One of the problems I've had in understanding early jazz history, is having an idea of a timeline, when songs were recorded, etc. Besides the music itself, I think this is one of the reasons why post-1945 jazz is popular because it's just so much easier to classify. Instead of recording singles, artist signed deals for a certain number of albums and so you could understand a musician's development through their records. John Coltrane is a perfect example of this, as he recorded bebop on Prestige (1957-1959), moved to modal and advanced bebop with Atlantic records (1959-1960), and then progressively advanced towards free jazz on Impulse (1961-1967). He also recorded with a lot of the same people: playing with the Miles Davis rhythm sections, featuring either Red Garland or Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb or Art Taylor on drums, and then developing his own classic quartet with McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and first Steve Davis and then Jimmy Garrison on bass. Of course, there was a lot of other variation in personnel, but the basic formula often included these musicians. There are a lot of albums, but it's easy to get a basic sense of his career and the people involved.
Prior to the LP and then CD age, musicians recorded 78s and it seems as if they recorded depending on budget or demand or if a better contract was found. For example, Count Basie seemed to have a banner year in 1939 recording 53 (!) different songs in 14 different sessions, but only 30 songs in 1940 (based on my discs from Chronological Classics). In the early days, band would switch labels pretty frequently or record for multiple labels at once and in order to do so, they would record under a bevy of names. In the first decade or so of his career, Duke Ellington had simultaneous contracts with just about every record label in the business releasing records for Brunswick, Vocallion, Okeh, Columbia, Victor, Pathe, Cameo, Perfect, Banner, Oriole, Vevlet Tone, and Harmony. A bunch of the labels merged together, and now his works are spread on compilations by RCA Victor, Columbia/CBS (or Sony), and Decca. Then there are the multiple of recordings of the same song---not different takes at the same recording session but a new recording from different sessions with different musicians. Though the 1940 version of "Take the 'A' Train" is considered definitive, there are a lot of other memorable versions by Ellington including the one with vocalist Betty Roche from
Uptown. This was true in the early days as their exist multiple versions of "Black Beauty", "The Mooche", "Jubilee Stomp" and others. There are six different versions of "St. Louis Toodle-oo" was recorded between November 1926 and March 1928 for five different labels. I believe someone published an article comparing the different versions, including some live recordings from later editions of the band. On top of all this, these are larger bands with a host of unfamiliar names and songs. The playlist of jazz musicians really changed with bebop creating a definitive line. Anyway, it's a fascinating puzzle to figure out but it does require commitment towards understanding the full picture.
This brings me finally (!) to
The works of Duke series from French RCA Victor in the 1970s which released excellent quality recordings of his output for that label. It was initially brought to my attention in graduate school and with the liner notes, personnel and solo listings is an absolutely essential series. Today's feature record is volume 22 (of 24) and spotlights various sessions between May 14, 1945 and July 9, 1946, with several tracks featuring bassist Oscar Pettiford during his tenure with Ellington. I've been going out of order, but chronologically, this is would be the first in a series of articles on Pettiford with Ellington.
Pettiford is only on seven of the thirteen tracks but those other tracks are fascinating. "The Minor Goes Muggin" is Duke Ellington guesting on piano with Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra! Dorsey was returning the favor after guesting with Ellington's band on "Tonight I Shall Sleep". I'm a big fan of these "meeting of the big bands" (like The Count Meets the Duke) and this edition of the Dorsey orchestra features the great Buddy Rich on drums.
Because he had a reputation as a mean bandleader (as evidenced by those tapes that circulated), I feel as if Rich has been "cancelled" by modern jazz musicians. Those audio tapes that document him berating the band has become legendary and is the equivalent today of people being captured on video doing ridiculous things: the recent Amy Cooper incident in New York's Central Park comes to mind. She did a really dumb thing telling the police that "an African American man is threatening me" and since it was caught on video, in the 2-3 days following the video blowing up on Twitter, she lost her job and lost her dog. For Buddy Rich, I feel as if his dismissal came slowly. Anyway, this recording from 1945, displays Rich just driving the big band. His fills and the way he hits his drum have an obvious impact that really inspires the other musicians He even gets a brief cadenza at the end of the piece. Of all the Swing era big band records I've heard, his drumming noticeably stands out above everyone else. Ellington takes a solo and sounds like his usual self, endlessly varying the texture. There are also excellent solos by Dorsey and trumpeter Charlie Shavers.
There are also a couple of Esquire all-star band performances and they are equally as strong, but "Long, Long Journey" from January 10, 1946 stands out as an astounding performance featuring Louis Armstrong on trumpet and vocals. It's a blues and hearing Armstrong sing a blues sounds like the real thing, meaning that he sounds like a blues singer. He is so musically acute and stylistically flexible that he seems to fit naturally into whatever setting he finds himself in: whether as a pop singer on "Hello Dolly", as an accompanist for Jimmie Rogers on "Blue Yodel no.9", as a creator of the jazz language on, say, "West End Blues" or "Hotter than that", or as a blues singer on "Long, Long Journey". On different choruses, Don Byas on tenor and a muted Charlie Shavers accompany Armstrong and they blend right in with the master. Ellington's solo is another highlight as he sounds like the modernist he truly is, offering attractive harmonic alternatives to the blues chord progression including the tritone substitution that would be an essential element of bebop, but was probably already a part of Ellington's rich palette of harmonic colors---he probably had another name for it. There needs to be more study of his piano work, I bet there would be a goldmine of information in there.
