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Duke Ellington East ST Louis Toodle O
Duke Ellington East ST Louis Toodle O
Jazz Perspectives
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To cite this article: Michael Baumgartner (2012) Duke Ellington's East St. Louis Toodle-O
Revisited, Jazz Perspectives, 6:1-2, 29-56, DOI: 10.1080/17494060.2012.729703
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17494060.2012.729703
Michael Baumgartner
East St. Louis Toodle-O (in its original spelling) is one of the few Duke Ellington
works which had accompanied the composer, pianist and bandleader from his very
early career up to the 1970s. During his lifetime, Ellington conceived six different
arrangements of East St. Louis. The rst of these arrangements was cut to record
no less than six times between November 1926 and March 1928, the most of all
early Ellington compositions.1 Victor waxed a slightly altered version in late 1927. A
third arrangement, part of the repertoire until 1937, was recorded for the rst time
in 1930. A completely revised, fourth arrangement has survived as a fragmentary
short score (penciled by Ellington) and was recorded in 1937, ten years after the rst
version, under the title The New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo for Irving Millss shortlived Master Records label. Ellington wrote a fth arrangement in 1947, which has survived as a Carnegie Hall concert live recording, and as a holograph short score with
parts copied by Tom Whaley. A sixth arrangement dates to 1956, recorded on the
album Historically Speaking. There is a holograph short score, with partsprobably
also copied by Whaley.
These six arrangements of East St. Louis are signicant in Ellingtons oeuvre and
they give a glimpse into the bands working methods. They further show how a single
work servedfor over forty-ve yearsas a playground for experimentation with
form, structure, instrumentation, improvisation and solo order. East St. Louis is
not the only early composition to which Ellington returned throughout his career.
Others that also remained in the bands book are Black and Tan Fantasy, Creole
Love Call, The Mooche and Mood Indigo. However, East St. Louis was Ellingtons rst major success which subsequently enjoyed sustained prominence. East
St. Louis is by far the most recorded early Ellington composition. Between November
1926 and February 1932, it was released on twelve occasions on various labels. In
comparison, The Mooche was released six times in the same time span, Jubilee
Stomp ve times, Black and Tan Fantasy four times and Mood Indigo and
Creole Love Call each three times. This large selection of East St. Louis recordings
allows for an excellent case study, which can address essential questions in regards to
In the same period, Black and Tan Fantasy, in comparison, was recorded four times (including the unissued
takes). At this place, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Steven Lasker and Gus Wildi for numerous,
valuable contributions, to Walter van de Leur, John Howland, Steven F. Pond, and the anonymous reviewers
for many constructive comments and suggestions and to Matthew Evans-Cockle for copy editing this paper.
30
the output of the early Ellington band. These concern issues of authorship, improvisational practices in 1920s jazz, and the relation between recordings and live performances that are based on the same scores.
East St. Louis was Ellingtons rst moderately complex composition to be recorded. It
was written shortly before Black and Tan FantasyEast St. Louis twin composition,
as it were, since it has a similar structure. Both works consist of a string of more or less
independent sections. East St. Louis incorporates two contrasting sections, almost antithetical in mood. In its earliest arrangement (1926), Bubber Miley plays a bluesy thirtytwo bar AABA theme in C minor over a brooding, repeated eight-bar passage, twice
ascending and descending in minor thirds. This theme is contrasted with a more lighthearted, ragtime-tinged C-section, which appears towards the end of the work, rst as a
full statement (for two trumpets and a trombone), then as a trio variation (soprano saxophone and two clarinets) and nally abbreviated. Two solos appear between the opening
AABA and nal C-sections, rst a trombone solo by Joe Tricky Sam Nanton over the
chords of the C-section and then a clarinet solo over the chord progression of the Astrains. The composition concludes with a coda, a restatement of the A-strain with
Miley soloing over the eight-bar passage in minor (see Table 1).
The rst recording of East St. Louis makes one wonder how Ellington and his band
members managed to raise the level of their composing, arranging, and performing in
such a relatively short time span. After all, none of the roughly one dozen sides, which
the Washingtonians recorded before East St. Louis, demonstrate any of the qualities
found in East St. Louis. Most of these tunes are based primarily on standard pop song
forms. Without any further access to original scores or playlists from Ellingtons early
career, the picture will remain incomplete.
Intro (vamp on A)
A1/A2/B/A1
C3/C2 (solo)
on CC (solo)
on AA (solo)
C1/C2 (full
statement)
C3 (trio)
C2 (full statement)
A1
3 saxes / p / b
3 saxes / p / b (new
scoring)
Miley (muted tp)
Harry Carney (bar)
Nanton (muted tb)
Rudy Jackson (cl)
Brass trio (open)
n/a
n/a
Miley (muted tp)
Note: Voc = Vocalion; Br = Brunswick; Col = Columbia; Cam = Cameo; Vic = Victor.
Jazz Perspectives
31
East St. Louis was Ellingtons third composition after Choo Choo and Parlor
Social Stomp which he recorded, but the rst number to radically differ from his
earlier recordings, because of its intricate arrangement, the logical compositional
ow, and a unique distribution of solos and tutti sections. How much experience in
composing did Ellington have prior to November 1926? Did he write other tunes
next to East St. Louis, Birmingham Breakdown (recorded at the same date as
East St. Louis), Parlor Social Stomp, and the piano composition Jig Walk?
Which tunes did he and his musicians play during their live gigs? How many of
these works were original compositions? These questions exemplify the kind of
murky terrain early Ellington scholars have to navigate. Precisely for this reason, the
rst part of this paper produces more questions than answers.
Authorship in Early Ellington Compositions: The Case of East St. Louis
Authorship in early Ellington compositions is often hazy. It has remained unclear to
what extent Ellington is the sole author of many of his early compositions and
whether other band members actively participated in the creation of these works.
The genesis of East St. Louis may shed some light on the subject. The copyright
credits name Miley as co-author with Ellington. As will be argued below, East
St. Louis also bears traces of other contributors as well. To unravel questions of
authorship I will begin by exploring the subtle distinctions between Ellington and
his band members as composers, arrangers, borrowers, and improvisers.
Since no scores or sketches have survived of the two early recorded arrangements of
East St. Louis, one can only hypothesize as to who wrote the main melody, the minorkey eight-bar passage, the C strain and trio variation, who arranged the C strain and
trio, who determined the order of the solos and the soloists and who had the idea of
the main theme recapitulation as a coda, of withholding the C-strain theme until the
end, of using contrasting sections, and of initially interpolating the C strain.
Miley told his friend, Roger Pryor Dodge, that the inspiration for East St. Louis
came one night in Boston as he was returning home from work. Miley kept noticing
the electric sign of the dry-cleaning store Lewandos. The name struck him as exceedingly funny and it fashioned itself into Oh Le-wan-dos.2 This event most likely
occurred during the rst extended tour to New England in the summer of 1926 of
The Washingtonians, Ellingtons early banda few months before East St. Louis
was rst recorded.3
Roger Prior Dodge, Bubber. H.R.S. Society Rag (October 1940), 11. See also the respective music example there.
