Introduction to Jazz
Mus/AAAS 74
Prof. Robert Zimmerman
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five Struttin' With Some Barbecue (1927)
Armstrong (c); Edward 'Kid' Ory (tb); Johnny Dodds (cl); Lil Armstrong (p); Johnny St. Cyr (bj). SOLOISTS: Dodds; Ory; L. Armstrong.
A great example of Armstrong's playing with the Hot Five. These were the best New Orleans musicians of the day, and the clarinet and trombone players both turn in fine solos, but Armstrong is miles ahead in both technique and swing.
Armstrong was one of many "trumpet" players in this era who was actually playing a cornet. For our purposes, trumpet and cornet are the same
The form here is ABAC.
| Time | Chorus/ Section |
Bars | What Happens | |
| 00:00 | Intro | 12 | ||
| 00:15 | 1 | AB | 16 | First half of the tune, played New Orleans style, with trumpet playing the melody and clarinet and trombone playing countermelodies (probably mostly improvised). Note that the melody has a five note pickup before the first bar of this section. If you put the words "I'm struttin' with some barbecue" to the first phrase of the tune, as Armstrong plays it, the downbeat that starts the AB section is the first syllable of "barbecue" (which is the same note repeated 3 times). The first chorus ends with a banjo break. |
| 00:35 | AC | 16 | ||
| 00:54 | 2 | AB | 16 | Improvised clarinet solo (Johnny Dodds). Ends with a two bar break. |
| 01:14 | AC | 16 | Improvised trombone solo (Kid Ory). Ends with two bar break. | |
| 01:33 | 3 | AB | 16 | Stop-time trumpet solo by Louis Armstrong. The rhythm section is only playing beats 2 and 4. Note the virtuosic break at the end of the AB section. In place of a solo break at the end of the chorus, the band comes in with a syncopated figure. This figure is extended for a couple of bars before Armstrong comes back with the tune. |
| 01:53 | AC | 18 | ||
| 02:15 | 4 | AB | 16 | The tune is played again. Armstrong takes more liberties with the melody than he did it at the beginning (for instance, notice how he swoops up to a high note right after the first phrase). The AB section ends with a banjo break. The tune ends with something that sounds like it might be a stop-time break, but instead is an understated (even anticlimactic) ensemble ending. It's pretty much the same idea as the one used at the end of Armstrong's solo, and again the AC part is extended by 2 bars. |
| 02:35 | AC | 18 | ||
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven Potato Head Blues (1927)
Armstrong (c); Johnny Thomas (tb); Johnny Dodds (cl); Lil Armstrong (p); Johnny St. Cyr (bj), Pete Briggs (tba), Baby Dodds (d).
A fine example of the way Armstrong could "tell a story" in his improvisations.
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five West End Blues (1928)
Armstrong (t, voc); Fred Robinson (tb); Jimmy Strong (cl); Earl Hines (p); Mancy Carr (bj); Zutty Singleton (d).
The introduction to this piece in one of the great statements in the history of jazz. Beyond that, there is some wonderful piano playing from Earl Hines, a nice sample of Armstrong's "scat" vocal style, and some very pretty slow blues playing.
| Time | Chorus | Bars | What Happens |
| 00:00 | Intro | Armstrong's masterful introduction. It is, like so many things Armstrong played, beautifully shaped. It first swoops down and back up, coming to rest on a vibrant high note (C concert), then dances down from there, through some brilliant turns and twists, slowly letting off steam and ending calmly. For all the virtuosity of the playing it is perfectly poised, never rushed of forced. | |
| 00:16 | 1 | 4 | Armstrong plays the melody, with clarinet and trombone joining, New Orleans style, but somewhat in the background, and banjo and piano playing the chords together on each beat in a "chunk-chunk-chunk-chunk" kind of style. |
| 00:28 | 4 | ||
| 00:39 | 4 | ||
| 00:50 | 2 | 12 | A smeary and slightly comical trombone solo. The comical aspect is reinforced by the clippity-cloppity percussion background. |
| 01:25 | 3 | 12 | Dialog between solo clarinet and Armstrong's vocal. This kind of wordless vocalizing, called "scatting," is a technique that Armstrong popularized. |
| 01:59 | 4 | 4 | Unaccompanied piano solo by Earl Hines. In the first and last 4 bar sections of the chorus, Hines' playing is fairly subdued but intricate cascades of notes. In the middle section he plays in his "trumpet style," crisp, incisive lines played in octaves (that is, he plays the melodies with two fingers hitting notes an octave apart). He keeps the stride pattern going in his left hand throughout. |
| 02:10 | 4 | ||
| 02:21 | 4 | ||
| 02:32 | 5 | 4 | Trumpet and piano solo leading to the conclusion of the piece. Armstrong starts by just holding out a high note (high Bb concert, in case you're curious) for four bars. For the next four bars his playing is much more rhythmic. The piano takes over for the last four bars, playing a series of cascading-down runs, then Armstrong plays a bluesy phrase that leads into the three culminating chords, played by the whole band together. |
| 02:45 | 4 | ||
| 02:55 | 4+ |
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra Dinah (1933)
Armstrong (t, voc); Orchestra unknown.
