsons Charleston. He also recorded this tune under the alternate title Fast and Furious on 17 May 1932 (Brunswick 6355). The earliest known recording of Lots o Fingers is a transcript from a nationwide broadcasted Cotton Club show little over a year (29 January 1931) before the Victor recording (see Steiner, Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC, op. cit.). All three versions are identical in duration. 69 The records in this series were pressed on a ten- or twelve-inch single-sided standard groove disc, playing at 33 rpm. This early foray into the LP market turned out to be a commercial failure. The production ended in 1933, in part because potential record buyers were forced to purchase a special phonograph, equipped with an electric motor and a special chromium needle in order to properly play the microgroove records. 70 Berini and Volont, Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, 168.
68
48
This short score, the 1930 and 1932 recordings as well as the version in Check and Double Check of East St. Louis reveal that Ellington emphasized the AABA section of the composition. The reduction of the piece down to the opening chorus and omission of the C section show that East St. Louis now primarily was used as a signature tune. Presumably, the band hardly played the full version in the early to mid-1930s, since Ellington and his band performed the abbreviated version on tour. The same short signature version was performed, for instance, during a 1933 engagement at the Cotton Club from 9 March and 31 May. According to Steiner, Ellington opened thirty-two of the Cotton Club shows with East St. Louis, while the signature tune signed off twenty-two shows.71
Fourth Arrangement: The Orchestras Signature Tune Ellington revised the composition in the mid-1930s, together with two others written around the same time: Black and Tan Fantasy and Birmingham Breakdown, adding New to their titles. The New East St. Louis is a testament to much that had happened with Ellingtons music and career in the ten years since the compositions rst release on Vocalion. The New East St. Louis demonstrates how he had developed as a composer, and what he had learned from works as Reminiscing in Tempo, Clarinet Lament (Barneys Concerto), Echoes of Harlem (Cooties Concerto), Trumpet in Spades (Rexs Concerto), and Yearning for Love (Lawrences Concerto). For The New East St. Louis he cut the C strain, to concentrate on the AABA section, now played twice. The rst chorus differs little from the version in Example 2. Cootie Williams plays the theme solo in all three A strains, entering early on in bar 6 of the introduction, which creates a smooth transition into the A strain. The lead voice in the B strain is scored for saxophones in octaves, as in the 1930, 1932 and Check and Double Check versions, as well as in the short score of Example 2. Three sketches show that Ellington was experimenting with the scoring of the opening passage for this 1937 arrangement.72 A rst attempt involves a somber, funeral march-like voicing with numerous major and minor seconds and a peculiar, descending line in crotchets with two appoggiaturas (bar 5). A second score roughly corresponds to the nal version. Of particular interest is Ellingtons verbal indication in the top margin: Drums Roll Cimbal [sic] 1st 8 Temple Blocks 2nd 8 / Hayes Fancy 3/slap Billy Tuba. The drum and cymbal rolls in the rst A strain have been replaced in the recorded version (Master Records 101; 5 March 1937) with downbeat tubular bells (except in bar 5). The temple blocks, indeed, appear throughout the entire rst chorus, playing hoofbeats. The notated bass lineactually the themeis not
For a list with the shows of the twenty-second Cotton Club Parade, in which East St. Louis was performed, see Steiner, Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC: 19321933. 72 Short score, pencil, 2 pp. (1 p. with East St. Louis). NMAH, Ruth Ellington Collection (REC), REC#2, Box 8:5. Short score, 4 pp. (2 pp. with two East St. Louis sketches). NMAH, REC#2, Box 8:5. There is no other composition or part of any composition of the 1930s for which more than one score has survived, to the best of this authors knowledge. Apparently Ellington sought the right orchestral balance for the eight-bar opening passage.
71
Jazz Perspectives
49