Reprint in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 455.
3
According to Mark Tuckers reconstruction in Ellington: The Early Years (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1991, 187f.) of their itinerary, the Washingtonians did not play in Boston, but in many places around the
capital of Massachusetts, such as Waltham, Brockton, Dedham etc. Since the band headquartered in Salem and
Lewando was a dry-cleaning chain throughout the Boston area, Mileys initial spark might have ignited in
Salem. Miley must have communicated his discovery to the rest of the band, since Ellington recalled later that
every time the musicians saw a Lewando Cleaners sign they would start singing: Oh, Lee-wan-do! (Duke
Ellington, in collaboration with Stanley Dance. The Art Is in the Cooking, Down Beat (7 June 1962), 1315.
Reprint in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 332338: 335).
2
32
Dodge astutely notes that the minor Lewandos triad hook is prominently
audible in Charlie Greens trombone solo on Fletcher Hendersons 1924 recording
of W. C. Handys The Gouge of Armour Avenue.4 Greens solo became especially
popular with trombonists, and was probably common musical knowledge ever since
Green had rst played it, a little more than two years before the rst recording of
East St. Louis.5 Pursuing Dodges lead, Mark Tucker concludes that bars 1723 of
Greens solo correspond, approximately, to the rst (and closing third) A strain of
East St. Louis, and bars 18 of Greens solo to the second A strain.6 Not only are
there many resemblances in the melody line, but both solos are also played over an
eight-bar strain in minor, muted and at the same tempo ( = circa 163). East
St. Louis suggests that Ellington and/or Miley had directly borrowed a melody from
another musician. Ironed-out, Greens improvisation became Ellingtons theme.
It is not known who composed the accompanying eight-bar opening strain in minor,
originally scored for alto, tenor and baritone saxophones and tuba (see Example 1).7
Gunther Schuller attributes the composition of this passage to Ellington.8 While this
is plausible (although not proven), it would be equally important to know whether
Ellington or Miley harmonized and instrumentalized the A strain (Schuller assumes
it was Ellington). Miley may have played a considerably more important role in contributing to early Ellington compositions than usually acknowledged. Trombonist
Joe Nanton supports this hypothesis: Bubber was an idea man. For instance, wed
have a printed orchestration. . . Bubberd always have some stuff of his own and
soon wed have a trio or quartet on the part. . .9 It is unknown whether the Cstrain theme may have been conceived under similar circumstances.
The C-strain melody line and accompaniment seem borrowed too. Martin Williams
has noted that the C strain suggests one of the themes of Scott Joplins and Louis
Chauvins Heliotrope Bouquet (1907).10 Tucker adds that basic outlines of its
sixteen-bar chord progression can be found in many songs and ragtime pieces,
among them Joplins Maple Leaf Rag, A. J. Pirons I Wish I Could Shimmy Like
My Sister Kate, and W. C. Handys Memphis Blues.11 Both musicians, Ellington
and Miley, were arguably well versed in ragtime and its derivates which were widely
played by many New York bands. There is, however, one reason to attribute the authorship of the C strain to Ellington.
The harmonization of the C strain is not as much conceived linearly as vertically,
which is to say, chordally. It is possible (but not proven) that Ellington developed
Pryor Dodge. Bubber Miley, 253.
Ibid., 253.
6
See the comparison of Mileys solo in East St. Louis and the one by Green in The Gouge of Armour Avenue in
Tucker, Early Years, 249250.
7
See the transcription of the vamp and theme.
8
Gunther Schuller, Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 327.
9
Inez, M. Cavanaugh, Reminiscing in Tempo: Tricky Sam Goes Over the Great Times He Had with Duke,
Bubber, Freddie Jenkins. Metronome (February 1945), 17, 26; reprinted in Tucker (ed.). Ellington Reader, 466.
Nanton attributes the composition of East St. Louis solely to Miley (Ibid, 467).
10
Martin Williams, The Jazz Tradition. Second Revised Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 103.
11
Tucker, Early Years, 252.
4
5
Jazz Perspectives
33
34
River.14 He reused the same spiritual material of the Immigration Blues in the
middle section of The Blues I Love to Sing (rst recorded in 1927).
The different contributions to East St. Louis shed light on the broader question of
authorship in early Ellington compositions. Regardless of copyright credits, it is safe to
assume that East St. Louis and probably also other early Ellington compositions were
written in a collaborative process that may frequently have involved borrowing
material.
Jazz Perspectives
35
melody over the eight-bar passage in minor and the ragtime-inuenced C strain
towards the end of the composition, creates a highly effective and original composition,
based on stark contrasts between minor and major keys, between somber and light,
between solo and tutti sections and between diverse instrumental colors.
Ibid., 250.
Letter to Marshall Stearns, [n.d.], IJS vertical le. And Irving Mills told Pat Willard, one of Ellingtons publicity
people, the same thing (interview with Brooks Kerr, 20 March 1985), Tucker, Early Years, 308.
25
It is not known whether Kapps ledger entries n[ot] g[ood] for A Night in Harlem and Who Is She relate to
the inferior quality of the composition, performance or recording. It is, however, known that Kapp rejected the
other two Ellington originals recorded that day (Steven Lasker, Booklet of The Original Decca Recordings: Early
Ellington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings of Duke Ellington 19261931. 3 CD Set. GRP
Records, GRD 3-640, 1994, 39).
26
Tucker, Early Years, 250. See also the facsimile of the respective company ledger in Lasker, Booklet of Original
Decca Recordings, 3839.
27
Variety, 9 June 1926, 42. The toddlean African-American dancewas fashionable in World War I and gained
widespread popularity among whites in the early 1920s. Derived from an African-American shaking dance, the
toddle is closely related to the shimmy and in the 1920s also to the Chicago. The C strain of East St. Louis
could be best danced as a toddle. For a history of the dance see: Chadwick Hansen. Jennys Toe Revisited:
White Responses to Afro-American Shaking Dances. American Music vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 1987), 119. Tucker
discusses the different spellings of toodle-o, as they appeared on the numerous recordings of Ellingtons tune
(On Toodle-oo, Todalo, and Jennys Toe. American Music vol. 6 no. 1 [Spring 1988], 8891). See also the
last installment of the discourse between Hansen and Tucker: Chadwick Hansen. Reply to Tucker. American
Music vol. 6 no. 1 (Spring 1988), 9192.