This is a fabulous bit of film, a chance to both see and hear Armstrong at his very best. Aside from his wonderful playing, Armstrong had a very warm and ebullient personality on stage. It's also fun to watch his body language as he performs, and it gives real insight into how he was thinking as he played. It is also worth noting how Armstrong doesn't detach himself from the supporting musicians the way most star vocalists at this time would have. Instead, when he isn't up front playing or singing, he hangs out in their area and seems to want show us just how much he is digging (one of his favorite "hip" words) their playing so we'll know we should do the same.
Musically, most of the features of Armstrong's astonishing musicianship are on view here--the brilliant high notes, acrobatic breaks, the sense of time and rhythm, the half-valve smears, etc. Listen for all of those but also try to listen to the dramatic shape he gives each chorus. He is quite consistent with this--each chorus starts brightly, with a fresh idea. The second A section usually reiterates the first A section, but with a looser, more improvised feel. The bridge (B section) is more energetic, with more rhythmic drive (jazz musicians would say that it "swings harder"), and it builds up to and climaxes in a break--this is the main event in each chorus. The final A section is relatively uneventful--it's a time for both him and us to regroup for the next chorus.
Pay attention to the band as well. It's especially instructive to watch the bass and drums--you can see how they lock together in the flow of the two-beat rhythm. You can also see the drummer going from brushes to sticks, and drum to cymbal, as the volume and energy level increase.
| Time | Chorus/ Section |
Bars | What Happens | |
| 00:00 | Spoken introduction |
Armstrong kicks things off with his broad smile, one of his hallmarks. It's easy to see why he was such a popular performer--besides his superb playing and singing, there is his remarkable but completely genuine and guileless enthusiasm. | ||
| 00:10 | 1 | A | 8 | Here's the tune, played by the saxophones. Remember it so you can compare the original form to the version Armstrong sings. The band is (L to R) tenor sax, 2 altos, trumpet, and trombone. They all do a lot of foot tapping, but the trumpet player keeps his feet especially busy (it's hard to see in this tiny window, but he also has a huge smile on his face the whole time). You get an excellent view of the drummer and bass player, and other than Armstrong they are the most important players to watch. The drummer is playing with wire brushes instead of sticks (they make a swishy sound). The bass player is mostly plucking on beats 1 and 3 but he sometimes adds some passing notes in between. |
| 00:17 | A | 8 | ||
| 00:24 | B | 8 | ||
| 00:31 | A | 8 | ||
| 00:38 | 2 | A | 8 | Armstrong sings the words and rhythms of the song (or something fairly close to them) but he completely reworks the melody. Through the first two A sections he sticks almost exclusively to 2 notes, bouncing back and forth. A notable and effective departure from these two notes is the last note of the first A section ("show me"). |
| 00:45 | A | 8 | As Armstrong plays, the band burbles along in the background with quiet riffs. As the piece goes on these riffs get more involved and more syncopated. But these riffs always stay in the background, the piece has been arranged so that the rest of the band never comes to the fore while Armstrong is playing--a very different approach than in the New Orleans-style ensembles Armstrong grew up with. | |
| 00:52 | B | 8 | The bridge stands out from the A sections in several ways. Aside from the fact that it uses different chords, there are these 3 things: (1) The band plays a slow descending line instead of riffs, (2) There is always a bit more rhythmic drive, and (3) it always ends with a break, which is the climactic event of each chorus. As he gets to this break for the first time he gives as a wide-eyed look that says something like "Hey guys! Check this out!," and at the end the swoop of his head follows along with his musical loop-the-loop. | |
| 00:59 | A | 8 | Armstrong coasts through most of the last A section and then announces with the last note (the "Oh" of "Ohhhhh Dinah!") that he's going to turn up the heat a bit in the next chorus. | |
| 01:06 | 3 | A | 8 | In this chorus Armstrong's singing is even looser and more improvised. In the second A section, one of the truly magnificent moments in this performance, he breaks free from both the melody of the tune and the beat of the band. The section starts with a brilliantly casual phrase that seems to float by at a new, slower tempo that only Armstrong hears. His singing drifts into inarticulateness, too, as after a few "Dinah's" he falls back on nonsense syllables. This is an excellent example of how close his singing was to his trumpet playing and how little he was concerned with the lyrics. He locks in with the band again on the B section, and like the B section of the last chorus, pushes it into a flamboyant looping break. Once again, the last A is relatively calm. |
| 01:12 | A | 8 | ||
| 01:19 | B | 8 | ||
| 01:26 | A | 8 | ||
