Still Loving Him Madly

By Christopher John Farley Sunday, Apr. 18, 1999
    • It's Duke Ellington's 100th anniversary, and here he is at Pottery Barn, sitting on the counter. Pottery Barn, like many other retail chains these days, is selling a variety of CD collections showcasing the kind of music it would like you to associate with spending. One of its offerings is PB Swing, featuring songs by '90s swing acts with one-hit-wonderish names like the Flying Neutrinos. But there's also one track, Take the "A" Train, by the Duke Ellington Orchestra. One wonders if the differences--and connections--between Duke and the new crop aren't lost in a blur of consumerism and retro-hipness.

    In any case, happy birthday, Duke. Edward Kennedy ("Duke") Ellington--pianist, bandleader, composer, swinger and genius--was born on April 29, 1899, in Washington. His centenary is being marked in large and small ways, with the release of several boxed sets, including RCA Victor's impressive and intimidating 24-CD Duke Ellington Centennial Edition (out April 27). For fans whose CD players can't accommodate two-dozen discs at a time, there's the satisfyingly concise single CD The Best of the Duke Ellington Centennial Edition. Other tributes range from last week's posthumous Pulitzer citation to the more than 400 commemorative events scheduled by Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, which is headed by trumpeter and Ellington enthusiast Wynton Marsalis.

    Thirty years ago, in an essay titled "Homage to Duke Ellington on His Birthday," novelist Ralph Ellison posed these questions: "How many generations of Americans, white and black, wooed their wives and had the ceremonial moments of their high school and college days memorialized by Ellington's tunes? And to how many thousands has he defined what it should mean to be young and alive and American?" Today, at a time when neo-swing and the Big Band sound have become trendy, even bursting forth from commercials for the Gap and Burger King, it's worth pondering how much of Duke's legacy lives on in swing.

    Ellington knew how to mold a memorable melodic theme--check out a rendition of his In a Sentimental Mood (the version on the 1962 album Duke Ellington & John Coltrane is particularly enchanting). But Ellington was determined to do more than just write beautiful melodies. He strove to create long, complex compositions exploring social and spiritual themes. Listen to the muted trumpet on Work Song, a track on The Best of the Duke Ellington Centennial Edition. The notes almost seem to form words. The four-minute selection is from Black, Brown and Beige, a three-hour work exploring the history of blacks in America. "Our aim as a dance orchestra," Ellington once wrote, "is not so much to reproduce 'hot' or 'jazz' music, as to describe emotions, moods and activities, which have a wide range."

    Most of what passes for pop swing these days is content simply to give off heat. Retro acts like the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Cherry Poppin' Daddies create swing that owes more to rock than jazz; it's propelled by attitude, sometimes fueled by electric guitars and focused more on excitement than enlightenment. Much of today's pop swing is also burdened by irony--many acts seem to be sending the genre up even as they get down.

    Duke's true heirs are jazzmen like Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr., performers with a palpable love of swing and jazz tradition. Marsalis, like Duke, has composed works for Big Bands that take on cultural themes. And Connick, who has a swing CD due out titled Come by Me, has a sense of style that fits in comfortably with Ellington's aesthetic.

    The critic and novelist Albert Murray once wrote that Ellington's music "was created for the express purpose of becoming an integral--nay, indispensable--element of the nation's most basic equipment for everyday existence." Duke's music was too connected to day-to-day life for it to be confined to history and centenaries. Known for writing compositions that were tailored to the talents of specific members of his band, Duke brought their voices into his own. The neo-swing craze will come and go; it may be going already. But years into the future, musicians will continue to find themselves in Ellington.