24
36
We were talking about this old man, after a hard days work in the eld, where he and
his broken walk [are] coming up the road. But hes strong, in spite of being so tired,
because hes headed [home] to get his feet under the table and to get that hot dinner
thats waiting for him. And thats the East St. Louis Todalo.28
This idyllic portrayal of the old, hard-working man stands in stark contrast to the
events which had actually occurred in East St. Louis, Illinois, nine years prior to the Vocalion recording date. Black, southern migrants, seeking industrial employment in the
northern cities to gain economic advancement and freedom from racial injustice,
clashed violently with white, local workers reacting to the migration.29 The white
rioters, led by brutal ringleaders, intended to cleanse the city of African Americans.
Indeed, following the uprising, the population of black residents fell by between 15,000
and 23,000 members, a gure representing more than half of the African American
inhabitants of East St. Louis.30 Denise von Glahn argues that, by using East St. Louis
as his theme song for a number of years, Ellington subtly kept racial consciousness in
the forefront of his work.31 However, since he did not choose the title himself, Ellington
in all likelihood did not connect the atrocious events of 1917 with his rst signature tune.
East St. Louis quickly gained considerable recognition. It was Ellingtons most
popular early work between the release of the Vocalion record on 20 January 1927
and the rst Brunswick recording session a month later, on 28 February 1927.
Regular broadcasts as the signature tune from the radio studios of Loews station
WHN, as well as the occasional remotes from the Kentucky Club, furthered the commercial success of the Vocalion record. In order to cash in on the songs success, Kapp
and Mills recorded East St. Louis one more time and released it on the agship label
of the company, Brunswick.
Kapps expectations must have been high for the rst Ellington session for Brunswick, since none of the three 28 February takes were issued.32 The next Brunswick
date, 14 March was entirely devoted to East St. Louis. The orchestra needed three
attempts before a single successful take was recorded. Tucker observed that for the
recording session for Gennett little less than a year earlier (30 March 1926) the problems originated in the band:, [t]he lack of ensemble unity . . . may have stemmed
in part from the addition of extra players and from inadequate rehearsal.33
However, this no longer explains the cumbersome recording process for the Brunswick
date. The band had reached a different level, and had been gaining quite a reputation in
New York. Meanwhile, a top manager now supervised the band while its recording sessions were conducted by the leading executives in the record business. With the move
28
Ellington, in an interview with Jack Cullen for station CKNW, Vancouver, Canada, 30 October 1962. Reprinted
in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 338341.
29
Charles L. Lumpkins, American Pogrom: The East St. Louis Race Riot and Black Politics, (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2008), 77 and 74.
30
Lumpkins, American Pogrom, 124.
31
Denise von Glahn, The Sounds of Place: Music and the American Cultural Landscape, (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003), 145.
32
The metal parts were presumably destroyed soon after the session, and no test pressings are known to have
survived.
33
Tucker, Early Years, 169.
Jazz Perspectives
37
into the limelight, the expectations grew. Ellington and his band members may have
been under similar pressures at the third recording of East St. Louis for Columbia,
only eight days after the Brunswick session. It took three takes to get a satisfying
result, which Columbia released a little less than three months later (10 May 1927).
Kurt Dietrich, Dukes Bones: Ellingtons Great Trombonists, (Rottenburg, Germany: Advance Music, 1995), 28.
Eddie Lambert, Duke Ellington: A Listeners Guide, (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999), 9.
36
Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, op. cit., 51.
37
Antonio Berini and Giovanni M. Volont, Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, (Firenze: Ponte alle grazie, 1994),
129.
38
Schuller, Early Jazz, 328.
35
38
Richard M. Sudhalter, Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 19151945, (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1999), 428.
40
Tucker, Early Years, 253.
41
Schuller, Early Jazz, 3289.
Jazz Perspectives
39
played by a single instrument (instead of three), the much criticized nal C strain now
seems decisively lighter. Viewed in this light, the 19 January 1928 OKeh recording must
be placed between the Victor and the Vocalion, Brunswick and Columbia records. On
the OKeh version, Carney plays the same eight bars that appear on the Victor recording; however these bars appear in their original place, that is, towards the end of the
piece, before the recapitulation of the tutti brass-section.
For the Victor arrangement the tempo has been considerably slowed down. The Vocalion recording is at = 163, and the Victor recording at = 131. While for Schuller the
slower tempo drags,42 for Tucker it enhances the mysterious mood for the piece.43
There may also be another reason for the choice of a slower tempo. Ellington and his
band recorded for Victor on 19 December 1927, two weeks after they began their
tenure at the Cotton Club, on 4 December 1927. The different mood of this version
may reect a change in musical taste, since the merry, quasi Charleston feeling of the
1926 Vocalion recording has been replaced by a more somber sound.
The Victor arrangement is made shortly after the start of Ellingtons tenure at the
Cotton Club, and it conforms to the novel jungle sound, reportedly called for by
its management.44 While the jungle is a complex concept that mixes among others
primitivism, atavistic African American culture, white modernism, racism, black sexuality, exoticism etc.in the eyes of the white owners of the Harlem clubs, the jungle
was a calculated marketing strategy to attract a white, wealthy mid- and downtown
Manhattan clientele. Early Ellington compositions such as East St. Louis, Black
and Tan Fantasy, and Immigration Blues became associated with jungle music.
In particular, the malleability of East St. Louis allowed Ellington to adapt the composition to the aesthetic prerogatives of the jungle idioms. In this respect, the new
arrangement on Victor represents the jungle sound par excellence. All the essential
ingredients are in place, such as a slow tempo and the mysterious sounding opening
strain (now scored lower, in the key of F minor). The new instrumentation no
longer calls for three saxophones and tuba in closed-position voicings, but for a
mixture of instruments, such as three saxophones in open voicings, piano and
bowed double bass, which provides a more colorful timbre. That a jungle sound
effect is intended is further suggested by Nanton, who no longer plays his solo open,
as before, but muted, with the same growl technique as Miley in the opening
section. In addition, Rudy Jackson begins his clarinet solo with a growl too, to continue
with a rough tone in the chalumeau register. Finally, the cheerful C strain has given way
to Carneys ominous baritone solo on the chord progression heard earlier in the tune.
Still, these new features of the reworked arrangement do not indicate a decisive
adaptation to meet the various jungle sound clichs. It is possible that this version
of East St. Louis was coined to accompany a dance routine. Such a dance number
42
Ibid, 329.
Tucker, Early Years, 255.
44
For a detailed discussion of the jungle idiom, 1920s New York society and Ellington, see Lisa Barg, National
Voices/Modern Histories: Race, Performance and Remembrance in American Music, 19271943. Diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2001. See also, in the present issue, Kimberly Hannon, Beyond the Cotton Club:
The Persistence of Duke Ellingtons Jungle Style [ed.].
