"Echoes of Harlem", also known as "Cootie's Concerto", [1] is a 1936 composition by Duke Ellington. A piece with a jazz blues sound in F minor with an ostinato piano pattern, it has been cited as one of Ellington's "mood" pieces. It opens with trumpet, playing blues sounds in F minor over the ostinato pattern, followed by a segment of 14 bars with some harmony. The third part, played in velvet sound, by the saxophone section, is in Ab majeur, but starts with Db, the subdominant of Ab. The piece contains thus 3 segments. [2] The original recording features Cootie Williams on trumpet, [3] playing in what Lawrence McClellan describes as "muted" and "in a somber minor key". [4] It has been performed by Roy Eldridge, with Oscar Peterson and Herb Ellis. [5]
Jazz musician and musicologist André Hodeir wrote the following:
Few records do more than the Concerto to make possible an appreciation of how great the role is that sonority can play in the creation of jazz. The trumpet part is a true bouqet of sonorities. The phrases given to it by Ellington which have a melodic beauty which should not be overlooked, are completely taken over by Cootie. He makes them shine forth in dazzling colors, then plunges them in the shade, plays around with them, make them glitter or delicately tones them down; and each time what he shows us is something new. [1]
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life.
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include classical compositions such as Ravel's Boléro and the Carol of the Bells, and popular songs such as Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's "I Feel Love" (1977), Henry Mancini's theme from Peter Gunn (1959), The Who's "Baba O'Riley" (1971), The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (1997), and Flo Rida's "Low" (2007).
Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton was an American trombonist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. A pioneer of the plunger mute, Nanton is notable for his use of the distinctive wah-wah effect.
Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.
Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor and director Walter Damrosch. It is just over half an hour long.
Ray Willis Nance was an American jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer. He is best remembered for his long association with Duke Ellington and his orchestra.
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities. For this reason it is an important tool of jazz musicians and composers for teaching and learning jazz theory and set arrangement, regardless of their main instrument. By extension the phrase 'jazz piano' can refer to similar techniques on any keyboard instrument.
...And His Mother Called Him Bill is a studio album by Duke Ellington recorded in the wake of the 1967 death of his long-time collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. It won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1968.
Far East Suite is a 1967 concept album by American jazz musician Duke Ellington, inspired by his group's tour of Asia. Ellington and longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn wrote the compositions.
The Blanton–Webster Band is a compilation album that combines the master takes of all the recordings by Duke Ellington's Orchestra during the years of 1940 to 1942, involving bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. The recordings were originally made for RCA Victor during what many critics regard as the Ellington orchestra's golden period. The three CDs contain many numbers which were to become classics, and the arrangements were frequently inventive and innovative.
"Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" is a jazz composition written in 1937 by Duke Ellington and recorded for the first time on May 15, 1937 by the Duke Ellington Orchestra with Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams (trumpet), Rex Stewart (cornet), Barney Bigard (clarinet), Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick, Laurence Brown, Joe Nanton (trombone), Harry Carney, Sonny Greer (drums), Wellmann Braud (bass), Freddie Guy (guitar), and Duke Ellington (piano). No tenor saxophone was present in this recording section, nor in "Crescendo in Blue," which was recorded the same day. In its early form, the two individual pieces, "Diminuendo in Blue" and "Crescendo in Blue," were recorded on opposite sides of a 78 rpm record. The 1956 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival revitalized Ellington's career, making newspaper headlines when seated audience members chaotically began rising to dance and stand on their chairs during Paul Gonsalves's tenor saxophone solo.
The Great Paris Concert is a 1973 live double album by jazz pianist Duke Ellington preserving pieces of a series of performances given in Paris during February 1963, a decade prior the release. For the 1989 CD reissue, 10 additional recordings from the same series of Paris concerts were added to the release. These 10 performances had previously been released on the 1967 LP Duke Ellington's Greatest Hits: Recorded "Live" In Concert.
Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band is a 2003 three-disc compilation combining the master takes of all the recordings by Duke Ellington's Orchestra during the years of 1940 to 1942 with an additional nine tracks, including five alternative takes and four additional masters. An expanded version of The Blanton–Webster Band, this reissue, according to Allmusic, "truly worth either an initial investment or reinvestment". All About Jazz: New York observed that these performances, from what is often considered "the band in its prime", "not only set the standard for big bands and jazz orchestras, but created an ideal near insurmountable to improve upon". The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this compilation as part of its suggested "Core Collection."
Joseph Christopher Columbus Morris, better known as Crazy Chris Columbo or just Chris Columbo, was an American jazz drummer. He was sometimes credited as Joe Morris on record, though he is no relation to free jazz guitarist Joe Morris or trumpeter Joe Morris.
Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington is one of the following realisations:
New Orleans Suite is a studio album by the American pianist, composer, and bandleader Duke Ellington, recorded and released on the Atlantic label in 1970. The album contains the final recordings of longtime Ellington saxophonist Johnny Hodges, who died between the album's two recording sessions. The album won a Grammy Award in 1971 for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band.
Masterpieces by Ellington is the first LP album by American pianist, composer, and bandleader Duke Ellington, recorded for the Columbia label in 1950. It was one of the earliest 12-inch LPs to take advantage of the extended time available and consisted of four tracks, three of them "concert arrangements" of Ellington standards and one, "The Tattooed Bride," a recent tone poem.
The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World is a 1967 live album featuring Duke Ellington and his orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, T-Bone Walker, Coleman Hawkins, Clark Terry and Zoot Sims. It was released in 1975.
"The Mooche" is an American jazz song, composed in 1928 by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills, with scat singing by vocalist Gertrude "Baby" Cox. The song is considered to be one of Ellington's signature pieces and "he performed it frequently and recorded it many times over 45 years."
"Harlem Air Shaft" is a piece of music composed by American jazz composer and musician Duke Ellington, first recorded for RCA Victor and released in 1940. Featured in 38 recordings since, it was a popular piece in both Ellington's repertoire and among jazz trumpeters such as Clark Terry. It is generally considered programmatic by some composers and scholars, acting as a narration of everyday noises heard in 1930s New York City.