| 01:33 | 4 | A | 8 | Armstrong gives some of the other musicians a moment in the spotlight as he transitions from voice to horn. The smiling, foot-tapping second trumpet plays a fine little solo but compared to Armstrong he sort of pecks his notes out. He doesn't give us anything close to the gradations of sound and articulation that we get from Armstrong. But more than anything else, there is no event in this solo. Even in half a chorus from Armstrong there would have been that one sizzling high note or laid back phrase or acrobatic break. The B section seems to have gotten lost in the editing or filming process, all we get is a sort of jumble between the 2nd and 3rd As. I suspect they had to load a new reel of film. The crowd scene is artificial--this was not filmed in front of a live audience. |
| 01:40 | A | 8 | ||
| The B section was edited out |
||||
| 01:47 | A | 8 | ||
| 1:54 | 1 | A | 8 | With his usual economy (compare how much Armstrong plays in his first half chorus to the other trumpet player's half chorus), Armstrong builds the first 2 A sections around a simple bugle call-like motif. The break at the end of the bridge is, as always, a climactic moment, as he plays a half-valved swoop up to a high note. For most of the last A section he holds a single, vibrant note that sets up the next chorus (listen to how his vibrato (wobbling in pitch) expands to a subtle "shake" (wobbling on and off the note) as he holds out the note). As he does this the drummer starts playing the cymbal on beats 2 and 4 to heat up the rhythm for the next chorus. |
| 02:00 | A | 8 | ||
| 02:07 | B | 8 | ||
| 02:14 | A | 8 | ||
| 02:21 | 1 | A | 8 | For most of this chorus Armstrong is "quoting" other songs (a playful habit that many jazz musicians indulge in). The song is a show tune called "Exactly Like You." It's interesting that he sticks closer to the written form of the tune he quotes for the first 2 A sections here than he ever does to Dinah. The tune he plays in the B sections should sound familiar from childhood ("There's a place in France where the..."). After the first two phrases of this classic there's a bluesy interpolation and then the final (relatively straightforward) break. The ending is clean but a little abrupt. Notice how the drummer, who has kept up cymbal hits on 2 and 4, punctuates the ending with a final choked crash on the last beat of the last bar. You can also see how he has to damp the cymbal with his hand after he hits it. |
| 02:28 | A | 8 | ||
| 02:35 | B | 8 | ||
| 02:42 | A | 8 | ||
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra Sweethearts on Parade (1930)
Armstrong (t, voc); Orchestra including Lionel Hampton (d).
Not that long after the Hot Fives, but this is a very different setting for Armstrong. The polyphonic front-line horn playing of trumpet, trombone, and clarinet is gone, and instead Armstrong is the soloist and the band accompanies him. In this song, the accompaniment is just soft, drawn-out chords. The rhythm section is still playing in a two-beat, New Orleans style, with bass notes on beats 1 and 3 and the other rhythm instruments (banjo, drums, piano) playing 1,2,3,4. Lionel Hampton's drumming does stand out, both for its incipient swing and for the accents he throws in to spice things up here and there.
"Sweethearts on Parade" is an AABA-form pop song, and Armstrong's performance straddles pop music and jazz -- the vocal is more on the pop side, while the second trumpet solo is 100% hot jazz.
| Time | Chorus/ Section |
Bars | What Happens | |
| 00:00 | Intro | 4 | Not much of an introduction -- a chord is held out for 4 bars before the A section starts, though (the chord is held into the A section, so it's hard to hear where the intro ends). | |
| 00:07 | 1 | A | 8 | Through the intro and first chorus, Armstrong plays with a mute and improvises in a subdued manner. |
| 00:22 | A | 8 | ||
| 00:37 | B | 8 | ||
| 00:51 | A | 8 | ||
| 01:06 | 2 | A | 8 | Armstrong sings with the guitar improvising discretely behind him. The downbeat of the chorus is on the first "two" of "two by two" (the "ah" is a pickup note). The singing is fairly straight (except with Armstrong's characteristic way of laying behind the beat and bending notes) but he does throw in jazzy flourishes, especially at the end of sections ("parade, parade" at the end of the first A, "ba ba de-e ya" at the end of the second A, etc.) |
| 01:21 | A | 8 | ||
| 01:36 | B | 8 | ||
| 01:51 | A | 10 | The last A ends with a wobbly alto sax break, punctuated a bit comically by Hampton's drums. The break extends the section by a couple of bars. | |
| 02:09 | 3 | A | 8 | Armstrong solos on open trumpet. At the beginning he sticks close to the tune, but things heat up fast -- four bars in he goes into double time and keeps it going through a break. Notice Hampton's response on the drums, which no longer sounds comedic as in the sax break but instead eggs Armstrong on. Hampton then nicely punctuates the end of Armstrong's break and kicks the band back into the regular tempo. |
| 02:25 | A | 8 | The second A is structured like the first, except Armstrong only hints at double time. | |
| 02:41 | B | 8 | On the bridge, Armstrong turns the heat up with some beautifully placed high notes. | |
| 02:57 | A | 10 | The final section ends with Armstrong quoting a bugle call (an allusion to the parade theme of the song). This happens in place of the break that has ended the previous 3 sections, and it extends the section by 2 bars | |
Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra Singin' the Blues (1927)
Bix Beiderbecke (c); Bill Rank (tb); Jimmy Dorsey (cl, as); Trumbauer (C-melody sax); Paul Merz (p); Eddie Lang (g); Chauncey Morehouse (d).