From the same session, "The one that got away" features Red Norvo on vibraphone in place of Armstrong and solos are heard by Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet, Byas, and Shavers this time playing open horn and showcasing his upper register. He is a terrific player, but unfortunately being a jazz trumpet player in the 1930s-1940s was like being a tenor player: a rich history of great players and a LOT of competition. The
other soloist guitarist is Reno Palmieri, no relation to the great Latin jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri (in fact, years later Reno apparently dropped the 'I' in his name to avoid that connection and became Reno Palmier). He was fairly active in the jazz scene in the mid-1940's and is notable for being the guitarist in the first recording by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in February 1945, resulting in "Dizzy Atmosphere", "Groovin' High", and "All the Things You Are". Palmieri eventually landed a radio that lasted nearly thirty years before getting back to playing and recording jazz from the late 1970s.
"Metronome All-Out" from January 15, 1946 is by the Metronome All-Star band conducted by Ellington. Highlights include solos by J.C. Higginbotham on trombone, Teddy Wilson on piano, Johnny Hodges on alto, Red Norvo on vibes, and Harry Carney on baritone sax.
Then there are two stunning piano duets by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn from January 10, 1946. The first track is "Tonk" is a melange of stride piano and modern classical harmony. Through-composed, it's an incredible work that brilliantly blends stride piano and/or ragtime with modern classical harmony. I think it's very successful mix and they pull it off with a lot of humor as the theme and the feel is just so goofy! That mix of serious intention with light results is inspiring and also I think a trademark of Ellington's. Finally, the piece is notable for its loping train rhythm that is also a staple sound for Ellington.
The other duet is "Drawing Room Blues" and is a ballad. It's not a blues form but perhaps a blues in terms of the mood which is reflective. The slow tempo really allows for some wonderful harmonies to shine through and the influence of the Impressionists (Debussy and Ravel) and the modernists (meaning Stravinsky and Hindemith, etc.) is very clear.
The remaining seven tracks are culled from two different sessions of the Duke Ellington Orchestra with Oscar Pettiford on bass and represent some important changes in the band. The dismantling of the great Blanton-Webster band had already and would continue for the next year or so. Longtime alto saxophonist Otto Hardwicke who had been with Ellington from the Washingtonian days, and the first session from November 26, 1945 features his replacement, Russell Procope who would remain with the band until Ellington's death in 1974. Trumpeter Rex Stewart and trombonist Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton were also at the closing stages of their long tenures with the band. Procope already had a nice resume coming fresh from John Kirby's Sextet and having recorded with Jelly Roll Morton in the late 1920's, but a big jolt for the band was the arrival of Oscar Pettiford on bass.
When he joined the band on November 17, 1945, he was already highly regarded as the successor to the great Jimmie Blanton who had died a few years previous. I don't know if it's me, but Pettiford is very loud in the mix! He was often featured with the Ellington band, especially during introductions, so perhaps it was intentional to have him high in the mix. I just find it rather unusual as it's usually really hard to hear. But it's a testament to his sound that he's that loud and present. He rhythmic drive is terrific and he really drives the band along. For my money, I feel that he was a highlight of the band, but he's not Scott Lafaro and this is during the declining years of the big band era. Bass solos were never popular and chances of Pettiford saving the band is just unrealistic. Not to diminish the rest of the band, as Johnny Hodges, Lawrence Brown, Harry Carney, William "Cat" Anderson, and others were still going strong, but just that bass is always a support instrument and the age of bass heroes like Scott Lafaro and Jaco Pastorius are still decades away at this point. Times were quickly changing and soon Ellington would be faced with a lull in his career.
Nevertheless, Pettiford announces himself with rapid fills on "Long, Strong, and Consecutive". He is also featured on "Suddenly it Jumped" from the July 9, 1946 session, engaging in dialogue with Ellington in the in beginning and later trading twos during the last chorus of the piece. Blanton was a hero/nemesis to Pettiford so he must have been thrilled playing with Ellington. Besides Pettiford, the main soloists include Hodges, Brown, Hamilton on Clarinet and "Taft" Jordan and "Cat" Anderson on trumpet.
The other track that really stands out is "Transblucency" from the second session. It feature an incredibly haunting melody scored for Kay Davis's vocal with low clarinet and it's a gem. In the tradition of "Creole Love Call" and "Mood Indigo", "Transblucency" is noted for its instrumental colors. The enchanting mood is enhanced in the second chorus with a muted Lawrence Brown on trombone ad libbing behind the melody. After returning to the original texture, there is also unison low saxes, solo piano, and bass fills completing the picture. It's so wonderful that you forget that the tune is a 12-bar blues! Ellington is so intimate with the blues, that he is able to recast the genre in different guises, while never sounding stale. It really sits at the heart of his music.
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| Ray Nance on violin |
"Just Squeeze Me" was first recorded in 1941 as "Subtle Slough" and is heard here with a nice, loping, shuffle feel, mostly articulated from the bass, that is similar to the movements of a train. The melody is also phrased in such a way, with slow bends and otherwise, to mimic train sounds. The line played as an introduction is, in this version, interpolated with the main melody. Ray Nance sings a wonderful vocal and Hodges' solo is excellent, proving that he can still maintain his famed soft and romantic sound even when playing double time passages.
The other Ellington vocalists include Joya Sherrill and future rhythm and blues star Al Hibbler on "I'm just a lucky so and so". Besides "Just Squeeze Me", this would be the only other track that is still remembered today from this compilation. It has a down-home blues feel and Fred Guy on guitar is actually quite audible on this.
Comprising of recordings made at the end of the Swing Era, Ellington seemed to be going strong. The recordings made are excellent and his playing, composing and arranging are in fine form. At the time, there was probably a lot of hope for the band with Oscar Pettiford and Russell Procope joining the band, but unfortunately the climate for big bands was rapidly changing. Today, this period is mostly known as a transitional period for his orchestra.
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