At the start of Duke Ellington's album, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse: A Suite in Eight Parts, Ellington himself speaks for a couple of minutes about the whole world "going Oriental." Apparently, Marshall McLuhan said something to that effect (read full incomprehensible statement here) and while McLuhan had some good points buried in his "going Oriental" statement (mainly because he threw every idea he had about Indochina at the wall and by happenstance, some of it stuck) none of it really matters to the music that follows. Still, Ellington delivers his monologue sincerely and intones that he and his band mates have, in their travels, "noticed this to be true" (that everyone is going Oriental, that is - were The Vapors inspired by this too? Do we have McLuhan to blame for Turning Japanese?). Ellington's enunciation is so precise and eloquent I don't even care what he's says, I just like listening to how he says it. He speaks as if he's teaching someone how to pronounce the words properly in English and the result is, in it's own way, a kind of Ellington a capella lead-in.The music that follows doesn't match up against the extraordinary body of work Ellington produced before it but then, how could it? What it does do, and rather well, is take Big Band Jazz, Eastern and Western instrumentation, Oliver Nelson-style television theme scoring and rock-centered backbeats and blend it into an exciting mix of something one could call Big Band Fusion. The first track, Chinoiserie, opens with Ellington hammering away at the piano, solo for a minute or so before the horns come in and transform the sound into something slightly menacing and dangerous. In fact, most of the album's mere eight songs evoke feelings of disquiet and unease. It's easily one of the most atmospherically successful albums ever produced.
This mood carries through the first six songs, even as each one takes a slightly different tack. Didjeridoo, despite it title, evokes nothing of the outback but much of risky urban life. Afrique rolls into its melody with drums meant to evoke tribal rhythms but really sounds more like Benny Carter by way of Max Steiner by way of the 1930's Duke Ellington. Acht O'Clock Rock is Oliver Nelson dramatic punctuation all the way, right down to it's dramatically heightened final chord. Gong brings the rolling drums back in for a thematic reprise of Afrique and Tang opens and closes with sustained brass chords mingled with plucking strings that clearly influenced Bernard Herrman's cue music to the bloody aftermath of Travis Bickle's whorehouse shooting spree for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
It's not until the seventh song that the mood noticeably changes when True brings in the breezy, swinging rhythms of the late fifties/early sixties as a kind of tonic to everything that preceded it. Not that what preceded it was bad, just a bit heavy and True finds a way to lighten the load and allow the listener a breather.
The album finishes with Hard Way which brings everything back home. It's easily the most conventional of all the songs on the album and its placement is no accident. Since the entire album has maintained the air of Big Band Jazz throughout, the final song isn't as jarring as it probably should be, considering it sounds like a piece Ellington could have written in between Sophisticated Lady and In a Sentimental Mood. Instead, it sounds exactly like an encore for a band performing a new sound but not wanting to alienate its audience to the point where they won't return and listen again.
To say the whole album is a pastiche is both true and complimentary while that same term might be derisive when applied to another artist. With Ellington, it isn't, because few composers had the talent and skill to imitate, blend and mesh other styles with their own and make it sound so good. My only complaint is that he didn't conclude the album with another perfectly enunciated monologue designed to gently guide the listener to go back to the start of the album and begin again.
22 comments:
Nice! Are you going to start writing about music more here? I hope so, this is a really good piece.
I haven't heard this album or, indeed, very much Ellington, even though I've been meaning to dig into his most famous stuff for some time now. I do like the loose trio album he did with Mingus and Max Roach, though - that's a great set, and of course quite different from the bits and pieces of his big band work that I've heard.
Ed, first, thanks and second, yes, I started doing music reviews in December with Oscar Peterson's Motions and Emotions. This is only my second, and it's jazz again because that's probably the music I listen to the most.
Ellington probably makes up a good ten percent of every jazz album I've ever bought. I came into jazz, like most, through cool jazz via Miles Davis and, frankly, never thought I'd get into big band compositions until I heard Ellington. Later, I found Carter, Basie and Hampton but Ellington remained my favorite.
