[Dixielandjazz] Duke Ellington reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Duke Ellington: The Complete 1932-1940 Brunswick, Columbia and Master Recordings
of Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra (Mosaic Records)
by Colin Fleming
JazzTimes.com, July 10, 2011
Mosaic isn't exactly mucking around on this gargantuan 11-disc set that essentially
distills the first grand age of Ellingtonia into the contents of one box set. There
would, of course, be other ages of comparable majesty, but this set represents the
first full ripening of Ellington's highly idiosyncratic and highly attuned big-band
compositional style. In the whole of jazz there may be nothing that is so particular
to a single individual as Ellington's approach to writing. It is one thing to write
songs that immediately become part of the popular culture, and another entirely to
do so while writing for each individual member of an individual band, as Ellington
does here.
A lot of these cuts were the hits of their day, and while it may seem odd to say
that any artist could boast an 11-disc greatest-hits compilation, the idea really
isn't that novel once you sit down with this set. As always, Mosaic has scraped away
decades of grime, and most cuts are now eminently crankable. Ellington was inextricable
from the blues, and the multiple versions of "Blue Mood" attest to what he liked
to do with it: liven it up with some crisp percussion from Sonny Greer and let Johnny
Hodges blow his keening lines over the top, with his own piano chords serving as
a kind of metronome beneath. Eventually, we find Ellington's blues growing up into
something more refined -- and more like chamber music, but for the masses. Witness,
then, "The New Black and Tan Fantasy" and a Barney Bigard clarinet line that is so
high one could mistake it for feedback.
During this gilded epoch, Ellington balanced his growing penchant for grand gestures
-- the symphonic jazz poem, the extended suite -- with the hard-swinging ravers that
kept his Cotton Club constituents foot-tapping. What made all of it click was his
ability to individually tailor song parts to his various virtuosos. "Trumpet in Spades,"
from a summer 1936 date, is a number that Ellington presumably could not have written
for anyone but Rex Stewart. There is fast playing, there is Freddie Hubbard playing,
and somewhere beyond both realms there is what Stewart does on this track. When the
band does cool it down, they tend to emphasize instrumental voicings -- and actual
voicings -- that would become suggestive of vocal groups like Lambert, Hendricks
and Ross. On "Diga Diga Do," from Christmastime 1932, the Mills Brothers play the
vocalese role, while Ellington's stalwarts serenade them from all sides with horn
phrases that have a touch of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Listen to the song
once and its title is apt to become your catch-phrase for the day, a piece of inspired
(and inspiring) nonsense.
Listeners who prefer to sate themselves on outtakes are in for a bounty as well.
Some are beleaguered by weak sound, but most are up to the sonic standards of the
released cuts. If you enjoy being haunted by the music you listen to, try the alternate
take of "Pyramid" from mid-1938. Ellington steps aside from his piano bench for a
turn on a hand drum, birthing a rhythm-and-blues requiem. One is thankful when the
horns occasionally enter to break the mood with their hearty condolences.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
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