Duke Ellington's America

Show description for Sunday 7/18/2010 @ 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

This afternoon, on the four o'clock hour, we are joined by Harvey G. Cohen, author of the recently published, Duke Ellington's America.

As part of our focus, this afternoon, on Ellington, we will revisit many of the earliest small group recordings lead by various members of the orchestra, including Johnny Hodges, Barney Bigard and Rex Stewart. Also included in this afternoons broadcast will be selections from the Ellington-Strayhorn oeuvre, such as Day Dream, Johnny Come Lately and After All.

Along the way we will listen in on many poems written contemporaneous with the Ellington era, including works by Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Arna Bontemps, Margaret Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks.

New Day Jazz

Justin Desmangles

Jazz music for lovers and the lonely.

Genre

Jazz

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Track	Artist	Song	Album	Label	Comments
	Duke Ellington	It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
	Duke Ellington	Smada	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington	Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington	Brown Betty	Monologue	CBS - France
	Langston Hughes (read by Ellen Holly)	Mother to Son	A Hand is on the Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Duke Ellington	N.Y. City Blues	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington	Golden Cress	Monologue	CBS - France
	Robert Hayden (read by Moses Gunn)	Frederick Douglass	A Hand is on the Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Duke Ellington	Stop, Look & Listen	Monologue	CBS - France
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Duke Ellington	On A Turquoise Cloud	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington	Lady of the Lavender Mist	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington	The Clothed Woman	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington	Fancy Dan	Monologue	CBS - France
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Robert Hayden (read by Gloria Foster, Moses Gunn & James Earl Jones)	Runagate, Runagate	A Hand is on the Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Barney Bigard	Lament for a Javanette	The Indispensible Duke Ellington & the Small Groups	RCA-France
	Rex Stewart	Menelik the Lion of Judah	The Indispensible Duke Ellington & the Small Groups	RCA-France
	Johnny Hodges	Day Dream	The Indispensible Duke Ellington & the Small Groups	RCA-France
	Margaret Walker (read by Gloria Foster)	We Have Been Believers	A Hand is on the Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Duke Ellington	Johnny Come Lately	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	Tonk	The Indispensible Duke Ellington & the Small Groups	RCA-France
	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	Drawing Room Blues	The Indispensible Duke Ellington & the Small Groups	RCA-France
	Interview with Harvey G. Cohen By Justin Desmangles			Verve-Folkways
	Barney Bigard	Noir Bleu	The Indispensible Duke Ellington & the Small Groups

The Cotton Club By Clarence Major

The Cotton Club




Look at Duke!
He stays up and up.

Stays up in the music.
Up where the music reaches.

Up through the waves of the music.
His waves slicked back.

Duke's staying up all night
so long that time stays up with him.

But you can see the afternoon
in his eyes. Yellow sunlight going down.

And he sleeps late. Slow at home.
Remembering Jungle Nights.

Sailing on the wide wings
of a Blue Bird, sailing light.

And somebody's always saying
Hold it, Duke,

I wanna take your picture,
and they can't even see him.














this poem, originally published in a chapbook of the same name, 1972, reappeared in the collection Configurations: New & Selected Poems 1958-1998 (Copper Canyon Press)

Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note

A beautiful, and at times stunning, example of Billy Strayhorn's gifts as a composer and arranger for Duke Ellington and the Orchestra. The great Ray Nance is featured on trumpet in this classic from 1947, Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note!

Celebrating the Duke's Birthday on KDVS

Show Description for Wednesday 04/29/2009 This morning we will be celebrating the birthday of the greatest composer to emerge from the United States of America, Duke Ellington. We will provide a special focus on the small groups lead by his sidemen throughout the early 40's as well as his duets with his right hand man, Billy Strayhorn. Also included will be the remarkable series of recordings made for Columbia, including The Clothed Woman, Golden Cress and On A Turqouise Cloud. In addition we will hear from Ellington vocalists, Joya Sherill, Kay Davis and Al Hibbler.

Track	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Johnny Come Lately	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	Johnny Come Lately	The Golden Duke	Prestige
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Smada	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	Tonk	The Indispensible Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA-France
	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	Drawing Room Blues	The Indispensible Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Prelude to a Kiss	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Caravan	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
	Duke Ellington - Charles Mingus - Max Roach	Caravan	Money Jungle	United Artists
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	On a Turqouise Cloud	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	N.Y. City Blues	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Hy'a Sue	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Golden Cress	Monologue	CBS-France
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	I Ain't Got Nothing But the Blue	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Mood to be Wooed	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Kissing Bug	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Everything But You	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Barney Bigard & His Orchestra	Brown Suede	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA-France
	Barney Bigard & His Orchestra	Noir Bleu	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and teh Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA-France
	Barney Bigard & His Orchestra	C Blues	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	C Jam Blues	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	C Jam Blues	The Golden Duke	Prestige
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	The Washingtonians	Hop Head	The Complete Duke Ellington Vol. 1 1925-1928	CBS-France
	The Harlem Footwarmers	Diga Diga Doo	The Complete Duke Ellington Vol. 1 1925-1928	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	The Mooche	The Music of Duke Ellington	Columbia
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Echoes of the Jungle	Daybreak Express	RCA
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Sophisticated Lady	The Music of Duke Ellington	Columbia
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Lost in Meditation	Duke Ellington 1938	Smithsonian
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Hip Chic	Duke Ellington 1938	Smithsonian
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	A Portrait of Bert Williams	Duke Ellington 1940	Smithsonian
	Duke Ellington & Jimmy Blanton	Pitter Panther Patter	Duke Ellington 1940	Smithsonian
	Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra	Day Dream	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA-France
	Johnny Hodges & His Orcestra	Passion Flower	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Moon Mist	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Lady of the Lavender Mist	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	The Clothed Woman	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Pretty & the Wolf	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Fancy Dan	Monologue	CBS-France
	Duke Ellington & His Orchestra	Brown Betty	Monologue	CBS-France

