Underutilized Ellingtonians

[jeffcrom]

Tonight I was listening to a CD I forgot I had - Duke Ellington at Birdland 1952 on the Jazz Unlimited label. The CD has 73 minutes of NBC radio broadcasts from November, 1952. It's generally excellent, but it got me thinking about Hilton Jefferson's stint in the Ellington band.

Jefferson is arguably one of the half-dozen best swing-era lead alto saxophonists and soloists. He was with Ellington for about six months, from June to December, 1952, filling what I can't help thinking of as the "Johnny Hodges chair" between Willie Smith's and Rick Henderson's stints in that slot. This great saxophonist doesn't get any solos on those November broadcasts, and as far as I can tell, his only recorded solo with Ellington is twelve bars in "The Mooche" from the Ellington Uptown album.

Ellington said that, "You can't write music right unless you know how the man that'll play it plays poker." But surely he must have played a game or two with Hilton Jefferson during those six months. But come to think of it, neither Willie Smith (Hodges' replacement, as part of the "Great James Robbery"*) nor Rick Henderson got much solo space with Ellington. Maybe the Duke was at a loss as to what to do with that chair until Hodges returned in 1955.

So I see Jefferson's stint with Ellington largely as a wasted opportunity. I can think of several other cases where Ellington had an excellent soloist on board whom he didn't take full advantage of, but I'll wait to see if anyone else mentions them.

 

*After Hodges quit Ellington, taking Sonny Greer and Lawrence Brown with him, Ellington hired Willie Smith, Juan Tizol, and Louis Bellson from Harry James' band.

Edited November 22, 2016 by jeffcrom

[JSngry]

How much action did Johnny Coles get? Julian Preister?

For that matter, Otto Hardwick?

But that whole period...that's when people were talking about how Duke had lost focus and stuff. Maybe, yeah, but maybe not really? And yet at his own label, he had to take a back seat (maybe even a rumble seat) to Stan Kenton...I wonder how much the Hodges sound/vibe/juice was really critical to Duke getting his groove on, it's like he was playing a waiting game for Hodges to get back so he could unleash the mighty Ellington mojo again?

And to all who want to fradulate about how Duke would have been nothing without Strayhorn, consider that Duke still had Billy during the non-Hodges years, and ok, they still did good work, but one Rabbit came back, hey, it's like the wiring was whole again, current began to flow freely again.

I don't know, just seems that way when taking a broad generalistic overview. The specifics show a still-great band with a still-fine book. But hey, when that Johnny Hodges guy came back, stuff started getting mo-betta, right?

[JSngry]

Also....I always look forward to Jimmy Hamilton's tenor spots, when they happened.

Interesting to me how once Hamilton split, Harold Ashby came in and made some strong tenor statements, and Russell Procope became THE clarinet voice in the band.

But I also looked forward to Procope's alto solos, his little routine on "Jam With Sam" never fails to crack me up.

[Peter Friedman]

I recall hearing a number of Ellington recordings where Rick Henderson played quite a few solos. They never sat right with me, probably because ,as Jim indicated, that chair belonged to Hodges, and Henderson's playing was not at that level.

[JSngry]

Nobody's was, really...I mean, Hodges was not an original Ellintonian, but as soon as he got there, he because part of the DNA, imo.

Now, what was interesting was Geezil Minerve coming in, where that voice could have led , but that would have required a whole reset of the timeframe of the DNA and a resetting of the DNA of the timetable, and, uh...not all attempts at evolution gain traction and move forward, even ones that have potential...history written by the winners also includes winners as things that simply survive long enough to take hold and stay for a while.

Actually, that last Ellington band, the one heard on Last Trip To Paris, that was a band that could have developed its own voice, and maybe did under Mercer...documentation of post-Duke live Mercerband is sparse(?), and so were gigs, and the burden of being The Ellington Band...I knew a few guys who played that gig in the late 70s, and then later on, and it was being pulled all kinds of ways, audience expectations vs. a desire to play the later works in depth. Not sure that it ever, ever, was a regular touring band, although it tried in the beginning, it seemed. That CD is a mess, a really weird, intense, mess, and the sound of a world coming to an end against its own will while business demands increased...but Ellington, always intense. always.

[gmonahan]

I always thought Clark Terry was underutilized. Certainly, he had a couple of features, and he recorded outside the confines of the band, but I don't think Duke and Billy ever quite figured out how to write for him.

 

 

gregmo

[catesta]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

Also....I always look forward to Jimmy Hamilton's tenor spots, when they happened.

