February 20, 2008

Purdue jazz concert to honor composer Duke Ellington

The concert, titled "Ellingtonia!," will begin at 8 p.m. in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. It is free and open to the public.

Ellington fronted his own band for 50 years, wrote more than 2,000 songs, played in more than 20,000 concerts around the world and helped break down racial barriers in music, which made it difficult to pick songs for the tribute concert, said director M.T. "Mo" Trout.

The concert will focus on the period from 1935-45 because it included what is considered to be Ellington's best band and most productive period where he made the biggest strides in creating an original sound and art form, Trout said.

Concert tunes from that period will include "Sophisticated Lady," "Cotton Tail," "Prelude to a Kiss," "Black and Tan Fantasy" and "Rockin' in Rhythm."

Besides being a prolific composer, Ellington was able to synthesize many elements of American music - the minstrel song, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley tunes, the blues and American appropriations of the European musical tradition - into a consistent style with broad popular appeal.

Trout said most of Ellington's tunes were personal, based on a memory, mood or image. One example of this is "Harlem Airshaft," which evokes a place, even though it's slightly odd, he said.

"The tune musically describes what you hear standing next to an air-conditioning shaft in an old Harlem building," Trout said. "Through the shaft, you could hear conversations going on throughout the building, people dancing, snoring, living - Ellington tried to put that into music."

"Prelude to a Kiss" is an Ellington "mood" piece capturing the anticipation and excitement leading up to a kiss, he said.

"The whole piece is a build-up to the kiss," Trout said. "There's a certain moment in the music when it happens and that's unmistakable."

When Ellington composed music, he wrote the various instrumental parts with the specific talents of the musician playing them in mind.

"His lead alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges could smear and blend notes in a sexy way," Trout said. Purdue's Richie Humes, a freshman in the College of Engineering from Southlake, Texas, will try to emulate Hodges' style in "Prelude to a Kiss."

The American Music Repertory Ensemble wants to present music the way audiences heard it when it first became popular, and because Ellington wrote tunes to showcase the unique capabilities and talents of his musicians, it's challenging to reproduce that sound, Trout said.

"That's something you have to come to grips with," he said. "It's very difficult to make the tunes sound just like Ellington. There are adjustments all bands (playing his music) have to make because most don't have musicians with the same skills."

Trout said one Ellington trademark that audiences will notice at "Ellingtonia!" is the use of guttural growls and plunger mutes with the brass instruments.

"That harkens back to the old Cotton Club style," he said, which dates to the late 1920s and early 1930s. Ellington's "jungle music" style, a kind of musical exotica, heavily relied on these mute techniques and originated during this period, Trout said.

"Black and Tan Fantasy" and "Old King Dooji," which will be performed at the concert, will showcase the instrumental voicings and brass mute techniques that characterized Ellington's "jungle music."

Another piece with historic significance is "Jack the Bear," the first jazz piece to feature a solo for upright bass. In Ellington's band, it was written for and performed by young bass virtuoso Jimmie Blanton. For the American Music Repertory Ensemble, Woomin Shin, a sophomore in the School of Management from West Lafayette, will perform the solo.

Three vocal numbers will be featured on the concert. Two - "Rocks in My Bed" and "Jump for Joy" - came from a musical revue Ellington wrote titled "Jump for Joy." The third is "Cotton Tail." When Ellington wrote "Cotton Tail" it didn't have lyrics, but singer Jon Hendricks, using a jazz style called "vocalese," added words on top of the music.

Writer: Christy Jones, (765) 494-1089, christyjones@purdue.edu

Source: Kathy Matter, Purdue Bands public relations director, (765) 496-6785, kcmatter@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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