played by Billy Taylor on tuba or on any other low-register instrument, probably to stay away from the somber timbre of the rst score. Hayes Alvis, nally, does not emphasize the third beat with fancy slaps, but simply plays a walking bass gure. The third and last score gives the opening eight-bar passage as on the recording, except that Ellington still notates the later, omitted bass line. In contrast with all earlier arrangements, Ellington adds a two-chord, four-voice brass shout, in bars 2 and 4 of each A strain. He also inserts a pick-up gure in quavers (played twice in succession by the trombones in unison, bars 7 and 8 of intro and rst A strain of rst chorus), in order to mark the A-strain cadence. The second chorus reveals the same elaborate and sophisticated arranging style as many other Ellington works of the late-1930s. Three trombones play a variation based on Mileys melody in the rst two A strains.73 In the second A strain, Ellington instructs Bigard to ad lib high clarinet gures in response to the three trombones. The B strain also features Bigard, playing the same melody which the saxophone section performed two octaves lower in the 1930/32 arrangement (see Example 3). Bigard is accompanied by three open trumpets and trombones playing short interjections together. The arrangement ends with the concluding A strain. The saxophones play an eight-note arpeggio variation of Mileys theme in unison, while two trumpets (Stewart and Whetsel)74 and three trombones perform accompanying chords. Ellington recorded The New East St. Louis for Irving Millss short-lived Master Records label, and it became the labels rst release, on 1 April 1937. Since the announcement of Master Records was hot news in entertainment circles, spun by Mills promotion machine, it is likely that Ellington wrote the arrangement specically for the occasion. A few commentators have compared the recording of The New East St. Louis with the earlier recordings of the composition. For Martin Williams, the whole is much better orchestrated, the juxtaposition of the featured soloist against the orchestration and against the other soloists is balanced and proportioned.75 In particular, there is the growth of the orchestra itself, its swing, and the obvious improvements of its rhythm section.76 Williamss assessment of the The New East St. Louis has much in common with that of Hugues Panassi relating to the rst or second arrangement of East St. Louis (most commentators must have had the readily accessible 1927 Victor version in their heads). In Hot Jazz: Le guide de la musique swing et du vrai jazzpublished in English in 1936 as The Guide to Swing MusicPanassi states still before the release of The New East St. Louis that it would not be right to say that arrangements like that in East St. Louis . . . are no
73 Short score, pencil, 2 pp, NMAH, DEC#1, Box 467:1. The fragmented sketch was identied as The New East St. Louis by Edward Green. Only the parts for Cooty [Cootie Williams] and Rex [Stewart] have survived, DEC#1, Box 109:10. 74 Only the second chorus is notated. While Williams pauses during the last eight bars (see part), Stewart and Whetsel play this section alone. 75 Williams, Jazz Tradition, 103. 76 Williamss critique is particularly problematic, since it is printed in the Smithsonian Collection, which is still used as introductory material to the history of jazz in many universities across the United States (Martin Williams, Accompanying Booklet to Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Collection of Recordings. New York: Manufactured by CBS Records, 1987, 65).
50
longer good today; but it is certain that they have become dated.77 Meanwhile Williams, who had much greater distance to East St. Louis, exhibits a teleological understanding of the history of jazz by ignoring that both versions are testimonials of their respective eras. Ellington rmly positioned The New East St. Louis within the swing style, in which the thirty-two bar songs and twelve-bar blues were the most used formulas. The symmetrical form of intro and two choruses (8 + 32 + 32 bars), the balance between the sections, is in keeping with the main characteristics of many swing arrangements. With its luscious orchestration and the obbligato, virtuoso clarinet solo, the bridge of the second chorus in particular recalls similar passages from Benny Goodmans output of the same period. In its novel, sleek arrangement, East St. Louis continued to be the signature tune of Ellingtons orchestra for the remaining years of the 1930s. Typically, it was played with the eight-bar introduction, followed by the two rst A strains, with a radio voice-over. Ellington also performed the new arrangement several times during an engagement at the Cotton Club in the following year. Then, from 1939 to September 1940, we know of only a few more occurrences, in which Ellington and his orchestra played the abbreviated The New East St. Louis.78 In September 1940, during the bands engagement at Chicagos Panther Room at the Sherman Hotel, Ellington replaced East St. Louis with a new signature tune, Sepia Panorama. By that time, the composition no longer represented the sophisticated, progressive style of the orchestra. According to the NBC logs, East St. Louis opened the non-sponsored sustaining broadcasts on the nights of 7, 8, 10 and 11 September.79 Aural evidence, however, reveals that on the night of 8 September Sepia Panorama was the rst