Interesting to me how once Hamilton split, Harold Ashby came in and made some strong tenor statements, and Russell Procope became THE clarinet voice in the band.

But I also looked forward to Procope's alto solos, his little routine on "Jam With Sam" never fails to crack me up.

Yeah, Jimmy Hamilton was pretty damn good.

[JSngry]

If I was to make an easy answer, it would be that Harold Ashby took over Jimmy Hamilton's tenor role, and nobody took over Hamilton's clarinet role, although Norris Turney added a flute voice.

But Duke...when you start thinking strictly in terms of "instrumentation", that's already drifting over into Missing The Whole Point Land, I think. Sound uber alles in Ellingtonworld, the more I hear it, the more I hear that....voices, colors, not "instruments"..in that regard, I think "we" might have already praised Duke in excess of our still-evolving understanding of him. that stuff keeps revealing and deepening as time goes by, the less of it there is in the "real world", the even more distinctive and unique it becomes, and as conventional perceptions become irrelevant, new findings come out....you (ok, "you") can listen to this stuff forever (ok, "forever" and keep hearing new angles, perceptions, colors, interior, exterior, micro, macro, the world of Duke Ellington, indeed.

[soulpope]

6 hours ago, JSngry said:

Also....I always look forward to Jimmy Hamilton's tenor spots, when they happened.

Interesting to me how once Hamilton split, Harold Ashby came in and made some strong tenor statements, and Russell Procope became THE clarinet voice in the band.

But I also looked forward to Procope's alto solos, his little routine on "Jam With Sam" never fails to crack me up.

My vote goes to Harold Ashby for being "underutilized" ....

[Don Brown]

Another really under-utilized player was trumpeter Willie Cook, a musician with a gorgeous tone and interesting ideas. Like Clark Terry, Cook had been more than a little touched by bebop - he'd even been in the trumpet section of one of Dizzy's big bands. At a couple of Ellington concerts I attended he was featured on a ballad but that was about it. And there are very few Ellington recordings showcasing this fine musician.

 

Also, Harold "Shorty" Baker who was in and out of Duke's band over the years, was featured sparingly. And he was another trumpeter with a glorious tone and great ideas.

[Big Beat Steve]

8 hours ago, Don Brown said:

Also, Harold "Shorty" Baker who was in and out of Duke's band over the years, was featured sparingly. And he was another trumpeter with a glorious tone and great ideas.

Picking up a huge bunch of vinyl at a clearout sale at a local record store the other day, I bought the "Bud Freeman All Stars featuring Shorty Baker" LP (Swingville 2012) recorded in 1960. Shorty Baker impressed me quite a bit. Nice discovery!

[medjuck]

10 hours ago, Don Brown said:

Also, Harold "Shorty" Baker who was in and out of Duke's band over the years, was featured sparingly. And he was another trumpeter with a glorious tone and great ideas.

He's featured nicely on Ellington Indigos.

[Don Brown]

Yes, Shorty Baker is featured nicely on Ellngton Indigos but overall Shorty was never given many solos. I saw him twice live with Ellington and he didn't get a single solo on either occasion. Duke's featured trumpeters were Ray Nance, Cootie Williams, and Cat Anderson. Clark Terry was another Ducal trumpeter who was given far too few solo opportunities, especially in person. While there's a fair amount of Terry on Ellington recordings in live performances he was featured on Gerald Wilson's arrangement of Perdido and that was about it.

[jeffcrom]

On 11/22/2016 at 9:01 AM, JSngry said:

How much action did Johnny Coles get? Julian Preister?

For that matter, Otto Hardwick?

These were the exact three names that came into my mind next after Hilton Jefferson.

Johnny Coles got his feature on "How High the Moon" most nights, and Priester got a solo in The New Orleans Suite, but not much else for either of them.

Hardwick - I dunno; after thinking about it, I suspect he was okay with his role: lead alto when Duke wanted that particular sound, and an occasional pretty melody.

 

[jazztrain]

1 hour ago, jeffcrom said:

These were the exact three names that came into my mind next after Hilton Jefferson.

Johnny Coles got his feature on "How High the Moon" most nights, and Priester got a solo in The New Orleans Suite, but not much else for either of them.

Hardwick - I dunno; after thinking about it, I suspect he was okay with his role: lead alto when Duke wanted that particular sound, and an occasional pretty melody.

 

Hilton Jefferson!  Of course.  Too often overlooked.  He had a really distinct sound.

Hardwick got a chance to play a bit more than usual on his own session for Wax.  With Hodges present, who else would want to solo on alto?