© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
Whitney Balliett,
one of Jazz’s most eloquent chroniclers, once characterized Jazz as being “The
Sound of Surprise.”
And so it was for
me – a joyful surprise - with my first listening of The Duke Ellington Legacy
Orchestra’s Single Petal of a Rose which was released on June 5, 2012 on
Renma Recordings [6403 CD].
By way of
background, The Duke Ellington Legacy is a nine-piece group founded by Edward
Kennedy Ellington II, Duke’s grandson, and the band’s guitarist.
Edward chose
saxophonist Virginia Mayhew to lead and serve as musical director of the band
and Virginia
Virginia and
Norman share the arranging duties for The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra and
their scoring talents help present Duke’s music in new, musical settings.
Duke once said
that music is beyond category and falls into two groups: good music and bad
music.
The music on Single
Petal of a Rose is good music as are the musicians who perform it.
Equally important
is that they have the ability to fashion their own musical personalities into a
coherent and cohesive group, a quality which Duke Ellington prized.
While he loved the
individual voices of some of his legendary band members such as trumpeters
Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart and Clark Terry, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges,
tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and baritone saxophonist Harry Carney, the Duke
needed them to blend-as-one because the orchestra en toto was his instrument.
Credit for melding
the sound of The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra into a consistent whole begins
with trumpeter [and flugelhornist] Jami Dauber, whose attack, phrasing and
dynamics forms the basis for the manner in which the band articulates the arrangements.
There was no
greater admirer of Duke’s music than bassist Charles Mingus who often anchored
his own group’s compositions with the playing of trombonist Jimmy Knepper.
Charles would have
loved The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s trombonist Noah Bless who brings
not only Knepper’s spirit to mind while taking care of brass bass clef business
for the group, but also those of Ellington stalwart bone players such as
“Tricky Sam” Lofton, Lawrence Brown and Britt Woodman.
Speaking of Mingus,
the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s other bass clef role is in the capable
hands of bassist Tom DiCarlo, whose playing is suggestive of the big sound and
expressiveness of two of today’s Young Lions on the instrument: John Patitucci
and Christian McBride.
If you ever
wondered with the Duke’s music might sound like complimented by the polyrhythms
of Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, all you need do is listen to Paul Wells whose
drumming with the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s provides these elements
plus the sounds of a very contemporary drum kit.
Saxophonist
Virginia Mayhew has a big, throaty tone on tenor and when she combines it in
unison phrasing with trumpeter Dauber and trombonist Bless, it echoes the sound
of Wayner Shorter-Freddie Hubbard-Curtis Fuller version of Art Blakey and the
Jazz Messengers to Duke’s music [checkout the shout chorus that close-out the
Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s version of Upper Manhattan Medical Group].
It’s quite fitting
that Kenny Burrell loaned Edward Kennedy Ellington II his guitar for the date
because the latter’s note selection and placement are lean and propulsive in a
style similar to the one that Kenny has literally hand-crafted over six decades
of playing Jazz.
And then there is
Norman Simmons on piano: lyrical, beautiful and always tastefully swinging. He
reminds me so much of the late Tommy Flanagan and the late Hank Jones.
Many years ago
when I was working at a club on the tri-corner of Columbus, Broadway and Grant
in San Francisco, I and the pianist in the group would run down the street
during our breaks to catch vocalist Carmen McRae at Sugar Hill.
Thankfully, some
things only get better with the passing of the years and Norman Norman
Other “surprises”
on Single
Petal of a Rose include the sensitive percussion work of Shelia Earley,
Nancy Reed’s marvelous vocals on In A
Mellow Tone, Squeeze Me, and Love You
Madly, and tenor saxophonist Houston Person’s special guest appearance on Norman
Shelia Elaine
Anderson writes of Houston Houston
More details
including websites and order information about The Duke Ellington Legacy
Orchestra’s Single Petal of a Rose are contained in the following News
Release which was developed by Ann Braithwaite, Nancy Hudgins and the fine team
at Braithwaite & Katz, Communications.
If you are in the
mood for surprises, you’ll be delighted by the music on this disc.
"This band breathes new
life into Duke Ellington's treasured, voluminous canon."