A loosely arranged piece from the Frankie Trumbauer
This form is ABAC, or, more simply, AA'
| Time | Chorus/ Section |
Bars | What Happens | |
| 00:00 | Intro | 4 | ||
| 00:07 | 1 | AB | 16 | Frankie Trumbauer solos on C-melody saxophone (an instrument pitched between the tenor and alto sax, now obsolete). Note his light, fluid |
| 00:35 | AC | 16 | ||
| 01:03 | 2 | AB | 16 | Cornet solo by Bix Beiderbecke. It doesn't have the fire of a Louis Armstrong solo but has a gentle, laid-back, melodious quality. The double-time lick in the break at 01:29 shows his rhythmic crispness, however. |
| 01:32 | AC | 16 | ||
| 02:00 | 3 | A | 8 | The opening theme comes back here, but in a New Orleans style, with clarinet and trombone countermelodies. |
| 02:15 | B | 8 | Clarinet solo. | |
| 02:29 | AC | 16 | Beiderbecke plays the lead here, once again with New Orleans-style counterlines. Note the fluent guitar break early in the C section. | |
Art Tatum Tiger Rag (1940)
Art Tatum (p)
An example of the almost superhuman pianistic skill of Art Tatum. Though this was recorded in 1940 Tatum was playing this piece in just the same way in the early 30s.
Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra The Stampede (1926)
Henderson (p, comp); Russell Smith (t); Joe Smith, Rex Stewart (c); Benny Morton (tb) Buster Bailey (cl, as), Don Redman (cl, as, arr); Coleman Hawkins (cl, ts); Charlie Dixon (bj); Ralph Escudero (tba); Kaiser Marshall (d). SOLOISTS: Stewart, Hawkins, Joe Smith, Henderson, Stewart.
This is the Fletcher Henderson band soon after Louis Armstrong left it. In his place are two pretty hot trumpet players, Joe Smith and Rex Stewart. Actually, both played the cornet, which has a slightly different sound than the trumpet, though it's hard to tell the two apart on these old recordings. Starting in the 30s, Stewart was a mainstay of Ellington's band (he was also one of the few cornet players who didn't switch to trumpet -- Beiderbecke was another). The other soloist here is Coleman Hawkins, the first really masterful saxophone player.
The chorus from of this piece is ABAC (the typical breakdown of the more general AA' form), but there is a section in the middle that is based on a different set of chord changes. This is a holdover from ragtime-type forms. In this case, the contrasting section is based on the main section, it substitutes new chords for the original A section but uses the same B and C section. So the opening and closing choruses are in ABAC form, while in the middle A is replaced, so it becomes DBDC.
Another holdover from ragtime is the two-beat, oom-pah rhythm, using a tuba instead of a string bass.
Though this is a transitional piece in terms of rhythm and form and the style of some of the horn players, the main features of the big band style are all here, including the way the music is structured around the different sections of the band, and the way it juxtaposes ensemble and soloist.
