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LATER LIFE LEARNING
Innis College University of Toronto 2 Sussex Avenue Toronto, ON M5S 1J5 Website: http://sites.utoronto.ca/innis/lll/ Email: [email protected]
SERIES C: The Music of Duke Ellington in Nine Themes
Fridays, 1:00 – 2:45 pm, September 20 to November 29, 2019 No class November 8, 2019 for Reading Week
Innis College, Town Hall
Lecturer: Jack Chambers Jack Chambers is professor at the University of Toronto. He is the author of the prize-winning biography Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis (1998) and Bouncin’ with Bartok: The Incomplete Works of Richard Twardzik (2008). Recent articles include “Ellington’s Three Steps into The River” (2017), “Panther Patter: Ellington at the Piano” (2017) and “The Fifth Reed: Ben Webster and the Tenor Ascent” (2016). For texts and playlists of his annual presentations to the Duke Ellington Society, Toronto, go to <torontodukeellingtonsociety.com> and click on “Archives.”
Overview: Composer/bandleader/pianist Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974) produced some of the most enticing, provocative, and enjoyable music of the 20th century. But his legacy is so vast — almost 3,000 compositions comprising pop songs, dance tunes, soundtracks, revues, orchestral suites, ballets, symphonies, and more— that it is not always easy to find an entry-point into his music. We will get into it by pursuing nine themes that fascinated Ellington throughout his 50-year career. We will start with a musical overview of his character and personal style, and then in successive meetings delve into topics that stimulated his imagination and defined his musical style. Along the way we will celebrate Ellington’s musical encounters with the likes of Louis Armstrong, the American Ballet Theatre and William Shakespeare. Most important, we will pay homage to the whole range of Ellington’s genius from low to high, including gutbucket brass and absinthe ballads, jitterbugs and pas de deux, stride piano and indigo moods, and so much more.
1. September 20 Introduction to Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington Both the man and his music are fascinating. We will start by introducing the man through some of his musical landmarks. Because the legacy is so abundant-- almost 3000 compositions including songs, soundtracks, hymns, big-band jazz, ballets, tone poems, concert pieces-- gaining an entry into the music is greatly aided by tracing themes that Ellington pursued over several years and showing their development and variety.
2. September 27 Theme 1: Harlem, "the world's most glamorous atmosphere" We will sample some of the 17 songs/compositions Ellington devoted to Harlem, from the banal "Harlem River Quiver" to the pop song "Drop Me Off in Harlem" to the culmination of this theme in "A Tone Parallel to Harlem," a brilliant extended concerto.
3. October 4 Theme 2: Duke and the Plunger Mutes Trombones and trumpets gained surprising tonality when expertly played through homely toilet plungers. The earthy, vocalized sound became a signature element of many of Ellington's compositions, including several of his masterpieces such as "Concerto for Cootie" and "Sweet and Pungent."
LATER LIFE LEARNING
Innis College University of Toronto 2 Sussex Avenue Toronto, ON M5S 1J5 Website: http://sites.utoronto.ca/innis/lll/ Email: [email protected]
4. October 11 Theme 3: The Tenor Ascent The principal solo instrument in jazz since the 1930s has been the tenor saxophone, a warm, rich, resonant and (in the right hands) personal sound. Surprisingly, Duke Ellington ignored it for 25 years, and it was only when he heard the sound of the tenor player Ben Webster that the added it to his musical palette. After that, he created many delightful and memorable works that featured it.
5. October 18 Theme 4: Lotus Eaters Unite! One of the great successes was the partnership Ellington formed between composer/arranger Billy Strayhorn and alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Together they contributed a succession of dreamy sensuous ballads beginning with "Warm Valley" in 1940 and ending with Strayhorn’s lament, "Blood Count," in 1967.
6. October 25 Theme 5: Duke Ellington at the Piano Until Ellington made his breakthrough as big-band composer, he assumed his main chance in music would come as a piano player. In 50 years, he created a dazzling array of piano music, from dexterous ragtime pieces to delicate impressionistic ballads and concertos with symphonic orchestras.
7. November 1 Theme 6: Shakespeare in Ellington's World Though 350 years separated them, Ellington and Shakespeare were kindred spirits. Inspired by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Ellington composed the brilliant "tone parallel" to Shakespeare's works, the suite he called Such Sweet Thunder.
November 8 - READING WEEK (No Class)
8. November 15 Theme 7: Afro-Eurasian Ellington In his 60s, Ellington traveled the world on State tours. With characteristic sensitivity, he absorbed the sights and smells of the Far East and Africa and other distant places. He embraced Marshall McLuhan's concept of the "global village" and created music that captured his fascination with the exotic lands of his travels and yet managed to present it in his own highly personal style. 9. November 22 Theme 8: The Posthumous Plethora Ellington composed much of his music by taking phrases played spontaneously by his musicians and cloaking them in rich, full harmonic contexts. In the 1950s, he began recording his orchestra informally, at his own expense, beyond the scope of commercial recordings. After his death, this treasure trove, called “the stockpile,” has yielded about 40 hours of rich, exploratory music. For a man who feared death because of the waste of music he would not be able to write, Duke Ellington fashioned a rich, creative afterlife. 10. November 29 Theme 9: The River Ellington's final masterpiece is the ballet suite The River, commissioned by the American Ballet Theatre with choreography by Alvin Ailey. It is a brilliant kinetic suite in seven movements, following the course of the river from its inception as “the spring” to its disappearance in “her majesty, the sea.” Ellington produced piano and big-band sketches that became the symphonic score. The River makes a joyful culmination.