The Music Where Our Mouth Is

This is a playlist from a early morning broadcast on KDVS in Davis. I went on the air at about 5 minutes after 3 and was off by 6. All though there were no mistakes I felt that towards the end, due to some extra bookkeeping at the request of BMI, my timing was a little off. I would have liked to have played the 1946 duets by Ellington, Strayhorn (on the same piano!) and something from Sterling Brown. The purpose of playing the poetry along with the jazz is not a mere hip contrivance. In fact, as those who have followed this blog know, it is meant to illuminate the deeper and perhaps more subtle meanings of the music itself. I look at the show in its entirety as a single composition and just as a color or a shape in painting "brings out" a color or a shape in proximity so does a clarinet, a drum, a turn of the phrase. The most successful of these sequences in this particular broadcast, I believe, were as follows;

Ella Fitzgerald & Ellis Larkins playing My One & Only, followed by Duke Ellington's Orchestra playing Snibor

Margaret Walker (pictured above) reading For My People, followed by Johnny Hodges playing Day Dream

Snibor & Day Dream are, of course, compositions by Billy Staryhorn, which, I think, speaks to the depth of his genius and intuitive response to African-American culture in general and Jazz in particular.

I would have also liked to have spent more time on the small groups lead by Ellington sidemen. Perhaps in a future broadcast that's all I will play!


Ella Fitzgerald & Ellis Larkins - Someone To Watch Over Me
Ella Fitzgerald & Ellis Larkins - My One & Only
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra - Snibor
Langston Hughes - I Have Known Rivers
Langston Hughes - I, Too
Bud Powell - Blue Pearl
Bud Powell - Reets & I
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra featuring Lil Greenwood - Walkin' & Singing The Blues
Abbey Lincoln - Long As Your Living
Lee Morgan - All At Once You Love Her
Louis Smith - Tunesmith (excerpt)
Louis Smith - Au Privave
Herbie Nichols - Argumentative Variation
Herbie Nichols - Riff Primatiff
Countee Cullen - Heritage
Barney Bigard & His Orchestra - Brown Suede
Barney Bigard & His Orchestra - Noir Bleu
Barney Bigard & His Orchestra - "C" Blues
Barney Bigard & His Orchestra - June
Anita O'Day - I Didn't Know What Time It Was
Anita O'Day - The Very Thought Of You
Anita O'Day - Anita's Blues '76
Kenny Burrell Septet - I Never Knew
Ella Fitzgerald - I'm Just A Lucky So & So
Margaret Walker - For My People
Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra - Day Dream
Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra - Good Queen Bess
Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra - That's The Blues Old Man
Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra - Junior Hop
Claude McKay - If We Must Die (Introduction)
Claude McKay - If We Must Die
Miles Davis Sextet - Milestones (Miles)
Bill Evans Trio - Milestones (Miles)
Miles Davis Quintet - Milestones (Miles)
Gwendolyn Brooks - Kitchenette
Abbey Lincoln - Afro-Blue
Abbey Lincoln - Lonely House
Abbey Lincoln - Let Up
Bill Evans Trio - Solar

. . and his mother called him Bill

For many years as a jazz D.J. on KPOO in San Francisco I was often asked what I thought the greatest jazz album to be. Of course these are the kind of questions that deserve asking simply because they have no answer. They serve as tools for helping define our thoughts about the subject, communicate what we don't already know and in general be more easily understood. My answer has been the same for quite sometime and it has been a surprise to many. Obviously there are some who are looking for the pat response, which these days seems to be the Miles Davis masterpiece Kind of Blue. Corporate sponsored media seems to have anointed this one some time ago along with the entire Blue Note catalog. There are those asking because they want to learn something, those who would like some verification of their own good taste with the opinion of an expert. My answer to all three is emphatic. The greatest jazz record of all time is the one recorded by Duke Ellington in 1967 for RCA in homage to his dear friend and closest collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. That recording is titled . . . and his mother called him Bill. Strayhorn, for those of you who may not know him, was one of the greatest composer-arrangers in the history of this music and he contributed enormously to the Ellington organization in ways that are still untold. The recording is without question among the most passionate the orchestra ever put down. Johnny Hodges in particular. And of course it could be no other way, for they had lost one of their own. The music is often overwhelming in its beauty. My favorites are Raincheck and Rock Skippin' at the Bluenote. However, important criteria for making this decision concerns itself with history. That is to say, here is an album that offers us not just the "here and now" and the "as yet to be", but the whole scope of jazz history as well. More on this later.