| Time | Chorus/ Section |
Bars | What Happens | ||
| 00:00 | Intro | 4 | A riff is passed around the band, from piano to saxes to trumpets, then finally (in a more syncopated version) to the whole band. | ||
| 00:04 | 4 | The riff is answered by a hot cornet solo by Rex Stewart. | |||
| 00:08 | 8 | The same exchange is repeated. | |||
| 00:16 | 1 | AB | 16 | A trombone calls, the band responds. The B section ends with a descending figure in the saxophones. | |
| 00:33 | AC | 16 | Same start as AB above (previous 16 bars), but C has piano breaks answered by whole band. | ||
| 00:50 | 2 | AB | 16 | Tenor saxophone solo by Coleman Hawkins. | |
| 01:07 | A | 8 | Tenor solo continues. | ||
| 01:15 | C | 8 | Band comes in with same music as previous C, except the tenor sax takes the place of the piano in the breaks. | ||
| 01:24 | Inter- lude |
4 | |||
| 01:28 | 3 | DB | 16 | Trumpet solo by Joe Smith. The chords of the first 8 bars (the D section) are new, they have a slightly sinister sound. Piano break ends the chorus, then band adds 2 extra bars. | |
| 01:46 | DC | 18 | |||
| 02:05 | 4 | DB | 16 | Contrasting theme played by clarinet trio. The use of this kind of contrasting theme comes from ragtime and march music. Chorus ends with a hot trumpet break. | |
| 02:22 | DC | 16 | |||
| 02:39 | 5 | AB | 16 | The earlier chord progression returns for Rex Stewart cornet solo. The band takes over for the last 4 bars of B. | |
| 02:56 | AC | 16 | Band plays theme out. | ||
Duke Ellington Black and Tan Fantasy (1927)
Ellington (p, comp, arr); Bubber Miley (t, comp), unidentified (t); Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton (tb); Otto Hardwick, Harry Carney (cl,as), Rudy Jackson (cl,ts); Fred Guy (bj); Wellman Braud (b); Sonny Greer (d).
This moody piece is a superb example of the Duke Ellington band in its earliest stages. It is dominated by growling brass, most especially the plunger trumpet of Bubber Miley, the great original and progenitor of all of the growling, plungering brass players that came after and were an indispensible to the Ellington sound. Miley is backed up by his first (and one of his greatest) disciples, Tricky Sam Nanton on trombone.
Miley is also co-composer of the piece, and in this role he leads off another lineage—the many Ellington band members who collaborated on "Ellington" compositions. It's impossible to say who did what in putting this one together, but it is an elegant construction, unusual in being primarily a 12-bar blues composition but with a contrasting theme that is not in blues form. The contrasting section is not only different from the rest of the piece formally, it also has a completely different sound, dominated by the sweeter reeds instead of the pungent brass.
The back and forth between the bluesy brass and the smoother reeds (or, later, the piano) gives the piece a narrative feel, and in fact it was the centerpiece of a short film made in 1929. The film is the (fictional) story of a dancer in Ellington's band who has been quite ill but is trying to make a comeback. On her opening night she falls dead in the middle of her show. Although the piece wasn't created specifically for this movie, it does feel as if it was written with a tragic story in mind, especially ending as it does with a funeral march.
| Time | Chorus | Bars | What Happens |
| 0:00 | 1 | 12 | This is the main theme of the piece, in 12-bar blues form. It's played by plunger-muted trumpet and trombone in harmony, and it's quite dark sounding. Besides the gritty sound of the brass, there are a couple of other reasons that this theme sounds so somber. For one, unlike the usual blues piece, in which the chords are major, the chords here are minor. Another reason is the heavy, plodding feel of the rhythm section--bass on beats 1 and 3, in the classic two-beat style, and banjo and maybe drums and/or piano whomping all 4 beats of the bar. Two subtle touches worth listening for are (1) the offbeat chords that Ellington plays in the space between the phrases of the melody (at about 0:07, 0:15, and 0:21) and Sonny Greer's choked cymbal crash at the end of the chorus (he uses the cymbal to good effect several more times in the piece). |
| 0:25 | 2 | 16 | The contrasting theme here is not in 12-bar blues form. Instead it is an 8-bar idea that is repeated (with small modifications the second time). Besides the change in form there is a change in sound--an alto sax plays the melody and the rest of the reeds come in half way through as a kind of chorus. The rhythm section lightens up, especially the banjo. Overall, this section has a brighter, more flowing feeling. Note again Greer's cymbal, which punctuates the first half-chorus with one crash and the entire section with three syncopated crashes. |
| 0:58 | 3 | 12 | A solo by Bubber Miley. The long held note at the beginning of the solo seems to be a part of the composition, not an improvisation by Miley, because it happens the same way in other recordings with other trumpet players. |
| 1:23 | 4 | 12 | Miley continues to solo. His second chorus starts out with a little exchange with Greer's cymbal (the cymbal comes back at the end of the chorus, as well). Throughout, Miley uses the plunger to give his playing a vocal quality, not so much singing as chiding the listener. Ellington takes over a bar before the end of this chorus. |
| 1:48 | 5 | 12 | Ellington strolls through the chorus without any accompaniment from the rest of the band. After the first few bars he settles into a gentle stride feeling (at 1:54, in particular, you can hear very clearly the boom-chunk-boom-chunk of his striding left hand). The way the mood lightens when Ellington takes over subtly mirrors the contrast between the two themes that start out the piece. |
| 2:11 | 6 | 12 | Tricky Sam Nanton improvises in a style very much like Miley's. He gives us a great horsey near the end of his chorus. There is a subtle change in the rhythmic feel here because Greer is hitting his cymbal on beats 2 and 4 of the bar. |
| 2:36 | 7 | 14 | Miley comes in with a new theme, a phrase that mostly consists of a repeated note and is answered by Greer's implacable cymbal. This is part of the composition, not an improvisation (though it may have developed out of an improvisation). After 7 bars, the music veers away from the blues form. The rest of the horns come in for a short transition that leads to the denouement--a quote from Chopin's Funeral March. If the piece is in some sense a dialog between dark and light (or pessimism and optimism), these last few dark, plodding bars leave no doubt about which wins out—the nail in the coffin, you might say. |
Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra Concerto for Cootie (1940)
Ellington (p, comp, arr); Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams (t); Rex Stewart (c); Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton, Laurence Brown (tb); Juan Tizol (vtb); Barney Bigard (cl, ts); Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges (as); Ben Webster (ts); Harry Carney (bars); Fred Guy (g); Jimmy Blanton (b); Sonny Greer (d).