43
40
most likely opened the Cotton Club oor show, as East St. Louis was Ellingtons signature tune. One can also assume that Ellington and his band adhered to the same
arrangement as recorded on Victor. The duration of this arrangement presents an
ideal basis for a tightly choreographed novelty number for chorus girls. The hypothesis
that the Victor recording captures the arrangement used for the 1927 Cotton Club
show is supported by the fact that at the same date, another tune written for that
show, Harlem River Quiver by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, was recorded.45
Both tunesas part of the same showwere recorded to promote Ellingtons new,
prestigious engagement as well as Fieldss and McHughs Cotton Club show.
East St. Louis, in its new arrangement, was used in Victors aggressive marketing
strategy. While negotiating the recording contract with Mills, the company most likely
requested a new arrangement from Ellington for their release, knowing that Columbia
and Brunswick (the Vocalion version was practically unobtainable at that time) each
had their own versions of East St. Louis on the market. Even though Victor was
the fourth company to record the piece, it was released almost a year later, on 7 December 1928. Apparently, the dynamics of the record industryEast St. Louiss availability on other labelswarranted the delayed release. In addition to those of
Brunswick and Columbia, the market was ooded with the dimestore record
version that the Path-Cameo conglomerate made in March 1928, over two months
after the Victor session. This rendering (which carried the Vocalion arrangement)
was released on four different labels, Path-Actuelle, Cameo (sold mainly in Macys
department stores) and their subsidiaries Lincoln and Romeo.
A closer look at all Victor Ellington releases in 1928 reveals the labels sales strategy
(see Table 2). Before East St. Louis, Victor issued Creole Love Call and The Blues I
Love to Sing (both with vocals by Adelaide Hall) as well as Harlem River Quiver and
Black Beauty on the hit-sides. On the ip-sides were, respectively, Black and Tan
Fantasy, Blue Bubbles, Washington Wobble and Jubilee Stomp. Most of the
numbers (on both sides) had never been released. The exceptions are Jubilee
Stomp and East St. Louis. The latter was already available on three other labels
when it was recorded, and actually on seven labels when it was issued. Since East
St. Louis was no longer a new number, but still widely popular, for it was regularly
broadcasted and performed live as the signature tune, Victor must have decided to
release it because theirs was a new arrangement representing Ellingtons novel
Cotton Club style, and, perhaps even more importantly, because the quality of their
recording was superior to that of the other labels.
For similar reasons, OKeh also delayed the issue of their East St. Louis version. It
was recorded on 19 January 1928 and not released until 25 December of the same year.
Columbia probably urged its subsidiary OKeh (as of November 1926) to delay the
release in order to avoid competition with the issue of the parent company, since
45
Abel Greens review of Harlem River Quiver at Ellingtons debut show at the Cotton Club remarks: One
coocher, boyish bobbed hoyden, said to be especially imported from Chicago for her Annapolis proclivities
who does the Harlem River Quiver like no self-respecting body of water. The teasinest torso tossing yet, and
how! (reprinted in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 31).
Hit-Side
Flip-Side
Record
Number
21580
21703
21777
Release Date
Hit-Side
Recorded
Flip-Side
Recorded
26 October
1927
26 October
1927
19 December
1927
26 March 1928
26 March 1928
30 October
1928
Number in parenthesis: tune available on other labels at the date of the recording session
Jazz Perspectives
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42
East St. Louis had gained such popularity under its original title.46 Evidently, neither
renaming East St. Louis to Harlem Twist nor changing the bands name to Lonnie
Johnsons Harlem Footwarmers succeeded to disguise the true origins of the recording.
The new title builds on Harlems reputationprimarily geared towards white audiencesas magnet where the Cotton Club and other speakeasies were located, and
where the nightlife promised skimpy-clad light-skinned girls and frantic jazz music.
While the Footwarmers were presumably an invention of OKehs marketing department, Lonnie (Lonzo) Johnson did indeed exist.47
The delay of Victors and OKehs release of the East St. Louis recordings might be
indicative of the commercial success that the composition had achieved. On the other
hand, these record companies may have realized too late that the market was ooded
with East St. Louis records from other labels, all produced within the time-frame of
only a year and a half.
Jazz Perspectives
43
production Black and Tan, lmed in mid-August, and he participated in no less than
twenty-three recording sessions, which made his music available to an even wider audience.
During the late 1920s, the line-up of the band changed considerably. Juan Tizol
joined the orchestra as a second trombonist in July 1929.51 Ellington further enlarged
the trumpet section with Arthur Whetsel (substituting for Louis Metcalf52) and
Freddy Jenkins.53 Finally, in January 1929 Ellington dismissed Miley, because of his
alcoholism, and consequent unreliability in keeping up with the bands schedule and
commitments.54 On Johnny Hodges recommendation, Ellington hired the seventeen-year-old Cootie Williams from the Fletcher Henderson orchestra.55
The departure of Miley made Ellington write a new arrangement for East St. Louis,
since the solo part in the AABA section had to be assigned to other instrumentalists. As
no other trumpeter could ll Mileys shoes when it came to mutes, Ellington decided to
score the A-strain theme for two (or possibly three) trumpets. In addition, he changed
the lead in the B strain to a call-and-response passage between the alto and baritone
saxophones and muted trumpets (and possibly trombones). He further changed the
form of the composition, for the 1930 recording. He considerably simplied the
complex structure of the earlier arrangements which are a hybrid between Tin Pan
Alley and ragtime (the interlocking of the A, B and C sections). Ellington entirely
cut the full brass C-strain statement, the subsequent reed trio and the concluding
brass recapitulation, while the solo routines over the A and C strains now only were
over the latter. In other words, solos were restricted to the chord progression of the
C strain, so that this third arrangement followed the headsolohead structure. Ellington replaced Nantons routine with his own piano solo, followed by Carney on baritone
with Whetsel playing a counterpoint on muted trumpet, then Jenkins soloing on open
horn and nally Bigard on clarinet. Repeating the C strain four times left considerable
room for the soloists.56 A special feature of this new arrangement was Ellingtons unaccompanied Harlem stride piano solo.
This arrangement shows both features of 1920s and early 1930s jazz. The headsolo
head structure57 with an emphasis on the soloists is indicative that the band moved away
from the strain-based form of the 1920s. Yet, the banjo accompaniment, the drums
emphasizing two and four, Ellingtons stride piano and Jenkins New Orleans style
solo hark back to the 1920s and earlier. The foregrounding of the C strain, nally,
Eddie Lambert and Barry Kernfeld, Tizol, Juan, Grove Music Online, accessed on 3 July 2010.
See, for this date, Barry Kernfelds entry Metcalf, Louis in the Grove Music Online, accessed on 20 July 2010.
The change from Metcalf to Whetsel must have happened between 25 June and 10 July 1928. Metcalf still attended
the Brunswick recording session of 25 June. The 10 July session for OKeh was however played by Whetsel. With
regards to the spelling of Whetsels name, it has often been misspelled as Whetsol.
53
Vail, Dukes Diary, part I, 15.