He did a lot of interesting experimentation in the sixties and early seventies, even recording some stuff with Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane too. His work with Mingus was inevitable as Mingus considered Ellington the musician of American music.
I like his differently flavored sixties and early seventies jazz a lot more than most, which is why I decided to review this early seventies album by him instead of one of the more familiar and lauded works (although, this one's pretty familiar among jazz fans, I guess).
Cool, I'm looking forward to more jazz reviews. I have a weird relationship to jazz, in that I started listening to it in earnest only after I'd been really into experimental music for some time, so I gravitated towards free jazz and really out stuff without having much grounding in the classics other than Miles, Coltrane, Mingus, the biggest of the big names.
Lately I've been listening to a lot of Anthony Braxton, and he's kind of pointed me towards getting more interested in Ellington, since Ellington and Mingus are as important to him as Ellington was to Mingus himsef.
Mingus, of course, was amazing, probably my favorite jazz musician, yet another reason I should make Ellington a priority.
Ed, that's really interesting how you came to jazz in such a back door fashion because most come to it through the standards, like I did. I think that probably gives you a great advantage in hearing the big band era recordings with a fresh ear.
Jazz has so many different styles, so many great performers that it's honestly pretty hard to be an expert on all of them. I'm not much more than an enthusiast myself but, like movies, writing about it helps me understand it better.
By the way, I still remember in the nineties correcting people when I heard them say "Tony Braxton." I'd say, "It's 'Anthony Braxton,'" but was kind of excited so many people knew him until I realized they were talking about 'Toni Braxton.'
No links?
I suppose you could type in the song titles on google and hear the pieces. I'm too lazy to go back and do it now. I wish blogger had mp3 embedding like tumblr because I've had this url established too long now to abandon it for something else.
Yeah, at some point I sort of realized that a lot of people who were into experimental music and, especially, modern improv, had come to it through a jazz background, and I didn't have that at all. I'd been into rock and punk and stuff like that, and I had a few jazz records, things like A Love Supreme and Bitches Brew, and that was about the extent of it. Then when I did explore some jazz it tended to be things like Albert Ayler (still a favorite), Peter Brotzmann, Cecil Taylor, and so on. It's only more recently that I've made more of an effort to explore the foundations of jazz, and to listen to more of the old-school music. It really is pretty ear-opening to hear how exciting something like Mingus' Oh Yeah is, even now.
Or something like Braxton's Quartet (Dortmund) 1976, one of the most vibrant pieces of music I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. Much better than that other Braxton. (Although his son, Tyondai Braxton, is a pretty interesting musician in his own right as well, albeit far removed from jazz.)
Incidentally, I know what you mean about writing about something leading to better understanding. But I've always found it difficult to write about jazz. I just don't have the musical vocabulary to communicate about it very well. You do a good job here. I always feel like I'm in foreign territory when I try to write about jazz.
Anyway, this post has prompted me to finally jump into big-band Ellington. I've long had my eye on this box set of what is reportedly his best band, any other suggestions?
I have no doubt you could write about jazz, and well. I'd love to hear your thoughts, for instance, on the free form jazz of the sixties, like that done by Coltrane. I bet you'd have a much better understanding of and feel for it than I.
Then when I did explore some jazz it tended to be things like Albert Ayler (still a favorite), Peter Brotzmann, Cecil Taylor, and so on.
See, it's artists like those that I need to become better versed in. Albert Ayler especially threw me in the same way Coltrane did and I haven't returned to it in years to get a better listen with more mature ears. I must change that.
As for Duke, two personal favorites have always been Such Sweet Thunder and Newport 1956. Really great stuff.
Well, I'm thinking of starting to write more about music again, so we'll see. Maybe I'll try tackling some jazz discs I love. I do feel like I have an intuitive grasp of things like Ayler or Ascension, even if I have trouble articulating it: it's about energy and the raw expression of emotion, and those are things I value tremendously in any artform, which is why those artists appeal to me so naturally. Ayler in particular was someone who I fell in love with as soon as I heard a note of his music. There's just something so beautiful to me about his wailing, crying tone, something very deep, like he's speaking directly through his horn. A good route into his music might be through a pair of confusingly titled and lesser known 1964 albums, Spirits (AKA Witches & Devils) and Ghosts (AKA Vibrations). Whatever they're called, those two are more stripped-down, emotionally naked sessions, very mournful and beautiful, not quite as cacophonous as the later marching band-influenced Ayler could be.