The various sounds of Cootie Williams' trumpet are each given a special setting in this gem of a piece. Ellington gives each section a particular character to support and amplify the different characters of Williams' playing. Overall it is an excellent example of how skillfully Ellington could manipulate the form of his pieces. The basic idea here is an AABA tune (and in fact he recycled the melody as a straightforward AABA song called "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me"). But he stretches the A sections out a bit (10 bars instead of the usual 8, which allows some space for the band at the end of Williams' statements of the melody). In contrast to the A section, which feels slightly irregular, the B section is a comfortable 8 bar phrase, rock solid and swinging. Instead of repeating the AABA chorus structure, Ellington follows it with new music, a setting for Williams' bright open-horn playing. He returns to the original idea, the A section, after that, but instead of just repeating the opening he wraps up the piece by rephrasing and combining elements of B and C. Some of this formal flexibility was a matter of
| Time | Section | Bars | What Happens |
| 00:00 | Intro | After the manner of an introduction to a classical concerto, intricate and a bit mysterious so that the emergence of the soloist is an event. | |
| 00:19 | A | 10 | Trumpet plays tune with plunger mute (n.b.: The tune starts with a pickup, 00:19 is when the first bar of the A sections starts, not when the tune starts) |
| 00:43 | A | 10 | Second statement of tune, this time with a different mute (sounds like a straight mute, or else the plunger held closed, so there is no wa-wa). They A sections are generally subdued and lyrical. |
| 01:08 | B | 8 | Williams plays the bridge with growl plunger style, and the band plays out and swings a little bit harder. |
| 01:27 | A | 8 | Back to the same mute as the second A. Here the A section is rounded out at a more normal 8 bars. |
| 01:46 | 4 | Transition to the next section, with a key change. | |
| 01:55 | C | 16 | Williams plays open horn here (it's easy to hear the influence of Armstrong in the half-valved scoops up and ebullient tone) |
| 02:34 | 2 | Transition back to the original key and the main tune. | |
| 02:39 | A | 6 | The main theme, played in a subdued manner using straight mute. This time it is shortened by 2 bars from the expected 8. |
| 02:53 | D | 10 | A final section played with plunger (but no growl). Has the ebullience of the B and C sections. |
Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra Cotton Tail (1940)
Ellington (p, comp, arr); Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams (t); Rex Stewart (c); Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton, Laurence Brown (tb); Juan Tizol (vtb); Barney Bigard (cl, ts); Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges (as); Ben Webster (ts); Harry Carney (bars); Fred Guy (g); Jimmy Blanton (b); Sonny Greer (d).
An Ellington composition based on "rhythm changes," that is, a tune written to the chords of George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm." It is also Ellington's version of a swing-style chart. A lot of space is given to Ben Webster's gruff, hard-swinging Kansas City sound. Ellington's band wasn't really a "swing band" in the same sense as Goodman's or Basie's, but the playing here shows that they could swing as hard as anybody else. Sonny Greer's drumming is energizing throughout.
Take note particularly of the way Ellington builds energy in the last three choruses. Also, he finds a number of different ways to set the B sections apart from the A sections in each chorus. Try to pay attention to them.
