[Dixielandjazz] Duke Ellington - A Life By Terry Teachout

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Steve,

An excellent review! I suspect I'm going to drop heavy hints to persuade my family that the Teachout book should be in my stocking on 25th December.

I think Alec Wilder's comment that Ellington's compositional talents were restricted to the 32 bar Tin Pan Alley song structure speaks more about Wilder than it does about Ellington. Wilder had a reputation for heavy criticism of other songwriters, but here I think he's completely missed the point about Ellington. Anyone familiar with Duke's greatest instrumental recordings will know that they develop organically and that the composition is in fact the whole arrangement, not just a 12 or 32 bar theme. On the evidence of his finest 1939 - early 40s recordings (Cottontail, Koko, Mainstem etc) I'd say that Duke was one of the finest miniaturists in all music, not just jazz.  These were three-minute masterpieces with each piece telling a coherent story, setting and developing a strong mood through imaginative orchestrations which added essential colour.

I'd also take issue with Teachout's assertion that 'Ellington was a major composer but not an influential one.'
Duke's compositions are probably still played more often than those of any other single jazz composer and if that's not influential, I don't know what is. When I started my band, I deliberately steered clear of Duke's compositions, partly because everyone else in the jazz mainstream was playing them, but largely because once you open the big bag marked "Ellington" there's no escape. The sheer volume of his output is staggering, but so is the consistency of musical quality: there aren't many duds in his oeuvre.

Regards,

Ken Mathieson