54
Miley missed the recording sessions for Brunswick, on 21 March 1928, when Take It Easy, Jubilee Stomp and
Black Beauty were waxed, for Victor on 30 October and 10 November 1928 and for Cameo on circa 5 December
1928.
55
Vail, Dukes Diary, part I, 16.
56
In all likelihood longer and more solos were added for live performances.
57
It is likely that the complete AABA was performed in live performances, and cut here, due to the time limitations
of the 78 rpm disc.
51
52
44
lends the arrangement an aura of lightness and exhilaration, which the earlier arrangements lack. Ellington has replaced the dark jungle mood with a lighter tone, which
suggests that he has abandoned a deliberate jungle idiom. The buoyant accompaniment characterizes the changing aesthetics of the orchestra in the early 1930s.
Ellingtons prolic recording schedule and the regular radio exposure from the Cotton
Club had secured him national prominence. The only medium which the orchestra had
not yet sufciently exploited was cinema.58 Mills, however, had begun to take steps in this
direction by engineering a contract between Ellington and the two comedy radio superstars Amos n Andy for their lm project Check and Double Check.59 Alongside East
St. Louis, the lm contains four original songsWhen Im Blue, The Mystery
Song, Three Little Words and Old Man Blueswhich were probably all recorded
in preproduction by the all white RKO-studio orchestra, in early August.60
The ballroom scene, with East St. Louis as the theme song and followed by Three
Little Words, was shot at a soundstage of the RKO Studios in Hollywood on 14 August
1930. Ellington and his orchestra perform these two tunes onscreen during the ball.
Beginning with the last two bars of the A-straina compressed chorus-end-introduction61and continuing with the A-strain coda of the Diva/Velvet Tone arrangement,
with a ritardando in the last two bars, East St. Louis accompanies a panorama shot of
the ball room and acts as a signal for the invited guests to make their way, towards the
stage where they are to attend the presentation of Three Little Words. A few months
later Ellington and his orchestra were back at the Cotton Club for the winter season. Of
the fty-one broadcasts aired from the Cotton Club between 29 September 1930 and
February 1931, only six reportedly opened and/or closed with the signature tune
East St. Louis.62
A holograph short score63 (conductor score?) (see Example 3) in the Duke Ellington
Collection at the National Museum of American History opens with an East St. Louis
arrangement which is virtually identical with the one recorded in 1930 and the one for
the lm Check and Double Check. This arrangement is the rst number of a three-part
medley, including Birmingham Breakdown in the middle and Black and Tan
58
Ellingtons and the bands rst lm appearance were in the short lm Black and Tan, directed by Dudley Murphy,
in the previous year.
59
According to Mercer Ellington, this contract came about thanks to the nationwide attention the band achieved
from their regular radio broadcastings (Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, 34).
60
Vail, Dukes Diary, part I, 38.
61
Wood, Graham, The Development of Song Forms in the Broadway and Hollywood Musicals of Richard
Rodgers, 19191943 (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 2000), 79. A chorus-end-introduction contains the
last four bars of the chorus.
62
See the NBC log books (Library of Congress). These log books, with the Corrected Trafc Sheets, list song titles
with other details for twenty-seven programs (Steiner, Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC).
63
Pencil short score on A.B.C. STANDARD MUSIC PUBLICATIONS, INC. New York City 12-staves paper, 4
pp. National Museum of American History Archives Center (NMAH), Smithsonian Institution. Duke Ellington
Collection (DEC), Series 1, Box 109, Folder 9. This manuscript is one of the earliest surviving Ellington holographs
in the Smithsonian Institution. Ellington may have not written down any arrangements before 1930, or the
material got lost. From the 1930s on, as the band grew, there was more need for worked out arrangements. Ellington appears to have started to keep his holographs after 1930s. Many of the early manuscripts are sketchy. Ellington
presumably used them to write down ideas, shape, overall structures etc., and maybe even have the parts copied
out. More scholarly work, however, is required to determine the precise function of early Ellington manuscripts.
45
Jazz Perspectives
Example 3. Short score. Page 1 (of 4). Medley of early 1930s. NMAH, DEC#1, Box
109:9. (Used by permission of the Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center,
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution).
Fantasy at the end. Ellington notated East St. Louis relatively detailed, Birmingham
Breakdown and Black and Tan Fantasy, on the other hand, rather rudimentarily.
Black and Tan Fantasy consists only of the rst twelve bars (the A strain), with the
theme written down in three-part closed harmonies. Birmingham Breakdown
46
follows immediately after East St. Louis with a sixteen-bar introduction in C minor
for the ensemble.64 The two breaks in bars 56 and 1314 feature an ad lib. passage
for Johnny Hodges. As in the 1926 Vocalion and 1927 Brunswick recordings, the
twenty-bar A strain in A major, which Ellington requests to be repeated, follows. It
is not indicated in the holograph whether the rst A strain is reserved for Ellingtons
piano obbligato and the second one with the rhythmicized chromatic chord progression for the brass section as on the Vocalion and Brunswick recordings.65 Ellington has only sketched the four-part chord structure for the saxophone section. His
indication Brass close under the staff system leads one to believe that the brass
section indeed played the syncopated hot jazz theme on top of the saxophone accompaniment. Ellington, however, does not indicate a repetition of the sixteen-bar introduction, as played on the earlier recordings. The short score segues after the A strain
directly into the sixteen-bar B strain. The rhythmicized arppeggiated gure does
not follow the syncopated version as in the two 1920s recordings, but is notated in
straight crotchets with Ellingtons remark Lag.66 These crotchets correspond to
Cootie Williamss solo of the 1937 version of The New Birmingham Breakdown
which the band recorded for Master.67 The two stop-time breaks are to be lled
with a short ad lib. lick by Hodges. Ellington requests a return to the A strain, followed by a repetition of the B strain. The sketch, however, does not reveal whether
the A strain is to be played only once and the B strain twice as on the Vocalion and
Brunswick recordings. In addition, Birmingham Breakdown does not end with
two blues choruses as on the two 1920s recordings but with another, eight-bar break
to be lled by Hodges, before a ve-bar chromatic passage, presumably for the saxophone section (Ellington labels one of the four voices with Ten[or]), leads into
Black and Tan Fantasy.
What purpose did Ellington create this score for, and when did he write it down? Is it
possible that Ellington and his orchestra played this arrangement live? The playlists
reveal that the medley was not performed on the road in the 1930s. Such an absence
does not indicate with complete certainty that they had never played the arrangement
live, since the playlists of the 1930s are scarce and sketchy. A second question concerns
the issue why Ellington and his orchestra did not record this score. A quick survey
through the recording history of the three medley compositions between the late
1920s and the next decade sheds light on the question. Ellington and his orchestra
did not record Birmingham Breakdown between February 1927 and March 1937
(the month they recorded The New Birmingham Breakdown). They did, however,
The key of C minor corresponds with the C minor of East St. Louis. Why Ellington abondened F minor and
went back to the original key remains unknown. Possibly, it is related to another signicant change: the performer
of the lead voice. No longer does the whole trumpet section play the theme, but only Cootie Williams. According to
Mercer Ellington, when Whetsel began to lose his lip [in the 1930s], Cootie began to play both lead and solos
(Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, 46).
