© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
The older I get,
the more I appreciate Duke Ellington’s music.
I doubt that there
is any correlation, but my growing awareness of Duke and his extraordinary
legacy reminds me of the following Mark Twain observation:
“When I was
fourteen, I thought my Father was the dumbest man in the world, but when I
turned twenty-one, I was surprised at how much he had learned over the last, seven years!”
Believe it or not,
when I was a young man surrounded by what-was-then the sounds of modern Jazz, I
didn’t “get” Duke; I thought he was one of the “old guys.”
Well, it's been a
lot more than seven years, but as I’ve listened to Duke's music since those
early days of quick dismissal, the more in awe I’ve become of his musical
accomplishments.
From every
perspective – melody, harmony, rhythm and texture – Duke’s music is full of
originality, creativity, and what the esteemed Jazz author Whitney Balliett once termed as Jazz’s essential ingredient:
The Sound of Surprise.
Lately, my
admiration for Duke has taken on a different form – his writings about Jazz.
Not surprisingly, his style of writing is infused with the same sense of flair,
humor and urbanity that one finds in his music.
Here’s a sample
from Music
is My Mistress [New York
© - Duke Ellington/DaCapo Press, copyright
protected; all rights reserved.
“The City of Jazz Chinatown bus tour. They wonder if they will be
taken for suckers or squares.
My experience on
my many visits to and from the city (I do one-nighters, you know) has convinced
me that its people are all very nice human beings. There are those who work for
the city (the players), those who work at the city (the analysts), and those
who just enjoy it (these are my people). The citizens of all three groups are
more concerned with what they like than what they dislike. All of them, too,
assume that they know one another. For instance, when they meet for the first
time they embrace warmly like old college chums.
In the city's
public square, you find statues of heroes. Some are of those who built the
walls, like Buddy Bolden and King Oliver. They appear to have been sculptured
in bars, after-hours joints, and houses of ill-repute. Some are of those who
fought to save the city, like Fletcher Henderson and Paul Whiteman, and they
are identified with the world of ballroom palaces. Some are of those who went
down swinging, like Bix Beiderbecke and Chick Webb, and who were decorated
posthumously for heroic performances above and beyond the call of duty. Last,
in the same concert halls where they play the masterworks, are statues of some
of the great ones who long defended the walls, like Bechet, Armstrong, and
Hawk.
This City of Jazz Europe , Asia , North and South America , the world digs this burg—Digsville,
Gonesville, Swingersville, and Wailingstown. There are no city limits, no city
ordinances, no policemen, no fire department, but come rain or come shine,
drought or flood, I think I'll stay here in this scene, with these cats,
because almost everybody seems to dig what they're talking about, or putting down.
They communicate, Dad. Do you get the message ?
Villesville is the
place—trelos anthropos!”
In celebration of
this brief remembrance of Duke’s lasting contributions to Jazz, the editorial
staff at JazzProfiles has re-posted an earlier feature about The
American Jazz Orchestra’s tribute to Ellington in the blog sidebar, as well as,
the related video to both The Duke and The AJO which you will find below.
Rest assured that
we will have a great deal more to say about The Duke in future postings.