— Joseph Blake, Times
Colonist
"...sounds as classic as
the day Duke Ellington gave his music birth, while still sounding like a
contemporary jazz band..."
- Susan Frances,
Jazzreview.com
Almost four
decades after Duke Ellington's passing, he looms larger than ever as a singular
giant of American music. With Single Petal of a Rose, slated for
release on June 5 on Renma Recordings, the talent-laden Duke Ellington Legacy offers an insightful, often-breathtaking tour
through a program of masterpieces by Ellington and his inimitable creative
partner, Billy Strayhorn.
A nine-piece
multi-generational ensemble founded by guitarist Edward Kennedy Ellington II,
Duke's grandson, the Duke Ellington Legacy doesn't attempt to replicate the
Ellington Orchestra's sound (because really, who could?). Rather, the band
explores sublime ballads, hard-charging flag wavers, lustrous tone poems, and
sultry vocals, channeling an essentially Ellingtonian spirit from a
contemporary perspective. With savvy music direction by saxophonist Virginia Mayhew and brilliant
arrangements by the great Norman Simmons,
who also handles piano duties with elegant authority, the band fully adheres to
Duke's prime directive, swinging as if their lives depended on it.
"Before a
concert I tell the band, let's make them want to dance," Simmons says.
"People these days are afraid to move their bodies, but they can't help it
when we get going."
Programmed with an
ebb and flow similar to an Ellington Orchestra concert, the album opens and
closes with ravishing solo piano renditions of "Single Petal" and
"Lotus Blossom," delivered by Simmons with all the requisite love and
tenderness. The session kicks into high gear with "Happy-Go-Lucky
Local" a piece that premiered at Ellington's 1946 Carnegie Hall concert as
the final movement of his "Deep South Suite." Houston Person's
locomotive tenor solo is perfectly gauged to the swaggering mood of Ellington's
most irrepressibly swinging train song.
"Houston
"In My
Solitude" offers Houston Dave Liebman, and Bob Dorough. Her lovely,
clear tone and understated delivery make her an ideal vocalist for the Duke
Ellington Legacy, whether she's bringing the mellow to "In A Mellow
Tone," flirting playfully with Houston
With four numbers
to his direct credit, Strayhorn is well represented on Single Petal. Mayhew's
inspired arrangement of "Johnny Come Lately", an expansive chart that
features some particularly inspired tenor work by her, puts a Latin spin on the
piece. Trombonist Noah Bless follows with a beautifully crafted solo, which
builds to a percussion finale. Bless displays his expressive, singing tone on
the aching ballad "Blood Count," while bassist Tom di Carlo propels
the briskly swinging, typically ingenious "Upper Manhattan Medical Group"
(often rendered as "UMMG"), which features another incisive Mayhew
tenor solo.
"Ellington
always featured his men, and that's something I work on," says Simmons.
"Duke was
always very advanced with his harmonic structures, which provides the
framework, and then for orchestration you're drawing on the colors in the
band's palette, painting a picture."
The Duke Ellington
Legacy was born out of the friendship between Mayhew and Edward Kennedy
Ellington II, who met at the West Village
It's hard to
overstate the depth of experience Norman
Simmons brings to the Duke Ellington Legacy. A Chicago New York City
Mayhew's affinity for veteran jazz masters has been apparent since
she established herself on the New York
Edward Ellington II got a very close look at the life of
touring musician as a child. Over the years he occasionally joined his
grandfather on the road with the orchestra, and after Duke's passing he joined
his father, Mercer Ellington, as guitarist and roadie in the new Ellington
orchestra. After five years, he gave up performing and didn't return to the
stage for two decades, when he and Mayhew launched the Duke Ellington Legacy in
2002. Since then the group has performed widely and recorded the critically
praised 2008 album Thank You Uncle Edward (Renma Recordings).
While Duke
Ellington's canon needs no defenders, Single Petal of a Rose makes an
incontrovertible case for the Duke Ellington Legacy as inspired torchbearers.
"The key
thing is we're not just playing Ellington arrangements," Ellington says.
"These are
fresh arrangements reflecting new influences, and that's the point."