| Time | Chorus/ Section |
Bars | What Happens | |
| 00:00 | 1 | A | 8 | The beginning is no nonsense, there's no intro or anything, just the theme played by trumpet and sax, with a few punctuations from the trombones. |
| 00:09 | A | 8 | ||
| 00:17 | B | 8 | Cootie Williams' plunger trumpet solo with sax chords in the background. It is quite common on "rhythm changes" tunes like this for the B section not to have a written theme but instead to feature a short improvisation. For the rest of the tune, the B section will be made to stand out in various ways. | |
| 00:25 | A | 4 | A syncopated figure in the brass with a sax line in the background finishes off the first chorus. This final A section is truncated to 4 bars—Ellington apparently didn't want to play through the theme a third time but instead uses this last A as a kind of whirlwind that spills out into the sax solo. | |
| 00:29 | 2 | A | 8 | Ben Webster solos on tenor sax. |
| 00:36 | A | 8 | ||
| 00:44 | B | 8 | The brass comes in on the B section, playing loud chords that act as a call. Webster responds. Notice the way drummer Sonny Greer marks the end of the section with drum accents. | |
| 00:52 | A | 8 | Tenor solo continues, with an interjection from the brass in the last few bars. In this chorus, the brass entrances mark the two main formal events: the B section and the end. | |
| 01:00 | 3 | A | 8 | The third chorus is structured like the second, except the brass part is simplified a little bit. Webster starts the chorus by playing a series of mounting-up phrases, each time answered by a crashing chord from Ellington's piano. Through most of these 2 choruses, though, Webster is supported only by beautifully energized bass and drums. Make sure to listen to what goes on behind Webster's solo as well as what he plays. |
| 01:09 | A | 8 | ||
| 01:17 | B | 8 | ||
| 01:25 | A | 8 | ||
| 01:33 | 4 | A | 8 | The first half of this chorus is a brass soli (meaning that the trumpet and trombone sections are playing a written-out part together). |
| 01:41 | A | 8 | ||
| 01:49 | B | 8 | Improvised solo from Harry Carney (baritone sax). Ellington plays one big chord at each harmony change, filling the role the brass have had in the previous 2 choruses. | |
| 01:56 | A | 8 | Striding piano solo from Ellington, with his inimitable percussive touch. Note the "bombs" he drops in the bass register of the piano to set up the start of the next chorus. | |
| 02:04 | 5 | A | 8 | Now it's the saxophone section's turn for a chorus-long soli, and they play with impeccable swing and precision. It's spectacular ensemble playing all around, and beautiful writing on Ellington's part. |
| 02:12 | A | 8 | ||
| 02:20 | B | 8 | The saxes continue to have the floor through the B section, so it is not set off as in other choruses by the entry of a new instrument. But the phrasing is quite different here. While the rest of this chorus is made up of elaborate, drawn-out melodies, the B section is cut up into catchy, riff-like two bar phrases that are paired a bit like call and response. The first, rising phrase sounds to me more like a question that the subsequent falling phrase answers. Drummer Sonny Greer marks the whole thing out with a low "ba-dum-dum" every two bars. | |
| 02:28 | A | 8 | ||
| 02:36 | 6 | A | 8 | The sax soli continues into this chorus, but now they are responding to the trumpet section's call every 2 bars (and then the trumpets round out the end of each A section). After the first three trumpet blasts of each chorus, the saxophones play a high and sometimes fluttery chord, almost as if they are too flustered to play a coherent phrase (of course the player's themselves are not at all flustered, I'm talking about the feeling of the music, not the feeling of the players). One person (David Schiff, a composer and critic) writing about this piece describes the brass at this point as "Ellington's loyal commandos" because of the way they blaze onto the scene and then, in the B section, seem to muscle the saxophones out of the way. |
| 02:43 | A | 8 | ||
| 02:51 | B | 8 | The trumpets take over and belt out the climactic section of the piece. | |
| 02:59 | A | 8 | All that's left to do is say "it's over," and Ellington does this succinctly: a mixed brass/reed group repeats the opening theme. | |
Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra Ko-Ko (1940)
Ellington (p, comp, arr); Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams (t); Rex Stewart (c); Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton, Laurence Brown (tb); Juan Tizol (vtb); Barney Bigard (cl, ts); Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges (as); Ben Webster (ts); Harry Carney (bars); Fred Guy (g); Jimmy Blanton (b); Sonny Greer (d).
An exercise in what can be done with call and response. Listen to how the exchanges are slowly transformed to build tension and energy. Except for the beginning and end, the piece uses the 12-bar blues form.