composition of the sustainer, as it was for the many remaining shows from 12 September to 13 October.80 At that time Sepia Panorama was fairly new in the bands repertory, for it was recorded in New York City a little over six weeks before the opening in Chicago. Sepia Panorama, however, was not destined to remain the bands theme song for very long. During the so-called broadcasting ban Ellington replaced some of his ASCAP-licensed compositions with new works by Billy Strayhorn and Ellingtons son Mercer. Among these new compositions was Strayhorns Take the A Train, rst recorded for Standard Radio Transcription at the RCA studio in Hollywood (15 January 1941). The rst commercial recording took place a month later (15 February), once again at the RCA studio in Hollywood. By this time Take the A Train must have been the bands new signature tune. An MBS radio program, broadcast from Casa Maana in Culver City the following day (16 February), opened and closed
Hugues Panassi, Hot Jazz: The Guide to Swing Music, translated by Lyle and Eleanor Dowling from Le jazz hot (New York: M. Witmark & Sons, 1936), 178f. 78 Radio broadcast from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Boston, 26 July 1939; NBC broadcast from the Southlands Cafe, Boston, 9 January 1940; and BBC broadcast America Dances, from the CBS radio studios, New York, 10 June 1940. 79 Carl Hllstrm and Ken Steiner, Broadcasts in September and October 1940, The International DEMS Bulletin (December 2009March 2010), http://www.depanorama.net/dems/093.htm (accessed 25 August 2010). 80 Ibid.
77
Jazz Perspectives
81
51
with Take the A Train. After the ban ended, by the end of September 1941, Take the A Train had achieved such popularity that Ellington neither reintroduced Sepia Panorama, nor East St. Louis as the orchestras signature piece. Fifth Arrangement: The Carnegie Hall Concert of 1947 There are no traces that between September 1940 and December 1947 East St. Louis was in the band book. A further revival of East St. Louistwenty years after the Vocalion recordingtook place at the sixth annual concert at Carnegie Hall, 26 December 1947. Since 1943, Ellington and his band played an annual concert at Carnegie Hall, which each time featured an extended work. In 1947, he premiered his freshly recorded Liberian Suite, followed by a medley with East St. Louis, Echoes of Harlem, Black and Tan Fantasy and Things Aint What They Used to Be. As in the recorded medley of 1932 (and in the short score in Example 2), Ellington combined East St. Louis and Black and Tan Fantasy, yet the Carnegie Hall medley is based on a more complex arrangement. After the East St. Louis opening, Ellington unites the ostinato bass line of Echoes of Harlem with the theme of Black and Tan Fantasy (played by muted trumpets), followed by a complete statement of Echoes of Harlem, before the medley concludes with Lawrence Browns obbligato trombone solo, accompanied by a boogie woogie-blues, and nally ending with Things Aint What They Used to Be, performed by the whole brass section. East St. Louis was presented in a new arrangement: the eight-bar intro, an AABA chorus in D minor, and a ragtime C strain in A major. Ellington reinserts the previously cut C strain in a new orchestration, with muted trumpets over a unison saxophone F pedal-point. The corresponding short score shows the horns in open voicings while Ellington has designed a more complex chord progression for the introduction.82 Drummer Greer plays several rolls on the cymbals and tom-toms under the introduction, with occasional tom-tom hits, in keeping with the second sketch for The New East St. Louis. It lends the introduction a somber and uncanny mood. A set of parts, drawn from the 1947 short score, suggests that this arrangement was not originally written for the Carnegie Hall concert, but for an earlier event.83 While the trombone and reed section parts correspond with the orchestras personnel at Carnegie Hall, those for the trumpet section do not. Apart from soloist Ray Nance, the trumpet section consisted of Harold Shorty Baker, Shelton Hemphill, Francis Williams and Al Killian.84 Ellington may have written this arrangement during (or shortly after) the
Marc Hugunin, ASCAP, BMI and the Democratization of American Popular Music, Popular Music and Society 7:1 (1979), 817, here 10. 82 Short score, pencil, 2 pp., NMAH, DEC#1, Box 9:9. The last two bars are notated on a separate sheet (DEC#1, Box 109:9). 83 The parts are for Rab [Johnny Hodges], [Al] Sears, Jimmy [Hamilton], [Harry] Carney, Scad [Shelton Hemphill], Dud [Bascomb], [Francis] Williams; [Claude] Jones, [Lawrence] Brown, Tyree [Glenn], NMAH, DEC#1, 109:10. The part for [Shorty] Baker, is in DEC#1, 453:1, the one for [Russell] Proc[ope] in DEC#C, 461:1, and the bass part in Series 1C, Box 466, Folder 1. 84 There are no parts at NMAH for neither the soloist Nance, nor Killian, who joined the orchestra shortly before the concert (on 18 December), as replacement for Dud Bascomb.