65
Schuller, Early Jazz, op. cit., 334.
66
Tucker, Early Ellington, op. cit., 221. See the transcription in Tucker, Early Ellington, op. cit., 223.
67
See Ellingtons holograph at the NMAH, Series 1A, Box 39, Folder 6, 1 p. Ellington also indicates Lag for the
crotchet motive.
64
Jazz Perspectives
47
record Black and Tan Fantasy in the 1930s once before they recorded the new
arrangement of The New Black and Tan Fantasy for Brunswick in January 1938.
The hypothesis arises whether this sketch score reproduces an unrecorded medley
for a Victor recording project launched on 3 and 9 February 1932. The two Victor
dates are of particular importance. For the rst time, Ellington recorded two
medleys, a format which would become increasingly important in his live performances. The rst included Mood Indigo, Hot and Bothered and Creole Love
Call, the second East St. Louis, Lots o Fingers 68 and Black and Tan Fantasy.
These longer, seven-to-eight minute arrangements were possible thanks to a new
Victor invention, the Program Transcriptions seriesthe rst venture into commercial
33 rpm long-playing recording.69
Berini and Volont nd the 9 February 1932 recording of East St. Louis of notably
inferior quality since it misses completely the ingenious inspiration, dominating the
earlier recordings.70 However, this version is not much different than that of 1930.
Both are in F minor and begin with the eight-bar introduction, followed by AABA.
In both recordings, the trumpet section plays the rst and third A strain with growling
wah-wah technique, to contrast the second A strain on open horns. However, the
tempo of the 1932 version is considerably slower, with = 112 instead of 147 in the
1930 recording.
The short score with the medley East St. Louis Birmingham Breakdown
Black and Tan Fantasy reveals the same aesthetic concept as the recorded Victor
medley, a hot jazz number wedged into the two jungle tunes East St. Louis and
Black and Tan Fantasy. The timing between the recorded and sketched medley
also corresponds (provided Ellington would have followed the same tempo as on the
recordings): East St. Louis is approximately 1:20 minutes long on the 1932 Victor
version, Birmingham Breakdown around 2:40 minutes (as on the 1927/28 and
1938 recorded versions), and the sketched fragment of Black and Tan Fantasy
would probably have been around 3:00 minutes as on the 1932 Victor recording.
Whether or not this short score was the base for a rejected medley for the 1932
Victor project, the medley is remarkable. Ellington combines three of his most important early successes. Since these three compositions were the only 1920s tunes, which
Ellington rearranged in a 1930s up to date style for his enlarged band (all with New
added in the title), these compositions continued to be an important asset of the bands
repertoire in the 1930s.
Ellington had based the harmonic progression of Lots o Fingers on the one of James P. Johnsons Charleston. He also recorded this tune under the alternate title Fast and Furious on 17 May 1932 (Brunswick 6355).
The earliest known recording of Lots o Fingers is a transcript from a nationwide broadcasted Cotton Club show
little over a year (29 January 1931) before the Victor recording (see Steiner, Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC, op.
cit.). All three versions are identical in duration.
69
The records in this series were pressed on a ten- or twelve-inch single-sided standard groove disc, playing at 33
rpm. This early foray into the LP market turned out to be a commercial failure. The production ended in 1933, in
part because potential record buyers were forced to purchase a special phonograph, equipped with an electric
motor and a special chromium needle in order to properly play the microgroove records.
70
Berini and Volont, Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, 168.
68
48
This short score, the 1930 and 1932 recordings as well as the version in Check and
Double Check of East St. Louis reveal that Ellington emphasized the AABA section
of the composition. The reduction of the piece down to the opening chorus and omission of the C section show that East St. Louis now primarily was used as a signature
tune. Presumably, the band hardly played the full version in the early to mid-1930s,
since Ellington and his band performed the abbreviated version on tour. The same
short signature version was performed, for instance, during a 1933 engagement at
the Cotton Club from 9 March and 31 May. According to Steiner, Ellington opened
thirty-two of the Cotton Club shows with East St. Louis, while the signature tune
signed off twenty-two shows.71
Jazz Perspectives
49
played by Billy Taylor on tuba or on any other low-register instrument, probably to stay
away from the somber timbre of the rst score. Hayes Alvis, nally, does not emphasize
the third beat with fancy slaps, but simply plays a walking bass gure. The third and
last score gives the opening eight-bar passage as on the recording, except that Ellington
still notates the later, omitted bass line. In contrast with all earlier arrangements, Ellington adds a two-chord, four-voice brass shout, in bars 2 and 4 of each A strain. He also
inserts a pick-up gure in quavers (played twice in succession by the trombones in
unison, bars 7 and 8 of intro and rst A strain of rst chorus), in order to mark the
A-strain cadence.
The second chorus reveals the same elaborate and sophisticated arranging style as
many other Ellington works of the late-1930s. Three trombones play a variation
based on Mileys melody in the rst two A strains.73 In the second A strain, Ellington
instructs Bigard to ad lib high clarinet gures in response to the three trombones.
The B strain also features Bigard, playing the same melody which the saxophone
section performed two octaves lower in the 1930/32 arrangement (see Example 3).
Bigard is accompanied by three open trumpets and trombones playing short interjections together. The arrangement ends with the concluding A strain. The saxophones
play an eight-note arpeggio variation of Mileys theme in unison, while two trumpets
(Stewart and Whetsel)74 and three trombones perform accompanying chords.
Ellington recorded The New East St. Louis for Irving Millss short-lived Master
Records label, and it became the labels rst release, on 1 April 1937. Since the
announcement of Master Records was hot news in entertainment circles, spun by
Mills promotion machine, it is likely that Ellington wrote the arrangement specically
for the occasion. A few commentators have compared the recording of The New East
St. Louis with the earlier recordings of the composition. For Martin Williams, the
whole is much better orchestrated, the juxtaposition of the featured soloist against
the orchestration and against the other soloists is balanced and proportioned.75 In
particular, there is the growth of the orchestra itself, its swing, and the obvious
improvements of its rhythm section.76 Williamss assessment of the The New East
St. Louis has much in common with that of Hugues Panassi relating to the rst or
second arrangement of East St. Louis (most commentators must have had the
readily accessible 1927 Victor version in their heads). In Hot Jazz: Le guide de la
musique swing et du vrai jazzpublished in English in 1936 as The Guide to Swing
MusicPanassi states still before the release of The New East St. Louis that it
would not be right to say that arrangements like that in East St. Louis . . . are no
73
Short score, pencil, 2 pp, NMAH, DEC#1, Box 467:1. The fragmented sketch was identied as The New East
St. Louis by Edward Green. Only the parts for Cooty [Cootie Williams] and Rex [Stewart] have survived,
DEC#1, Box 109:10.