That said, my first exposure to Ayler was Spirits Rejoice, which I thought was absolutely insane, incomprehensible music - the only thing I knew was that I loved it, and that I could feel the utter joy of the musicians in playing it.
Thanks for the Duke recs! I'm gonna download some of this stuff when I get home tonight.
That said, my first exposure to Ayler was Spirits Rejoice, which I thought was absolutely insane, incomprehensible music - the only thing I knew was that I loved it, and that I could feel the utter joy of the musicians in playing it.
That's the problem I had with it, years ago, was that I couldn't get the emotion because I was probably too young and blocking it out, trying instead to decipher it thematically. I've actually got most of this on CD still, I just haven't revisited it in years and think now I might connect with it more than I did the first time around.
I had that LP in the 70s..I'd grown tired of Rock by '76 and was getting more into Jazz by listening to Ellington's 1920s jazz(which still amazes me),brought on by my love of classic film music,then progressing to the stuff of the present time..
Christopher, what you said sounds similar to me in a lot of ways. By the time I left college I was already growing much more interested in big band and cool jazz as well romantic era and 20th century orchestral which, in turn, led to my interest in film music as well.
I still love a lot of rock music but, and here's where I think my feelings get me in trouble sometimes, if you're still listening solely to rock music into, say, your thirties, well, I don't know, then you seem kind of shallow and underdeveloped to me.
Rock music is now something I hear second hand, usually in a store playing over their system. I rarely choose it myself while, at the same time, have nothing against it. I just get more enjoyment from other music, including jazz standards sung by great performers like Ella, Billie and Frank who put a lot more work and meaning into what they're saying than the best rock vocalists do, in my opinion.
Again, my views on rock often get me into trouble. I like it, but when I hear someone like Robert Plant now, as opposed to when I was a teen or in my twenties, wailing out the lyrics in faux emotional turmoil, I just think, "What an amateur. Only a kid could be impressed by this."
All this kind of leads back to taking a renewed interest in listening to the more experimental jazz that Ed and I were discussing because I think now I would "get" it whereas before I was too inexperienced in the form.
I love this album, Greg. While it is true that the music on here doesn't match his previous work, AFRO-EURASIAN ECLIPSE has become a personal favorite I listen to quite often. I think, in part, it has to do with the feel of pieces like "Acht O'Clock Rock" and "The Hard Way" which touch a nostalgic chord in me. As you alluded to, each is very reminiscent of the swinging TV soundtracks of some of my favorite shows growing up (THE GREEN HORNET, ROUTE 66, SURFSIDE SIX, etc.).
Tony, it's heartening to find others, like you and Christopher, who are also fans of this album. Despite its general critical acceptance, it's simply not that well known among Ellington's works (among non-Ellington fans, I mean) as it came so late in his career.
And it's those familiar tv theme riffs that keep me returning to it time and time again as well. A great album with a great sound.
lets see..at the time I was listening to this,I was also listening to Ron Carter/Eric Dolphy-Magic,Toshiko Akiyoshi,Lew Tabackin Big Band-Tales of A Courtesan and the Elmer Bernstien soundtrack LP for The Man With The Golden Arm...I still liked some rock and even more now..but its funny that at 17 and 18..I felt like it was for kiddies and it wasn't saying anything new to me...I went from Jazz to Reggae..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy4CL2L0ono
I don't know about this idea that rock music is only for "kids." Honestly, if we're talking about music that's being made now, in the present day, there's a lot more originality and passion and interesting ideas in today's rock music than in today's jazz, which largely seems like a pretty moribund genre, honestly. I can't speak for whatever rock music is being played in malls or on the radio these days (ugh) but I think the idea of rock as an immature music is pretty off the mark. There's still great music being made in rock, while the great jazz was largely made 30 years ago or more — with big exceptions for people like Braxton, Gerry Hemingway, Brotzmann, Otomo Yoshihide, etc, who continue to be creative within jazz. For the most part, though, while jazz's influence is still felt in experimental music and modern improv, you don't hear too many great new jazz albums being made these days.