81
52
Example 4. Short score. Page 2 (of 2). Carnegie Hall Concert of 1947. NMAH, DEC#1, Box 9:9 (Final two measures on separate page: NMAH, DEC#1, Box 109:9). (Used by permission of the Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution). bands extended stay in Los Angeles in the summer of 1947. The orchestra resided on the West Coast from 25 July to 6 October. During that time Bascomb was still a member of the band. This arrangement was therefore already performed before the
Jazz Perspectives
53
Carnegie Hall concert in December, most likely between the end of July and the departure of Killian in December.85 The fth arrangement of East St. Louis exhibits stylistic elements of the late 1940s. For instance, the accompanying, chordal gures with semiquaver triplet pick-ups (see the saxophone section in the B strain of Example 4) resemble Stan Kentons arrangements and Gil Evans scores for the Claude Thornhill orchestra. Despite Ellingtons effort to adapt East St. Louis to the big band style of the late 1940s, it is not known how often the band performed this particular arrangement. The Carnegie live cut for Ellingtons own archive is the only recording of the 1947 arrangement which has survived. Sixth Arrangement: An Historical Perspective on East St. Louis
After the Carnegie Hall concert of 1947, the orchestra played East St. Louis infrequently before Ellington revived it once more, for a recording at Universal Studios in Chicago on 7 or 8 February 1956. Under the auspices of the studios owner, Bill Putnamone of the most sought-after sound engineers and A&R specialists in the record business of the 1950sthe orchestra recorded twenty-three tunes. Ellington was apparently pleased with the result as he informed his agent, William Morris, of his intention to sell the tapes to a label. The independent New York-based Bethlehem Records paid Ellington the considerable sum of $20,000 for two albums, and roughly $40,000 for the musicians. The rst of the two LPs is the concept album Historically Speaking, which presents a retrospective of the bands music from the late-1920s (East St. Louis, Creole Love Call), the 1930s (Stompy Jones, The Jeep Is Jumpin, Ko-Ko), the 1940s (Jack the Bear, In a Mellow Tone, Midriff, Cotton Tail, Upper Manhattan Medical Group) and the 1950s (Unbooted Character). Although the liner notes state that for East St. Louis . . . the Duke . . . uses his original arrangement, Ellington in fact wrote a new arrangement for East St. Louis, as he did for Creole Love Call and the 1930s numbers.86 The form of this sixth arrangement is introAABACCA. Ellington scores the introduction in close-position voicings (two altos, tenor and a bowed double bass). The rst C strain is performed by three trombones in close-position voicing; the second is a repetition with three trumpets replicating the trombone parts an octave higher. The trombones are accompanied by the saxophones, with Hodges connecting the two C strain parts at bars 7 and 8. The score demonstrates an economically orchestrated arrangement of East St. Louis. The arrangement provides an overall impression of a restrained, minimalist approach, as if the piece is viewed through a distant, ironic lter, providing a selfreective retrospective of his work. A further indicator for such a removed stance is that the tempo has halved from the 1926 = 163 to = 80.
The penciled remark by Ellington after the last bars of the arrangement to old sheet (A) / Trombones signals that the continuation after East St. Louis is different than for the Carnegie Hall concert. Either Ellington has indicated that the C strain in A major should be repeated by the trombone section or that East St. Louis may have opened another medley with another tune. 86 Short score, 4 pp. (2 pp. with East St. Louis), NMAH, DEC#1, 109:9.
85
54
Once again, the commentators were keen to compare this new arrangement with previous versions. Nat Hentoff, who reviewed the album for Down Beat, awarded it four stars. Even though he observed that among the high points are a brooding East St. Louis, he judged the album as a whole . . . enjoyable but not indispensable, since none of the re-created tracks are equal in quality to their originals. . .87 The harshest critique came from Andr Hodeir, who described the album as not just another bad record, [but] it is the sign of a dereliction which conrms once and for all the decadence of a great musician. Hodeir continued that either the Duke has simply lost the remarkable musical sensibility which lay at the heart of his genius, or else he was never really conscious of the beauty of his music. He then concluded that the contemporary artist has one anguishing advantage over his predecessors, and this is a sense of historical perspective which enables him