| Time | Chorus | Bars | What Happens |
| 00:00 | Intro | 8 | Low note in baritone (or possibly bass) saxophone answered by trombones. The pattern is repeated 4 times, with the trombone figure getting higher and stronger the first 3 times, then backing off. |
| 00:13 | 1 | 12 | The rhythm of the low sax note in the intro turns into a 4 note tune played by valve trombone solo (Juan Tizol) and answered by the saxes. |
| 00:32 | 2 | 12 | In the background, saxes take over a variation of Tizol's riff from the last chorus and are answered by plunger-muted brass punches. In the foreground, Tricky Sam Nanton improvises. |
| 00:50 | 3 | 12 | |
| 01:08 | 4 | 12 | Background call and response from previous chorus continues but is slightly modified -- sax riff changes and trombones drop out. In the foreground Ellington plays a percussive solo. |
| 01:26 | 5 | 12 | Solo plunger trumpet takes over call role, the answer is a high-low exchange of reeds and trombones. |
| 01:44 | 6 | 12 | Call and response is replaced by a pyramid effect involving the whole band. It is released by solo breaks played by bassist Jimmy Blanton. Note the resonance and suppleness of his bass playing. |
| 02:03 | 7 | 12 | Big shining brass chords answered by a descending figure from the saxes. |
| 02:21 | 8 | Repeat of intro. | |
| 02:34 | 4 | Instead of repeating the "tune," there is a pyramid-effect buildup based on the call figure that brings the piece to an end. |
Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra In a Mello Tone (1940)
Ellington (p, comp, arr); Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams (t); Rex Stewart (c); Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton, Laurence Brown (tb); Juan Tizol (vtb); Barney Bigard (cl, ts); Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges (as); Ben Webster (ts); Harry Carney (bars); Fred Guy (g); Jimmy Blanton (b); Sonny Greer (d).
This tune is in one of the variants of AA' form -- in this case ABAC. The soloists are Cootie Williams and Johnny Hodges. As with so many of Ellington's pieces, there are all sorts of variations of call and response here. Ellington shapes and paces the piece by changing the intensity and character of the band's statements in these exchanges. Both Williams and Hodges have some room to make their own statements but they also respond to whatever the band throws at them.
Throughout this piece Jimmy Blanton on bass is a remarkable presence, first of all just because of how much sound he is able to get out of his bass, but beyond that because of how firmly and confidently he anchors the beat. Most of the time he is walking, meaning he is playing a note on every beat, though he does play a more melodic dialog with Ellington's piano in the introduction.
| Time | Chorus/ Section |
Bars | What Happens | |
| 00:00 | Intro | 8 | Piano introduction in Ellington's characteristic percussive style, with some room left for Blanton to answer on the bass. The saxophones come in with the three beat pickup into the tune. | |
| 00:14 | 1 | A | 8 | The saxophone section plays the melody, with the trombone section answering each phrase. The saxes are playing in unison, meaning they are all playing the melody together and none of them are playing harmony notes. The answer sounds richer because the trombones are playing in harmony, not in unison. Ellington structured the melody so that the tune ends two bars before the end of the chorus. Those two bars are used in various ways. In this opening chorus, Ellington fills them in at the piano. |
| 00:29 | B | 8 | ||
| 00:44 | A | 8 | ||
| 00:59 | C | 8 | ||
| 01:13 | 2 | A | 8 | Cootie Williams trumpet solo. It starts out fairly quietly, with the saxophone section playing quiet chords in the background. At the B section, it turns into a call and response dialog, with the saxophone section taking the response role. |
| 01:28 | B | 8 | ||
| 01:43 | A | 8 | Things heat up more in the second half of Williams' solo chorus. The saxophone responses are based on a fast down and up figure that has a double time feeling, though the rhythm sections stays firmly where it has been all along. Williams switches into growl mode. | |
| 01:58 | C | 8 | ||
| 02:13 | 3 | A | 8 | This last chorus leads off with a shout from the full band and then Johnny Hodges takes over on alto sax. The background for Hodges is subdued, and everybody drops out at the end of the B section to give him a 2 bar break. |
| 02:29 | B | 8 | ||
| 02:44 | A | 8 | As in Williams' chorus, there is a hint of double time at the half way mark, this time coming from Hodges' playing. The band re-enters for the C section of this last half chorus, playing the call role and letting Hodges play the responses. At the end of the chorus the band plays a couple of short phrases to bring the piece to conclusion. | |
| 03:00 | C | 8 | ||
Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra Sophisticated Lady (1940)
Ellington (p, comp, arr); Wallace Jones, Ray Nance (t); Rex Stewart (c); Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton, Laurence Brown (tb); Juan Tizol (vtb); Barney Bigard (cl, ts); Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges (as); Ben Webster (ts); Harry Carney (bars); Fred Guy (g); Jimmy Blanton (b); Sonny Greer (d).
This excerpt, featuring trombonist Laurence Brown, is the last chorus of the performance. It is a great example of Brown's smooth but completely original sound and style. At the end of the piece Brown soars up to an amazingly high note (Eb concert) and holds it out for a long time. Sophisticated Lady was one of Ellington's most successful AABA popular-style songs.
Duke Ellington Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue (1937)
Ellington (p, comp, arr); Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams (t); Rex Stewart (c); Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton, Laurence Brown (tb); Barney Bigard (cl, ts); Otto Hardwick (as); Johnny Hodges (ss, as); Harry Carney (cl, as, bars); Fred Guy (g); Billy Taylor (b); Sonny Greer (d).
One of Ellington's extended compositions with a blues theme. On the original recording, the diminuendo and crescendo each took one side of a 78 rpm record.