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Duke
Ellington, A Spiritual Biography
Excerpt
from Duke Ellington, A Spiritual Biography
by
Janna Tull Steed
Copyright©1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights
reserved
From
Chapter 4, Harlem and Hollywood
The
[Washingtonians'] long stint at the Kentucky Club gave Ellington
an opportunity to hone his arranging skills and build on
the band's strengths. Duke wrote music for a revue called
Chocolate Kiddies, which toured Europe for two years.
Will Marion Cook, a black classical violinist, became his
informal tutor in music theory and composition. Cook had
an impressive career composing and conducting, and in 1898
his all-black revue Clorindy
opened
at a major house on Broadway. According to Ellington, Cook
knew Duke wouldn't study at a conservatory. So he advised
this young man to find the logical way to develop a melody
or voice a chord, then go around it and let his "inner
self" break through.
Another
influence on Duke's developing style came from new members
of the band. Charlie Irvis was a trombone player who took
his place on the stand and proceeded
to
add what came to be called "jungle-istic" effects
to the music. Using some household object as a mute on the
bell of his horn, Irvis would growl and grunt, slide suggestively,
shiver his tone like a saxophonist. Irvis hung around with
two other players who were given to similar stylistic touches,
trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley and fellow trombonist
Joe Nanton.When Arthur Whetsol decided to return home, Miley
was recruited to replace him. Nanton, who was dubbed "Tricky
Sam" by Otto Hardwick, took over Irvis's place when
Charley decided to play elsewhere. All three players contributed
to the evolving style of The Washingtonians, and they were
the catalysts for an approach that Duke would use the rest
of his life. He used his players' individual talents and
limitations, their musical idiosyncrasies and personal styles
as sources of musical ideas and new tone colors for his
compositional palette.
From
Bubber Miley, especially, Duke learned the importance of
paying attention to what was around him. Bubber showed him
a way of translating sights into sound. The trumpet player
would take his inspiration from an advertising sign, a name,
an overheard phrase. He'd say the syllables slowly. He'd
play around with pitch, inflection, and phrasing. Then Bubber
would take up his horn and translate these sounds into riffs
that imitated the rise and fall and cadence of the human
voice. Another technique was to take a melodic line from
a hymn in church, turn it on its head, convert a major interval
to minor, vary the rhythm. Now he had a new jazz figure.
What is more, Ellington was learning a meditative process
essential to art. The meditative element of artistic creation
comes from attending to and selecting something from the
environment and submitting it to an interior process, through
which the selected material becomes reinterpreted and transformed.
In an artistic creation this reinterpretation - through
the medium of a poem, a painting, a musical composition,
a dance or whatever - has the power to prompt recognition
and a new awareness in others.
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