Ellington Suites

[Larry Kart]

Just to keep things straight, Walter van de Leur's book "Soemthing To Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn" demonstrates beyond any doubt that four movements from "The Queen's Suite," six of nine movements from "The Nutcracker Suite," four of five movements from the "Peer Gynt Suite," "Agra," "Isfahan," and "Blue Bird of Delhi" from "Far East Suite," and "Star-Crossed Lovers," "Half the Fun," and "Up and Down, Up and Down" from "Such Sweet Thunder" are wholly the work of Strayhorn. I recommend the book to anyone who thinks that the music of the two men was indistinguishable, a fiction that some of those around Ellington (and Duke himself at times) were eager to promote. On the other hand, Strayhorn and Ellington were using much the same timbral palette (the actual members of the then-current Ellington orchestra), even though there were clear structural and harmonic differences between their composing/arranging styles.

[Lazaro Vega]

Interesting thing about "The Single Petal of A Rose," it shows off very clearly how Ellington didn't like to write endings, one of his 'superstitions.' Listen to the end of that, it doesn't quite resolve, just sort of drifts into, what?, dissonance?

Thinking about Gunther Schuller's assessment of Reminiscing In Tempo as the opposite of a typical swing era composition. Beautifully complex piece of music.

Of the suites, "Harlem," from the Great Paris Concert: best piece blurring the boundaries between individual musical personalities, the composer's intentions and the band's ensemble sound; best at blurring the lines between composition and improvisation (how much was improvised originally and then became scored into the piece we may never know).

[jazzbo]

Lawrence that is indeed an excellent book (which can be bought at a nice price from Daedalus books) and you are right, a lot more credit is due Strays than he'll ever receive. A fascinating book in so many ways! (Just like the subject, the man and music, Billy Strayhorn.)

[Lazaro Vega]

"Madness In Great Ones" from "Such Sweet Thunder" could only be the work of Duke, though.

[catesta]

Can't go wrong with any of them, but Black Brown and Beige is probably my favorite.

[B. Goren.]

Can't go wrong with any of them...

Absolutely agree with you, but my favorite is Far East.

I am just listening to it right now...

[Pete C]

"Harlem," which was mentioned a couple of times is great, but it's not technically a suite.

[mikeweil]

My favourite must be the New Orleans Suite, because that was the music that taught me to love Ellington.

But they all have their merits.

[JSngry]

My favourite must be the New Orleans Suite, because that was the music that taught me to love Ellington.

The work of EVERY saxophonist (Hodges AND the section) on "Blues For New Orleans" guarantees them all a place of immortality in my heart.

[catesta]

When I saw Junior Mance a few weeks back, he played a solo piano version of Le Sucrier Velours, oh man, what a beautiful song.

[LAL]

Some favourites:

Deep South Suite

Far East Suite

Black, Brown & Beige (50s Columbia version)

[gslade]

The Far East Suite

The first Ellington album I ever Listened to

[Pete C]

My favorite version of Black, Brown & Beige is the one on Private Collection Vol. 10, recorded in 1965-66. It's basically all the themes from the original version without the, IMO forced and superfluous, transitional passages that Duke used to make what is essentially a suite into a semblance of a unified large-scale composition in 3 movements. For me the 9 discrete tracks on this version works much better than the concert version.

I love Harlem, but as I said above, I don't think of it as a suite.

My favorite suites are,

Far East

Queen's

Such Sweet Thunder

New Orleans

I'm also fond of Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, but it doesn't quite make it to the level of those above. I find Latin American Suite generally disappointing.

Liberian & Perfume Suites are both fun too.

I don't think I've ever heard Deep South Suite.

[LAL]

Another favourite is the Liberian Suite.

Deep South Suite is a 4-parter rarely performed by the Duke and includes "Happy-Go-Lucky Local", whose riff was later used by Jimmy Forrest in "Night Train". The suite can be found on Classics 1946 (#1015) and disc.1 of Music Masters' Great Chicago Concerts.

Here's a link to a website listing the suites and another. Can't vouch for their accuracy though.

Edited April 28, 2004 by LAL

[Alon Marcus]

I could never choose one favorite but Afro Eurasian Eclipse is on the current playing list.

The one thing that is a bit annoying is Duke's long introduction. Though it was nice to listen to his expressive and calm speach for the first few times, later I just started to skip the first 2 minutes to get to the music.

...and just out of curiosity, what is this "shimwisery" he talks about (hope I spelled the word right) and the "Ricky-Ticky"?

The music is terrific!

Edited May 2, 2005 by Alon Marcus

[Guy Berger]

I could never choose one favorite but Afro Eurasian Eclipse is on the current playing list.

The one thing that is a bit annoying is Duke's long introduction. Though it was nice to listen to his expressive and calm speach for the first few times, later I just started to skip the first 2 minutes to get to the music.