Now, hold on a second, I never said rock was "just for kids."
Here are my statements:
...if you're still listening solely to rock music into, say, your thirties, well, I don't know, then you seem kind of shallow and underdeveloped to me.
Solely, as in, you've never given anything else a chance beyond what you're expected to listen to in your teens. Sure, many of us still listen to rock but have branched out into other areas as well.
I rarely choose it myself while, at the same time, have nothing against it. I just get more enjoyment from other music, including jazz standards sung by great performers like Ella, Billie and Frank who put a lot more work and meaning into what they're saying than the best rock vocalists do, in my opinion.
Again, I have nothing against it, but, right now, it doesn't offer me much. And, to be clear, I'm talking about straight ahead pop/rock music. The new music I listen to mainly now is usually lazily categorized as "alternative instrumental," whatever the hell that means.
Again, my views on rock often get me into trouble. I like it, but when I hear someone like Robert Plant now, as opposed to when I was a teen or in my twenties, wailing out the lyrics in faux emotional turmoil, I just think, "What an amateur. Only a kid could be impressed by this."
So, only a kid, meaning for, in particular, Zeppelin. I didn't mean "only kids like rock" but that the over-emoted vocalizations of Plant is for the undeveloped emotionally. I mean, seriously, he's pure garbage in my opinion as a vocalist, and I do actually like some Zeppelin, or at least enough to still have three of their albums. Still, Plant I find kind of unintentionally funny when he sings.
So, yes, I listen to new music but it's not the pop/rock variety. It's the more expansive instrumental work out there that doesn't get played much on the radio.
Fair enough, Greg, sorry for misunderstanding your point. I think anyone who listens solely to any one type of music is sadly missing out on the joy of exploring everything that's out there. Christopher's mention of going from jazz to reggae (a very fertile area, at least during the late 70s and early 80s) is a good example of how much great music is to be found by exploring multiple areas rather than sticking with whatever initially moves you.
Anyway, I've been listening to some of the Ellington Blanton-Webster band material since reading this post. Nice stuff, although on the collection I found, the instrumental pieces are interspersed with vocal numbers, and most of the latter are pretty dull so far. Not sure who the vocalists in the Ellington band were, but they were no Billie or Ella. (But who is?)
Oh hell, no misunderstanding, I was definitely feeling prickly about rock music when I wrote the original comment and it shows.
I think I'll do non-jazz for sure on my next review as a result, and I already know what I'm going to do.
As for Duke's songs and vocals, I've never been as big a fan there, much preferring the original instrumentals (almost all had lyrics added later after the song became successful) unless it's a great singer at the helm. I also don't know who he worked with outside of the big names like the two you mentioned and Rosemary Clooney, with whom Ellington was quite impressed. I've got a cd of Clooney doing his songs with him on piano so it's an actual recording of them together, not just her doing his songs. It's quite good but, in the end, amounts to a greatest hits package so it's not exactly groundbreaking or anything.
I'm just stating my feelings about my late teens..I honestly felt like Rock wasn't going anywhere new and that I'd heard everything..I thought Punk was a joke on music I listened to in the 60s and big hair -rock of the 80s was a joke on stuff I'd liked in the early 70s..But since the early 90's,I've enjoyed alot of this stuff that I nixed when it was new..I just like a little of everything,Classical,Country..I have my Latin pop and Bossa Nova kicks...Movie soundtracks..etc..
Christopher, I think my fatigue with rock came from hearing the same "classic rock" performers over and over and over. Once options arrived like Pandora, where I could program a station from a few seed songs, I began to discover just how much the radio stations had ignored for years and latched onto all new favorites, most of whom don't have one song that could be described as "catchy." Hence, no radio play, I suppose.
Interesting take! I love the drums on Afrique! An interesting take on Hard Way. It still sounds jarring to me, but I will give it a chance again! I think the album is a wonderful continuation of the themes Ellington started to explore in Far East Suite!
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