74
Only the second chorus is notated. While Williams pauses during the last eight bars (see part), Stewart and
Whetsel play this section alone.
75
Williams, Jazz Tradition, 103.
76
Williamss critique is particularly problematic, since it is printed in the Smithsonian Collection, which is still
used as introductory material to the history of jazz in many universities across the United States (Martin Williams,
Accompanying Booklet to Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Collection of
Recordings. New York: Manufactured by CBS Records, 1987, 65).
50
longer good today; but it is certain that they have become dated.77 Meanwhile Williams, who had much greater distance to East St. Louis, exhibits a teleological understanding of the history of jazz by ignoring that both versions are testimonials of their
respective eras. Ellington rmly positioned The New East St. Louis within the swing
style, in which the thirty-two bar songs and twelve-bar blues were the most used formulas. The symmetrical form of intro and two choruses (8 + 32 + 32 bars), the balance
between the sections, is in keeping with the main characteristics of many swing
arrangements. With its luscious orchestration and the obbligato, virtuoso clarinet
solo, the bridge of the second chorus in particular recalls similar passages from
Benny Goodmans output of the same period.
In its novel, sleek arrangement, East St. Louis continued to be the signature tune of
Ellingtons orchestra for the remaining years of the 1930s. Typically, it was played with
the eight-bar introduction, followed by the two rst A strains, with a radio voice-over.
Ellington also performed the new arrangement several times during an engagement at
the Cotton Club in the following year. Then, from 1939 to September 1940, we know of
only a few more occurrences, in which Ellington and his orchestra played the abbreviated The New East St. Louis.78
In September 1940, during the bands engagement at Chicagos Panther Room at the
Sherman Hotel, Ellington replaced East St. Louis with a new signature tune, Sepia
Panorama. By that time, the composition no longer represented the sophisticated,
progressive style of the orchestra. According to the NBC logs, East St. Louis
opened the non-sponsored sustaining broadcasts on the nights of 7, 8, 10 and 11 September.79 Aural evidence, however, reveals that on the night of 8 September Sepia
Panorama was the rst composition of the sustainer, as it was for the many remaining shows from 12 September to 13 October.80
At that time Sepia Panorama was fairly new in the bands repertory, for it was
recorded in New York City a little over six weeks before the opening in Chicago.
Sepia Panorama, however, was not destined to remain the bands theme song for
very long. During the so-called broadcasting ban Ellington replaced some of his
ASCAP-licensed compositions with new works by Billy Strayhorn and Ellingtons
son Mercer. Among these new compositions was Strayhorns Take the A Train,
rst recorded for Standard Radio Transcription at the RCA studio in Hollywood (15
January 1941). The rst commercial recording took place a month later (15 February),
once again at the RCA studio in Hollywood. By this time Take the A Train must
have been the bands new signature tune. An MBS radio program, broadcast from
Casa Maana in Culver City the following day (16 February), opened and closed
Hugues Panassi, Hot Jazz: The Guide to Swing Music, translated by Lyle and Eleanor Dowling from Le jazz hot
(New York: M. Witmark & Sons, 1936), 178f.
78
Radio broadcast from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Boston, 26 July 1939; NBC broadcast from the Southlands
Cafe, Boston, 9 January 1940; and BBC broadcast America Dances, from the CBS radio studios, New York, 10
June 1940.
79
Carl Hllstrm and Ken Steiner, Broadcasts in September and October 1940, The International DEMS Bulletin
(December 2009March 2010), http://www.depanorama.net/dems/093.htm (accessed 25 August 2010).
80
Ibid.
77
Jazz Perspectives
51
with Take the A Train. After the ban ended, by the end of September 1941, Take
the A Train had achieved such popularity that Ellington neither reintroduced Sepia
Panorama, nor East St. Louis as the orchestras signature piece.
81
Marc Hugunin, ASCAP, BMI and the Democratization of American Popular Music, Popular Music and Society
7:1 (1979), 817, here 10.
82
Short score, pencil, 2 pp., NMAH, DEC#1, Box 9:9. The last two bars are notated on a separate sheet (DEC#1,
Box 109:9).
83
The parts are for Rab [Johnny Hodges], [Al] Sears, Jimmy [Hamilton], [Harry] Carney, Scad [Shelton Hemphill], Dud [Bascomb], [Francis] Williams; [Claude] Jones, [Lawrence] Brown, Tyree [Glenn], NMAH, DEC#1,
109:10. The part for [Shorty] Baker, is in DEC#1, 453:1, the one for [Russell] Proc[ope] in DEC#C, 461:1, and
the bass part in Series 1C, Box 466, Folder 1.
84
There are no parts at NMAH for neither the soloist Nance, nor Killian, who joined the orchestra shortly before
the concert (on 18 December), as replacement for Dud Bascomb.
81
52
Example 4. Short score. Page 2 (of 2). Carnegie Hall Concert of 1947. NMAH, DEC#1,
Box 9:9 (Final two measures on separate page: NMAH, DEC#1, Box 109:9). (Used by
permission of the Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of
American History, Smithsonian Institution).
bands extended stay in Los Angeles in the summer of 1947. The orchestra resided on
the West Coast from 25 July to 6 October. During that time Bascomb was still a
member of the band. This arrangement was therefore already performed before the
Jazz Perspectives
53
Carnegie Hall concert in December, most likely between the end of July and the
departure of Killian in December.85
The fth arrangement of East St. Louis exhibits stylistic elements of the late 1940s.
For instance, the accompanying, chordal gures with semiquaver triplet pick-ups (see the
saxophone section in the B strain of Example 4) resemble Stan Kentons arrangements
and Gil Evans scores for the Claude Thornhill orchestra. Despite Ellingtons effort to
adapt East St. Louis to the big band style of the late 1940s, it is not known how
often the band performed this particular arrangement. The Carnegie live cut for Ellingtons own archive is the only recording of the 1947 arrangement which has survived.
54
Once again, the commentators were keen to compare this new arrangement with previous versions. Nat Hentoff, who reviewed the album for Down Beat, awarded it four
stars. Even though he observed that among the high points are a brooding East
St. Louis, he judged the album as a whole . . . enjoyable but not indispensable, since
none of the re-created tracks are equal in quality to their originals. . .87 The harshest
critique came from Andr Hodeir, who described the album as not just another bad
record, [but] it is the sign of a dereliction which conrms once and for all the
decadence of a great musician. Hodeir continued that either the Duke has simply
lost the remarkable musical sensibility which lay at the heart of his genius, or else he
was never really conscious of the beauty of his music. He then concluded that the
contemporary artist has one anguishing advantage over his predecessors, and this is a
sense of historical perspective which enables him to situate himself with regard to the
past . . . the title Historically Speaking means The Duke Judged by His Past.88
While the historical aspect is certainly worthy of attention, it must be assessed somewhat differently. Ellington revisited his music from a safe distance, with critical irony
and an observant objectivity. Self-reective, Ellington re-examined his earlier
compositions, with new musicians, and a novel approach of the familiar repertoire.