to situate himself with regard to the past . . . the title Historically Speaking means The Duke Judged by His Past.88 While the historical aspect is certainly worthy of attention, it must be assessed somewhat differently. Ellington revisited his music from a safe distance, with critical irony and an observant objectivity. Self-reective, Ellington re-examined his earlier compositions, with new musicians, and a novel approach of the familiar repertoire. Historically Speaking marks the rebirth of Ellington and his orchestra in the wake of their legendary Newport Jazz Festival concert, which would put Ellington back on the map, ve months later. Historically Speaking is for Ellington what E = MC2 (Roulette, 1957) was for Count Basie (aka The Atomic Mr. Basie), the return of a swing musician in a new musical realitythe post/hard bop and third stream movements were in full bloomwhich required retooling the orchestra and its repertoire. Both albums (Historically Speaking and E = MC2) display the same refreshing, ironic and light-hearted post-swing sound. After the critical acclaim of Historically Speaking, Ellington and his orchestra performed East St. Louis in the 1956 arrangement infrequently. They played it at a benet concert at the Medinah Temple in Chicago on 3 April 1957,89 as sign-off tune at Basin Street East in New York City (only AABA), on 14 January and 17 August 1964,90 and during the CBC television show FestivalThe Duke in Toronto on 2 September.91 By that time Cootie Williams had rejoined the orchestra.92 Williams reclaimed the growl-solo part of East St. Louis at the second concert at the Thatre des Champs Elyses in Paris on 30 January 196593coarser, more pungent and penetrating than thirty years earlier on the Master recording. In Paris the form was introAABA. It is not known whether the C strain was also dropped during the opening concert of a three-night engagement at Lennies-on-the-Turnpike in West Peabody, Massachusetts, on 11 September 1967.
Nat Hentoff, Duke Ellington: Historically SpeakingThe Duke, Down Beat (30 May 1956), 21. Reprinted in: Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 91. 88 All quotations of Hodeir, in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 3012. 89 Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 104. 90 Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 232 and 249. 91 Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 250. 92 Cootie Williams rejoined the orchestra in 1962. 93 Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 257.
87
Jazz Perspectives
55
Apparently, in the late-1960s East St. Louis was no longer part of the bands book. Nevertheless the piece was of personal importance to Ellington. He played it as a duet with organist Wild Bill Davisonwho toured with the orchestra from September 1969 to February 1971as the last number during a concert at the Teatro Massimo in Pescara on 12 November 1969.94 Less than two years later it became another duet, this time with bassist Joe Benjamin at a concert at the Left Bank club in Baltimore on 22 February 1971.95 The last known occasion on which Ellington and his orchestra played East St. Louis was at a matinee concert during the festival Newport in New York at Carnegie Hall on 8 July 1972.96 **** In conclusion, East St. Louis is a prime example of how over the course of fortyve years Ellington reworked and modernized a composition, largely through accommodating the individual characters of the different musicians he had at his disposal at different moments. Ellington arranged the composition at least once every decade between 1930 and 1960, a clear sign of his perennial interest in East St. Louis. Each of these new arrangements displayed the respective stage in his career. Despite East St. Louis initial success and despite its close connection with Ellingtons career it never became a jazz standard, unlike later Ellington compositions such as Sophisticated Lady, Satin Doll, and C Jam Blues. East St. Louis has remained a work closely linked to the unique, yet ever-changing sounds of the Ellington orchestra. In particular, Mileys memorable growl interpretation of the AABA theme has captured the listeners attention, and consequently, all later soloists modeled their interpretation after him, including Ellingtons own musicians, Cootie Williams and Ray Nance. Those artists who recorded versions of East St. Louis after Ellingtons demise did so primarily on tribute albums, from David Grusins Homage to Duke (1993) to John Pizzarellis Rockin in Rhythm: A Duke Ellington Tribute (2010) or on concept albums such as Greg Osbys St. Louis themed album St. Louis Shoes (2003). For generations after Ellington (and probably also for the elderly Ellington himself), East St. Louis evoked nostalgia for the roaring twenties, an imagined world of Harlem, illicit jazz clubs, loose women, hardboiled gangsters and