...and just out of curiosity, what is this "shimwisery" he talks about (hope I spelled the word right) and the "Ricky-Ticky"?

The music is terrific! 

"Shimwisery" is "Chinoiserie", a la French. I think "rikki tikki" has nothing to do with the mongoose, Duke is simply describing the sound of piano playing. I imagine that you could rip it onto CD without the first 1:30 or whatever. (Also, fastforwarding on the iPod is very convenient.)

MMW do a pretty cool version of this tune on Friday Afternoon in the Universe.

Guy

Edited May 2, 2005 by Guy Berger

[marcello]

The Queen Suite is both powerful and beautiful.

Here's a quote:

The "Queen's Suite," never released during Ellington's lifetime, is a major work: Strayhorn's "Northern Lights" is a dramatic piece influenced by early 20th Century classical music. "Sunset And The Mocking Bird" is a tender Hodges feature with a lush, luscious arrangement, while the spare "The Single Petal Of A Rose" - Ellington on piano accompanied only by bowed bass - is equally gorgeous. "Lightning Bugs And Frogs," while not as lighthearted as the title suggests, is full of amusing melodic leaps and is played with remarkable control by the orchestra.

[JSngry]

I could never choose one favorite but Afro Eurasian Eclipse is on the current playing list.

The one thing that is a bit annoying is Duke's long introduction.

Oh, dude, that speech is SO full of subtext and subversion that in some ways it's the definitive Ellington moment!

[marcello]

Somewhere in my tapes I have a wonderful live version of that ( with a interview) from a British TV show.

With the intro. of course! How could you not dig that?

[Alon Marcus]

I could never choose one favorite but Afro Eurasian Eclipse is on the current playing list.

The one thing that is a bit annoying is Duke's long introduction.

Oh, dude, that speech is SO full of subtext and subversion that in some ways it's the definitive Ellington moment!

I'll be glad to know more about the subtext and subversion. Didn't notice anything that special

[JSngry]

It's all in the delivery.

And if you think there's no personal significance to the choice of the word "Eclipse" in the piece's title, I'm gonna have to disagree upfront. To a man whose time never really came in his lifetime as far as being fully accepted for the genius that he was, it's a look to the not-too-distant future where the cultural mindset that invariably condescended to him would be in decline, with nothing to stop it.

What you here in that speech is a man sitting back and waiting for a future that, whether he lived to see it or not, was inevitable. Duke's delivery virtually drips with sarcasm and delight as he, as always, plays the role of "sparklingly gracious" while also, as always, saying more than he lets on. The way he delivered it played perfectly to how he knew that a lot of people wouldn't get it. Yet.

And whoever designed that cover was a genius. A lot of phone books of the time had a very similar look, kind of a "these are the faces of your neighbors" trip. Well, in the future, THESE are going to be the faces of your neighbors:

Ready or not, here we come!

Duke was saying a helluva lot in that speech.

[Alexander Hawkins]

Just fallen in love with The Queen's Suite. Easily done, but wow!

[Kalo]

I've been a big fan of The Queen's Suite since buying the LP back in the early '80s. "The Single Petal of a Rose" is amazing. So beautiful.

But my favorite is probably Such Sweet Thunder. I LOVE the swaggering title tune, and Strayhorn's "The Star-Crossed Lovers" is one of his finest Hodges showcases. The idea of translating sonnet form into musical form is cool, too.

Too bad Phil Schaap F'd up on the CD version. Maybe this has already been covered elsewhere on the board, but in his notes to the CD, Bill Berry writes of the tune "Up and Down, Up and Down (I Will Lead Them Up and Down)" "At the end, Terry's trumpet pronounces Puck's famous quotation from A Midsummer Night's Dream: 'Lord what fools these mortals be.' "

What we hear on the CD, unfortunately, is an alternate take with a different ending. As usual with Schaap there's a boatload of alternates on the disc--but we don't get the take that the liner notes on BOTH the LP and CD refer to. It's hard to imagine that he was unacquainted with the original; but what other explanation is there for leaving off one of the most distinctive moments in the suite? I'm glad I held on to my vinyl.

I only recently picked up Latin American Suite and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse. I'm not sure what took me so long. I'm enjoying them both. (I appreciate JSngry's observations about Eclipse--right on the money.)

[JSngry]

"...and from that point of view, it's most improbable that anyone will ever know exactly whooo is enjoying the shadow of whooooommmmm...."

"enjoying the shadow of"? Whoa....

[Guy Berger]

But my favorite is probably Such Sweet Thunder. I LOVE the swaggering title tune, and Strayhorn's "The Star-Crossed Lovers" is one of his finest Hodges showcases. The idea of translating sonnet form into musical form is cool, too.

I think I like the Hodges on "Half the Fun" even better. This is a great album.

Guy