Historically Speaking marks the rebirth of Ellington and his orchestra in the wake of
their legendary Newport Jazz Festival concert, which would put Ellington back on
the map, ve months later. Historically Speaking is for Ellington what E = MC2
(Roulette, 1957) was for Count Basie (aka The Atomic Mr. Basie), the return of a
swing musician in a new musical realitythe post/hard bop and third stream movements were in full bloomwhich required retooling the orchestra and its repertoire.
Both albums (Historically Speaking and E = MC2) display the same refreshing, ironic
and light-hearted post-swing sound.
After the critical acclaim of Historically Speaking, Ellington and his orchestra performed
East St. Louis in the 1956 arrangement infrequently. They played it at a benet concert
at the Medinah Temple in Chicago on 3 April 1957,89 as sign-off tune at Basin Street East
in New York City (only AABA), on 14 January and 17 August 1964,90 and during the CBC
television show FestivalThe Duke in Toronto on 2 September.91 By that time Cootie
Williams had rejoined the orchestra.92 Williams reclaimed the growl-solo part of East
St. Louis at the second concert at the Thatre des Champs Elyses in Paris on 30
January 196593coarser, more pungent and penetrating than thirty years earlier on the
Master recording. In Paris the form was introAABA. It is not known whether the C
strain was also dropped during the opening concert of a three-night engagement at
Lennies-on-the-Turnpike in West Peabody, Massachusetts, on 11 September 1967.
Nat Hentoff, Duke Ellington: Historically SpeakingThe Duke, Down Beat (30 May 1956), 21. Reprinted in:
Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 91.
88
All quotations of Hodeir, in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 3012.
89
Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 104.
90
Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 232 and 249.
91
Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 250.
92
Cootie Williams rejoined the orchestra in 1962.
93
Vail, Dukes Diary, part II, 257.
87
Jazz Perspectives
55
Apparently, in the late-1960s East St. Louis was no longer part of the bands book.
Nevertheless the piece was of personal importance to Ellington. He played it as a duet
with organist Wild Bill Davisonwho toured with the orchestra from September 1969
to February 1971as the last number during a concert at the Teatro Massimo in
Pescara on 12 November 1969.94 Less than two years later it became another duet,
this time with bassist Joe Benjamin at a concert at the Left Bank club in Baltimore
on 22 February 1971.95 The last known occasion on which Ellington and his orchestra
played East St. Louis was at a matinee concert during the festival Newport in
New York at Carnegie Hall on 8 July 1972.96
****
In conclusion, East St. Louis is a prime example of how over the course of fortyve years Ellington reworked and modernized a composition, largely through accommodating the individual characters of the different musicians he had at his disposal at
different moments. Ellington arranged the composition at least once every decade
between 1930 and 1960, a clear sign of his perennial interest in East St. Louis.
Each of these new arrangements displayed the respective stage in his career.
Despite East St. Louis initial success and despite its close connection with Ellingtons career it never became a jazz standard, unlike later Ellington compositions such as
Sophisticated Lady, Satin Doll, and C Jam Blues. East St. Louis has remained a
work closely linked to the unique, yet ever-changing sounds of the Ellington orchestra.
In particular, Mileys memorable growl interpretation of the AABA theme has captured
the listeners attention, and consequently, all later soloists modeled their interpretation
after him, including Ellingtons own musicians, Cootie Williams and Ray Nance. Those
artists who recorded versions of East St. Louis after Ellingtons demise did so primarily on tribute albums, from David Grusins Homage to Duke (1993) to John Pizzarellis
Rockin in Rhythm: A Duke Ellington Tribute (2010) or on concept albums such as Greg
Osbys St. Louis themed album St. Louis Shoes (2003). For generations after Ellington
(and probably also for the elderly Ellington himself), East St. Louis evoked nostalgia
for the roaring twenties, an imagined world of Harlem, illicit jazz clubs, loose
women, hardboiled gangsters and Prohibition. Francis Ford Coppola attempted to
recreate such a world in his 1984 ctional lm Cotton Club, in which, unsurprisingly,
East St. Louis is one of the featured tunes.
The most unusual versions of East St. Louis were made by rock and folk musicians,
who also showed a debt to Mileys solo. On Steely Dans third album Pretzel Logic
(1974), released a little less than two months before Ellingtons passing, Walter
Becker reinterprets Mileys solo on an electric guitar with wah-wah effects. The
Perth-based gypsy and tango band Zigatango offers a Hungarian inuenced rendering
with Mileys solo in the solo violin, accompanied by bandoneon, guitar and double bass
(Zigatango, 2008), while in the Oakland-based duo Shamalamacord Mike Penny plays
94
56
Abstract
East St. Louis Toodle-O is probably the only Ellington composition which displays
Ellingtons mode of reworking and modernizing a work over the course of forty-ve
years, largely through a process of accommodating the individual characters of the
different stylists he had at his disposal at different moments in time. In its rst two
arrangements, the composition reects Ellingtons rise to success in an exemplary
fashion. The rst arrangement (recorded for the rst time on Vocalion) reveals how
East St. Louis was instrumental for Ellington in shaping a unique musical style
that would later be exploited by Irving Mills as jungle music. It is also the rst Ellington composition in which he had proven himself to be a serious contender within the
highly competitive Manhattan hot jazz scene. East St. Louis may well be one of the
few compositions (along with Black and Tan Fantasy and Immigration Blues) that
allowed him and his band to cease their engagements at the Kentucky Club and move
uptown to Harlem. The second arrangement (Victor) is a testament to Ellingtons
music during the early days of his tenure at the Cotton Club.
The third arrangement (Diva and Velvet Tone) reects the bands expanding,
growing prociency. After Bubber Mileys dischargethe soloist of East
St. Louisand with the steady enlargement of the orchestra, Ellington was faced
with the need to write a new arrangement, reecting the taste and style of the early
1930s. With the beginning of the new decade, East St. Louis was primarily used as
the bands signature tune, in its abbreviated form. The fourth arrangement under
the title The New East St. Louis Toodle-O, recorded in 1937 on Mills Master
Records label, echoes the innovative features of the swing idiom.
In the fth arrangement, presented at the Carnegie Hall concert in 1947, Ellington
displays solid skill in adapting the composition to the prerequisites of the post-bebop
and pre-cool jazz era. Finally in the sixth arrangement (Bethlehem Records, 1956),
Ellington presents East St. Louis through a distant, ironic lter, as a self-reective retrospective of his early work. From 1956 to the end of his career, East St. Louis played
a marginal role in the bands repertoire.