Prohibition. Francis Ford Coppola attempted to recreate such a world in his 1984 ctional lm Cotton Club, in which, unsurprisingly, East St. Louis is one of the featured tunes. The most unusual versions of East St. Louis were made by rock and folk musicians, who also showed a debt to Mileys solo. On Steely Dans third album Pretzel Logic (1974), released a little less than two months before Ellingtons passing, Walter Becker reinterprets Mileys solo on an electric guitar with wah-wah effects. The Perth-based gypsy and tango band Zigatango offers a Hungarian inuenced rendering with Mileys solo in the solo violin, accompanied by bandoneon, guitar and double bass (Zigatango, 2008), while in the Oakland-based duo Shamalamacord Mike Penny plays
Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 367. Berini and Volont list John Lamb as the double bass player (Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, 536). 96 Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 419.
94 95
56
the AABA theme on the North-Japanese tsugaru shamisen, accompanied by an accordion (Shamalamacord, 2009). One of the few cover versions to salute Ellingtons continuous adjusting of the piece to contemporary idioms is Lenny Whites recomposition East St. Louis (indeed titled without Toodle-O[o]; on the album Present Tense, 1995). This bluesy, hip-hop inuenced fusion takes its inspiration from the original, phrases Mileys growl solo on a harmon muted trumpet as a tribute to Miles Davis, and successfully brings this reinterpretation into the 1990s. One can hope that future musicians will demonstrate the same zeal of adapting East St. Louis to the stylistic demands of their own times. Abstract
East St. Louis Toodle-O is probably the only Ellington composition which displays Ellingtons mode of reworking and modernizing a work over the course of forty-ve years, largely through a process of accommodating the individual characters of the different stylists he had at his disposal at different moments in time. In its rst two arrangements, the composition reects Ellingtons rise to success in an exemplary fashion. The rst arrangement (recorded for the rst time on Vocalion) reveals how East St. Louis was instrumental for Ellington in shaping a unique musical style that would later be exploited by Irving Mills as jungle music. It is also the rst Ellington composition in which he had proven himself to be a serious contender within the highly competitive Manhattan hot jazz scene. East St. Louis may well be one of the few compositions (along with Black and Tan Fantasy and Immigration Blues) that allowed him and his band to cease their engagements at the Kentucky Club and move uptown to Harlem. The second arrangement (Victor) is a testament to Ellingtons music during the early days of his tenure at the Cotton Club. The third arrangement (Diva and Velvet Tone) reects the bands expanding, growing prociency. After Bubber Mileys dischargethe soloist of East St. Louisand with the steady enlargement of the orchestra, Ellington was faced with the need to write a new arrangement, reecting the taste and style of the early 1930s. With the beginning of the new decade, East St. Louis was primarily used as the bands signature tune, in its abbreviated form. The fourth arrangement under the title The New East St. Louis Toodle-O, recorded in 1937 on Mills Master Records label, echoes the innovative features of the swing idiom. In the fth arrangement, presented at the Carnegie Hall concert in 1947, Ellington displays solid skill in adapting the composition to the prerequisites of the post-bebop and pre-cool jazz era. Finally in the sixth arrangement (Bethlehem Records, 1956), Ellington presents East St. Louis through a distant, ironic lter, as a self-reective retrospective of his early work. From 1956 to the end of his career, East St. Louis played a marginal role in the bands repertoire.

Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-O"

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-O"

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

This article was downloaded by: [University of North Texas] On: 06 October 2013, At: 22:44 Publisher: Routledge

Duke Ellington's East St. Louis ToodleO Revisited

Jazz Perspectives, 2012 Vol. 6, Nos. 12, 2956, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17494060.2012.729703

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

# 2012 Taylor & Francis

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Table 1. East St. Louis Formal Plan Comparison.

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Formal Aspects in East St. Louis

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Table 2. Ellingtons record releases, 1928 (Victor Records).

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013

Duke Ellingtons East St. Louis Toodle-O Revisited

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen