Duke Ellington S East ST Louis Toodle O PDF

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Duke Ellington's “East St. Louis Toodle-

O” Revisited
Michael Baumgartner
Published online: 29 Jan 2013.
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
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Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis

Toodle-O” Revisited
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
Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:44 06 October 2013
early career up to the 1970s. During his lifetime, Ellington conceived six different
arrangements of “East St. Louis.” The first 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 first 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 first
version, under the title “The New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” for Irving Mills’s short-
lived Master Records label. Ellington wrote a fifth arrangement in 1947, which has sur-
vived 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 parts—probably
also copied by Whaley.
These six arrangements of “East St. Louis” are significant in Ellington’s oeuvre and
they give a glimpse into the band’s working methods. They further show how a single
work served—for over forty-five years—as 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 band’s book are “Black and Tan Fantasy,” “Creole
Love Call,” “The Mooche” and “Mood Indigo.” However, “East St. Louis” was Elling-
ton’s first 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” five 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
1
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.
# 2012 Taylor & Francis

30 Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis Toodle-O” Revisited
the output of the early Ellington band. These concern issues of authorship, improvisa-
tional practices in 1920s jazz, and the relation between recordings and live perform-
ances that are based on the same scores.
“East St. Louis” was Ellington’s first moderately complex composition to be recorded. It
was written shortly before “Black and Tan Fantasy”—“East 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 anti-
thetical in mood. In its earliest arrangement (1926), Bubber Miley plays a bluesy thirty-
two 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 light-
hearted, ragtime-tinged C-section, which appears towards the end of the work, first as a
full statement (for two trumpets and a trombone), then as a trio variation (soprano saxo-
phone and two clarinets) and finally abbreviated. Two solos appear between the opening
AABA and final C-sections, first 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 A-
strains. 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 first 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 Ellington’s early
career, the picture will remain incomplete.
Table 1. “East St. Louis” Formal Plan Comparison.

Voc (29 November OKeh (19 January Vic (19 December 1927)
1926) 1928)
Br (14 March 1927)
Col (22 March 1927)
Cam (ca. 8 March
1928)
Pathé (same day as
Cam)
Intro (vamp on A) 3 saxes / p / tuba or b 3 saxes / p / b 3 saxes / p / b (new
scoring)
A1/A2/B/A1 Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp)
C3/C2 (solo) n/a n/a Harry Carney (bar)
on CC (solo) Nanton (open tb) Nanton (open tb) Nanton (muted tb)
on AA (solo) Clarinet solo Bigard (cl) Rudy Jackson (cl)
C1/C2 (full Brass trio (open?) Brass trio (open?) Brass trio (open)
statement)
C3 (trio) 2 clarinets / soprano sax Harry Carney n/a
C2 (full statement) Brass trio (open?) Brass trio (open?) n/a
A1 Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp)
Note: Voc = Vocalion; Br = Brunswick; Col = Columbia; Cam = Cameo; Vic = Victor.
Jazz Perspectives 31
“East St. Louis” was Ellington’s third composition after “Choo Choo” and “Parlor
Social Stomp” which he recorded, but the first number to radically differ from his
earlier recordings, because of its intricate arrangement, the logical compositional
flow, 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
first 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 minor-
key 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 exceed-
ingly funny and it fashioned itself into Oh Le-wan-dos.”2 This event most likely
occurred during the first extended tour to New England in the summer of 1926 of
The Washingtonians, Ellington’s early band—a few months before “East St. Louis”
was first recorded.3
2
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 Tucker’s 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, Miley’s 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), 13–15.
Reprint in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 332–338: 335).
Dodge astutely notes that the minor “Lewandos” triad “hook” is prominently
audible in Charlie Green’s trombone solo on Fletcher Henderson’s 1924 recording
of W. C. Handy’s “The Gouge of Armour Avenue.”4 Green’s solo “became especially
popular with trombonists, and was probably common musical knowledge ever since
Green had first played it,” a little more than two years before the first recording of
“East St. Louis.”5 Pursuing Dodge’s lead, Mark Tucker concludes that bars 17–23 of
Green’s solo correspond, approximately, to the first (and closing third) A strain of
“East St. Louis,” and bars 1–8 of Green’s 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, Green’s improvisation became Ellington’s 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 con-
tributing to early Ellington compositions than usually acknowledged. Trombonist
Joe Nanton supports this hypothesis: “Bubber was an idea man. For instance, we’d
have a printed orchestration. . . Bubber’d always have some stuff of his own and
soon we’d have a trio or quartet on the part. . .”9 It is unknown whether the C-
strain 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 Joplin’s and Louis
Chauvin’s “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 Joplin’s ‘Maple Leaf Rag,’ A. J. Piron’s ‘I Wish I Could Shimmy Like
My Sister Kate,’ and W. C. Handy’s ‘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 author-
ship 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
4
Pryor Dodge. “Bubber Miley,” 253.
5
Ibid., 253.
6
See the comparison of Miley’s solo in “East St. Louis” and the one by Green in “The Gouge of Armour Avenue” in
Tucker, Early Years, 249–250.
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.
Example 1. Opening strain, as played in all early versions (except on Victor).
the C strain on the piano, out of an existing ragtime composition, by gradually altering
the musical material through a process of improvisation. The result is a ragtime strain,
scored in an idiomatic stride piano style, but played both by the brass section and in a
variation by the reed instruments. The melodic, closing figure at the cadence is the
same as the one that Nanton plays at a cadence in “Take It Easy.” This use of the
same figure in two tunes further suggests that the band streamlined its compositions
collaboratively during rehearsals.
Borrowings as from “Heliotrope Bouquet” and Green’s trombone solo in “The
Gouge of Armour Avenue” were not uncommon in early Ellington compositions.
For instance, the theme of “Creole Love Call,” played by three clarinets, is based on
Jimmie Noone’s clarinet solo in King Oliver’s “Camp Meeting Blues” of 1923.12 Simi-
larly, the first chorus of “Black and Tan Fantasy” is based on Stephen Adams’s spiritual,
“The Holy City,” and the final bars quote Chopin’s “Funeral March.”13 Furthermore,
the organ-like opening section of the “Immigration Blues” resembles Turner Layton’s
“Dear Old Southland,” a 1933 recording in which Ellington quotes the spiritual “Deep
12
Wolfram Knauer, “Ellington, Duke,” Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 2nd edition, (Kassel and Stuttgart:
Bärenreiter and Metzler, 2001–7), col. 269.
13
See, among others: David Metzer, “Shadow Play: The Spiritual in Duke Ellington’s ‘Black and Tan Fantasy’,”
Black Music Research Journal vol. 17 no. 2 (Autumn 1997), 137–158, here 140.
River.”14 He reused the same spiritual material of the “Immigration Blues” in the
middle section of “The Blues I Love to Sing” (first 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.
Formal Aspects in “East St. Louis”

The C strain has been dismissed by various commentators. Martin Williams finds it
“inappropriate,” “weak, out of place, and perhaps affected”15, to James L. Collier it

is “sunny and a little aimless,”16 to Peter Gammond “a jovial but slightly inane
jumpy rhythm”17 and its variation—played by the reed section—is to Schuller a
“trite polka-like phrase.”18 Yet this C strain, in fact, the entire structure of “East
St. Louis,” can be better understood when seen in a broader historical perspective.
The composition stands at the intersection of New Orleans practices and New York/
Chicago innovations. Ellington is equally indebted to both ragtime and Tin Pan
Alley practices,19 as shown in the combination of the thirty-two bar AABA form in
C minor and the eighteen-bar C strain in the relative major key.20 The formal structure
of “East St. Louis” markedly differs from Ellington’s other 1926 and 1927 compo-
sitions, such as “Parlor Social Stomp,” “Birmingham Breakdown,” “Hop Head,” and
“Washington Wobble,” which all are based on the older ragtime strain-form prin-
ciples.21 “East St. Louis,” on the other hand, presents more than just a series of con-
trasting thematic and key areas, and a string of solos. As Tucker observes, Ellington
withholds the “secondary theme until the piece is well underway.”22 Even though
Nanton solos on the harmonic progression of the secondary theme (in the relative
major of E♭) after Miley’s thirty-two bar opening chorus, this secondary theme is
not heard until towards the end of the composition, performed by the whole band.
“East St. Louis” has a hybrid structure, which places its conception beyond the standard
forms of mid-1920s jazz compositions, such as the blues, ragtime multi-strain form,
verse-chorus song, and the AABA chorus song. The combination of a blues-inflected
14
Schuller, Early Jazz, 335.
15
Williams, Jazz Tradition, 102.
16
James Lincoln Collier, Duke Ellington, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 112.
17
Peter Gammond (ed.), Duke Ellington: His Life and Music, (New York: Da Capo Press, 1977), 73.
18
19
This is not to say that Tin Pan Alley writers would not have been influenced by the ragtime idiom.
20
The AABA form is hardly perceivable, since it only occurs once in its complete form, mostly because the bridge
appears only once.
21
Ellington’s original composition, “Parlor Social Stomp,” which was recorded prior to “East St. Louis” (in March
1926), follows a ragtime multi-strain-form. The composition is based on the succession of several 16-bar sections:
Introduction–A–B–B–A1–transition–C (trio)–C1 (trumpet solo)–D (alto sax)–D1 (trumpet)–D2 (see for a detailed
discussion Tucker, Early Years, 157).
22
Ibid., 251.
melody over the eight-bar passage in minor and the ragtime-influenced 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.
First Arrangement: The Kentucky Club Era

Tucker assumes that “East St. Louis” “must have been in the Washingtonians’ reper-
toire by October or November 1926.”23 Even though the initial idea for the compo-
sition came in the summer of 1926 the short motif in question probably only grew
into a full composition when Irving Mills had made arrangements with Jack Kapp of
Vocalion, a subsidiary of Brunswick Records, to record a few Ellington numbers.
Indeed, music publisher and songwriter Harrison Smith, who was briefly Ellington’s
manager, recalled that Kapp “asked Duke to knock out a tune for Vocalion’s East
St. Louis trade.”24 Ellington’s first session would be recorded with the General Electric
sound equipment which was inferior to the then state-of-the-art Western Electric
system. Presumably, the opportunity to record for a somewhat prestigious label for
the first time, with an electric over a mechanical recording sound system, must have
given Ellington an additional impetus to submit an extraordinarily well crafted
composition.25
Kapp titled “East St. Louis” at the actual Vocalion session of 29 November 1926,
which suggests that the work had probably not been in the repertoire of the Washing-
tonians.26 Kapp, and perhaps also Mills, may have pieced together the title from a short
announcement, published in Variety roughly half a year before the recording date:
“Jonas Perlberg, dance promoter, has discovered a new dance, ‘the toad-de-lo’ which
he ran across in St. Louis.”27 Ellington may have constructed the explanatory anecdote
after the Vocalion session, once “East St. Louis” had become the Washingtonians’ first
significant hit:
23
Ibid., 250.
24
“Letter to Marshall Stearns, [n.d.], IJS vertical file. And Irving Mills told Pat Willard, one of Ellington’s publicity
people, the same thing (interview with Brooks Kerr, 20 March 1985),” Tucker, Early Years, 308.
25
It is not known whether Kapp’s 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 1926–1931. 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, 38–39.
27
Variety, 9 June 1926, 42. The toddle—an African-American dance—was 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. “Jenny’s Toe Revisited:
White Responses to Afro-American Shaking Dances.” American Music vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 1987), 1–19. Tucker
discusses the different spellings of “toodle-o,” as they appeared on the numerous recordings of Ellington’s tune
(“On Toodle-oo, Todalo, and Jenny’s Toe.” American Music vol. 6 no. 1 [Spring 1988], 88–91). 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), 91–92.
We were talking about this old man, after a hard day’s work in the field, where he and
his broken walk [are] coming up the road. But he’s strong, in spite of being so tired,
because he’s headed [home] to get his feet under the table and to get that hot dinner
that’s waiting for him. And that’s 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 Voca-
lion 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 figure 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 first signature tune.
“East St. Louis” quickly gained considerable recognition. It was Ellington’s most
popular early work between the release of the Vocalion record on 20 January 1927
and the first Brunswick recording session a month later, on 28 February 1927.
Regular broadcasts as the signature tune from the radio studios of Loew’s station
WHN, as well as the occasional remotes from the Kentucky Club, furthered the com-
mercial success of the Vocalion record. In order to cash in on the song’s success, Kapp
and Mills recorded “East St. Louis” one more time and released it on the flagship label
of the company, Brunswick.
Kapp’s expectations must have been high for the first Ellington session for Bruns-
wick, 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 pro-
blems 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 ses-
sions 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,” 338–341.
29
Charles L. Lumpkins, American Pogrom: The East St. Louis Race Riot and Black Politics, (Athens, OH: Ohio Uni-
versity 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 Uni-
versity Press, 2003), 145.
32
The metal parts were presumably destroyed soon after the session, and no test pressings are known to have
survived.
33
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).
Improvisational Practice Among Jazz Soloists in the 1920s

These early recordings of “East St. Louis” represent an invitation to address the still
unsolved problem regarding the improvisational practice that was customary in early
jazz. Jazz scholars agree that solos hardly ever are completely improvised. In fact, in
early jazz recordings, solos were often carefully planned, and tended to be based on
earlier conceived material. While the macrostructure of the solo would remain
unchanged, the soloist could experiment with details, for instance by adding embellish-
ments, or altering phrasing and articulation. Because of its multiple recordings, “East
St. Louis” is one of the few 1920s jazz tunes that offer an excellent vehicle to investigate
the genesis of such solos. Nanton’s trombone solo, in particular, gives a detailed view
on how a soloist conceived a memorable solo.
Previous commentators have offered contradictory evaluations of Nanton’s solo in
“East St. Louis.” The trombone specialist Kurt Dietrich, for instance, finds the solo
“rather jaunty, in stark contrast to the atmosphere of gloom that pervades much of
the piece.”34 Eddie Lambert on the other hand, observes that Nanton’s trombone
solo “becomes notably more vigorous” from the Vocalion to the Pathé recordings.35
Schuller states that “Nanton’s slightly stiff but good-natured solo” is the same on the
Brunswick and Columbia recordings. Indeed, when listening to the two solos, it is
evident that Nanton cultivated a “solo style based on only a few notes.”36 A comparison
of the solos on all seven early “East St. Louis” recordings further reveals that Nanton
plays the same solo every time—except on the Victor recording. Still, Berini and
Volonté claim that Nanton’s solo on the Pathé-Actuelle recording is “not on the
level of the previous versions regarding the execution, taken into consideration
the decidedly faster tempo which destroys the theme”37 (see Example 2). Hence, the
solo in “East St. Louis” does not grow “more vigorous,” as suggested by Lambert,
but rather—in the words of Schuller—“once the ‘improvisations’ were set, they
remained unchanged for a certain period.”38
Why the solo is identical on all the recordings except the one on Victor is unknown.
Was it Ellington who strove to preserve the shape of the composition once it had been
established? Or was it Nanton who decided to stick to a given solo? Were they answer-
ing to their audience who may have expected that a solo should sound as heard on the
record? Did Nanton decide to play the same solo on recorded versions of “East
34
Kurt Dietrich, Duke’s Bones: Ellington’s Great Trombonists, (Rottenburg, Germany: Advance Music, 1995), 28.
35
Eddie Lambert, Duke Ellington: A Listener’s Guide, (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999), 9.
36
Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, op. cit., 51.
37
Antonio Berini and Giovanni M. Volonté, Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, (Firenze: Ponte alle grazie, 1994),
129.
38
Example 2. Transcription of Nanton’s trombone solo, as played in all early versions

(except on Victor).
St. Louis” but would he change it at live performances? Richard Sudhalter offers an
explanation as to why early jazz musicians stuck to recorded solos: “the need to con-
serve, to render permanent, seems part of the overall context of the time, logical reac-
tion to a basically fugitive idiom.”39 It was, of course, also in the interest of a particular
soloist to keep a successful solo unaltered, as it would solidify his originality.
Second Arrangement: The Cotton Club Era

The Victor version presents a reworked arrangement. While Tucker has commented
that Ellington re-orchestrated the opening strain,40 Schuller has noted a reordering
of the individual sections (see Table 1).41
Between Miley’s statement of the theme and Nanton’s solo, Ellington inserts a bar-
itone solo for Harry Carney. Probably in order not to exceed the three-and-a-half
minute limit of the ten-inch record, Ellington has omitted the C-strain reed trio and
the ten-bar C-strain recapitulation of the tutti brass-section, before Miley’s A-strain
coda. On the Victor recording, it appears as if one hears first three consecutive
solos, then the tutti brass-section and finally Miley’s closing statement, instead of
two solos, the tutti brass-section, the reed trio, a shortened recapitulation of the tutti
brass-section and Miley’s coda, as on the other recordings. This impression is deceiv-
ing. Carney’s solo on the Victor recording is actually a slightly altered rendition of the
reed trio and the recapitulation of the tutti brass-section. In other words, Ellington
shifted the final C strain on the Victor recording towards the beginning of the work,
after the opening AABA statement. Since virtually the same musical material is
39
Richard M. Sudhalter, Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915–1945, (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1999), 428.
40
41
Schuller, Early Jazz, 328–9.
played by a single instrument (instead of three), the much criticized final 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 record-
ing; 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 Voca-
lion 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 reflect 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 Ellington’s 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 sexu-
ality, 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 com-
position 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 Carney’s 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” clichés. It is possible that this version
of “East St. Louis” was coined to accompany a dance routine. Such a dance number
42
Ibid, 329.
43
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, 1927–1943. Diss., State Univer-
sity of New York at Stony Brook, 2001. See also, in the present issue, Kimberly Hannon, “Beyond the Cotton Club:
The Persistence of Duke Ellington’s ‘Jungle Style’” [ed.].
most likely opened the Cotton Club floor show, as “East St. Louis” was Ellington’s sig-
nature 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 tunes—as part of the same show—were recorded to promote Ellington’s new,
prestigious engagement as well as Fields’s and McHugh’s Cotton Club show.
“East St. Louis,” in its new arrangement, was used in Victor’s 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 Decem-
ber 1928. Apparently, the dynamics of the record industry—“East St. Louis’s” avail-
ability on other labels—warranted the delayed release. In addition to those of
Brunswick and Columbia, the market was flooded with the “dimestore record”
version that the Pathé-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, Pathé-Actuelle, Cameo (sold mainly in Macy’s
department stores) and their subsidiaries Lincoln and Romeo.
A closer look at all Victor Ellington releases in 1928 reveals the label’s 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 flip-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 Ellington’s 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 Green’s review of “Harlem River Quiver” at Ellington’s 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 teasin’est torso tossing yet, and
how!” (reprinted in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 31).
Table 2. Ellington’s record releases, 1928 (Victor Records).

Record Hit-Side Flip-Side
Hit-Side Flip-Side Number Release Date Recorded Recorded Artist Name on Label
Creole Love Call (0) Black and Tan Fantasy 21137 3 February 1928 26 October 26 October Duke Ellington And His
(1) 1927 1927 Orchestra
Harlem River Quiver (0) Washington Wabble 21284 8 June 1928 19 December 26 October –
(0) 1927 1927
The Blues I Love to Sing (0) Blue Bubbles (0) 21490 17 August 1928 26 October 19 December –
1927 1927
Black Beauty (1) Jubilee Stomp (4) 21580 5 October 1928 26 March 1928 26 March 1928 –
East St. Louis Toodle-Oo (3) (Got) Everything But 21703 7 December 1928 19 December 26 March 1928 Duke Ellington And His Cotton
You (0) 1927 Club Orchestra
Santa Claus, Bring My Man I Done Caught You 21777 21 December 1928 30 October 30 October Ozie Ware’s Hot Five
Back to Me (0) Blues (0) 1928 1928
Number in parenthesis: tune available on other labels at the date of the recording session
Jazz Perspectives
41
“East St. Louis” had gained such popularity under its original title.46 Evidently, neither
renaming “East St. Louis” to “Harlem Twist” nor changing the band’s name to Lonnie
Johnson’s Harlem Footwarmers succeeded to disguise the true origins of the recording.
The new title builds on Harlem’s reputation—primarily geared towards white audi-
ences—as 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 OKeh’s marketing depart-
ment, Lonnie (Lonzo) Johnson did indeed exist.47
The delay of Victor’s and OKeh’s 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 flooded
with “East St. Louis” records from other labels, all produced within the time-frame of
only a year and a half.
Third Arrangement: “East St. Louis” Without Bubber Miley

After Ellington had recorded “East St. Louis” seven times in two different arrangements
between late November 1926 and early March 1928, the tune had moved into
the background in the early 1930s, presumably because of a steady growth of the
band’s repertoire. Nonetheless, Ellington recorded a new arrangement on 3 April 1930
with the “Mills’ Ten Black Berries”48 for Velvet Tone and Diva, two Columbia subsidiary
labels. “East St. Louis” was released in their respective race series, 5 June that same year.
Much had happened in Ellington’s career since March 1928. He had built up a consider-
able repertoire with a good number of major hits such as “The Mooche,” “Black Beauty,”
“Cotton Club Stomp,” “Doin’ the Voom Voom,” and “Rent Party Blues.” At the same time,
the band’s radio exposure had grown significantly.49 In 1929 alone, it appeared in two
Cotton Club revues,50 both times with scores by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, as
well as in Florenz Ziegfeld’s production of Show Girl, which ran from 2 July to 5
October. Ellington was also featured in Dudley Murphy’s nineteen-minute RKO
46
This assumption is backed up by the fact that the flip-side of OKeh 8638 contains “Move Over” by “Duke Elling-
ton and His Orchestra.” Since “Move Over” was issued for the first time on OKeh 8638, it was no competition for
Columbia and could be presented under the orchestra’s proper name.
47
During his stay in St. Louis, three years earlier, the guitarist won a blues singing contest. The award included an
OKeh contract for a series of “race” records. Since Johnson was a recording artist of the label, the company felt
entitled to borrow his name for a record, made with another artist.
48
A stipulation in the Victor contract—signed between the company and Ellington/Mills at the beginning of
1929—stated that the label had the exclusive right to advertise Ellington’s records under his own name. For record-
ings with any other company, Ellington had to use a different name.
49
From December 1927 to February 1929, the orchestra could only be heard locally in New York over WHN and its
sister station WPAP (Ken Steiner. “Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC: September 1930–February 1931,” The Inter-
national DEMS Bulletin (Duke Ellington Music Society) (December 2008–March 2009), http://www.depanorama.
net/dems/083.htm (accessed 25 August 2010). Then, from 11 February to 23 September 1929, their music was
relayed from coast-to-coast over the CBS network with its nationwide affiliates, every Monday and Thursday
evening (from 6:30 to 7:00 pm) presumably from the WABC station itself and every Wednesday night (at 11
pm) from the Cotton Club (Lasker, Booklet of The Original Decca Recording, 46).
50
“Springbirds” (opened on 31 March) and “It’s the Blackberries” (opened on 29 September).
production Black and Tan, filmed 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 band’s schedule and
commitments.54 On Johnny Hodges’ recommendation, Ellington hired the seven-
teen-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 fill Miley’s 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 simplified 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 head–solo–head structure. Elling-
ton replaced Nanton’s 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 finally Bigard on clarinet. Repeating the C strain four times left considerable
room for the soloists.56 A special feature of this new arrangement was Ellington’s unac-
companied Harlem stride piano solo.
This arrangement shows both features of 1920s and early 1930s jazz. The head–solo–
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, Ellington’s stride piano and Jenkins’ New Orleans style
solo hark back to the 1920s and earlier. The foregrounding of the C strain, finally,
51
Eddie Lambert and Barry Kernfeld, “Tizol, Juan,” Grove Music Online, accessed on 3 July 2010.
52
See, for this date, Barry Kernfeld’s 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 Whetsel’s name, it has often been misspelled as Whetsol.
53
Vail, Duke’s 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
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.
lends the arrangement an aura of lightness and exhilaration, which the earlier arrange-
ments lack. Ellington has replaced the dark “jungle mood” with a lighter tone, which
suggests that he has abandoned a deliberate “jungle” idiom. The buoyant accompani-
ment characterizes the changing aesthetics of the orchestra in the early 1930s.
Ellington’s prolific 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 sufficiently 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 super-
stars Amos ’n’ Andy for their film project Check and Double Check.59 Alongside “East
St. Louis,” the film contains four original songs—“When I’m Blue,” “The Mystery
Song,” “Three Little Words” and “Old Man Blues”—which 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-strain—a compressed “chorus-end-introduc-
tion”61—and 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 fifty-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 film Check and Double Check. This arrangement is the first number of a three-part
medley, including “Birmingham Breakdown” in the middle and “Black and Tan
58
Ellington’s and the band’s first film appearance were in the short film 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
61
Wood, Graham, “The Development of Song Forms in the Broadway and Hollywood Musicals of Richard
Rodgers, 1919–1943” (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 Traffic 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. Elling-
ton 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.
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 first twelve bars (the A strain), with the
theme written down in three-part closed harmonies. “Birmingham Breakdown”
follows immediately after “East St. Louis” with a sixteen-bar introduction in C minor
for the ensemble.64 The two breaks in bars 5–6 and 13–14 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 first A strain is reserved for Ellington’s
piano obbligato and the second one with the “rhythmicized chromatic chord pro-
gression” for the brass section as on the Vocalion and Brunswick recordings.65 Elling-
ton 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 accom-
paniment. Ellington, however, does not indicate a repetition of the sixteen-bar intro-
duction, as played on the earlier recordings. The short score segues after the A strain
directly into the sixteen-bar B strain. The “rhythmicized arppeggiated figure” does
not follow the syncopated version as in the two 1920s recordings, but is notated in
straight crotchets with Ellington’s remark “Lag.”66 These crotchets correspond to
Cootie Williams’s 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 filled
with a short “ad lib.” lick by Hodges. Ellington requests a return to the A strain, fol-
lowed 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 filled by Hodges, before a five-bar chromatic passage, presumably for the saxo-
phone 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,
64
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 significant 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 Ellington’s holograph at the NMAH, Series 1A, Box 39, Folder 6, 1 p. Ellington also indicates “Lag” for the
crotchet motive.
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 first time, Ellington recorded two
medleys, a format which would become increasingly important in his live perform-
ances. The first 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 series—the first venture into commercial
33⅓ rpm long-playing recording.69
Berini and Volonté find 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 first 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 impor-
tant 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 band’s
repertoire in the 1930s.
68
Ellington had based the harmonic progression of “Lots o’ Fingers” on the one of James P. Johnson’s “Charles-
ton.” 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 33⅓
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 Volonté, Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, 168.
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 omis-
sion 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
Fourth Arrangement: The Orchestra’s Signature Tune

Ellington revised the composition in the mid-1930s, together with two others written
around the same time: “Black and Tan Fantasy” and “Birmingham Breakdown,”
adding “New” to their titles. “The New East St. Louis” is a testament to much that
had happened with Ellington’s music and career in the ten years since the compo-
sition’s first release on Vocalion. “The New East St. Louis” demonstrates how he had
developed as a composer, and what he had learned from works as “Reminiscing in
Tempo,” “Clarinet Lament” (Barney’s Concerto), “Echoes of Harlem” (Cootie’s Con-
certo), “Trumpet in Spades” (Rex’s Concerto), and “Yearning for Love” (Lawrence’s
Concerto).
For “The New East St. Louis” he cut the C strain, to concentrate on the AABA section,
now played twice. The first chorus differs little from the version in Example 2. Cootie
Williams plays the theme solo in all three A strains, entering early on in bar 6 of the
introduction, which creates a smooth transition into the A strain. The lead voice in
the B strain is scored for saxophones in octaves, as in the 1930, 1932 and Check and
Double Check versions, as well as in the short score of Example 2.
Three sketches show that Ellington was experimenting with the scoring of the
opening passage for this 1937 arrangement.72 A first attempt involves a somber,
funeral march-like voicing with numerous major and minor seconds and a peculiar,
descending line in crotchets with two appoggiaturas (bar 5). A second score roughly cor-
responds to the final version. Of particular interest is Ellington’s verbal indication in the
top margin: “Drums Roll Cimbal [sic] 1st 8 – Temple Blocks 2nd 8 / Hayes Fancy 3/slap –
Billy Tuba.” The drum and cymbal rolls in the first A strain have been replaced in the
recorded version (Master Records 101; 5 March 1937) with downbeat tubular bells
(except in bar 5). The temple blocks, indeed, appear throughout the entire first
chorus, playing “hoofbeats.” The notated bass line—actually the theme—is not
71
For a list with the shows of the twenty-second Cotton Club Parade, in which “East St. Louis” was performed, see
Steiner, “Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC: 1932–1933.”
72
Short score, pencil, 2 pp. (1 p. with “East St. Louis”). NMAH, Ruth Ellington Collection (REC), REC#2, Box 8:5.
Short score, 4 pp. (2 pp. with two “East St. Louis” sketches). NMAH, REC#2, Box 8:5. There is no other compo-
sition or part of any composition of the 1930s for which more than one score has survived, to the best of this
author’s knowledge. Apparently Ellington sought the right orchestral balance for the eight-bar opening passage.
played by Billy Taylor on tuba or on any other low-register instrument, probably to stay
away from the somber timbre of the first score. Hayes Alvis, finally, does not emphasize
the third beat with “fancy slaps,” but simply plays a walking bass figure. 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, Elling-
ton adds a two-chord, four-voice brass shout, in bars 2 and 4 of each A strain. He also
inserts a pick-up figure in quavers (played twice in succession by the trombones in
unison, bars 7 and 8 of intro and first A strain of first 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 Miley’s melody in the first two A strains.73 In the second A strain, Ellington
instructs Bigard to “ad lib” high clarinet figures 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 interjec-
tions together. The arrangement ends with the concluding A strain. The saxophones
play an eight-note arpeggio variation of Miley’s 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 Mills’s short-lived Master
Records label, and it became the label’s first 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 specifically
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 Williams’s assessment of the “The New East
St. Louis” has much in common with that of Hugues Panassié relating to the first 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 jazz—published in English in 1936 as The Guide to Swing
Music—Panassié 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 identified 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
Williams’s 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).
longer good today; but it is certain that they have become dated.”77 Meanwhile Wil-
liams, who had much greater distance to “East St. Louis,” exhibits a teleological under-
standing of the history of jazz by ignoring that both versions are testimonials of their
respective eras. Ellington firmly 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 for-
mulas. 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 Goodman’s output of the same period.
In its novel, sleek arrangement, “East St. Louis” continued to be the signature tune of
Ellington’s orchestra for the remaining years of the 1930s. Typically, it was played with
the eight-bar introduction, followed by the two first 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 abbre-
viated “The New East St. Louis.”78
In September 1940, during the band’s engagement at Chicago’s 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 Sep-
tember.79 Aural evidence, however, reveals that on the night of 8 September “Sepia
Panorama” was the first composition of the “sustainer,” as it was for the many remain-
ing shows from 12 September to 13 October.80
At that time “Sepia Panorama” was fairly new in the band’s 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 band’s 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 Ellington’s
son Mercer. Among these new compositions was Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train,”
first recorded for Standard Radio Transcription at the RCA studio in Hollywood (15
January 1941). The first 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 band’s new signature tune. An MBS radio program, broadcast from
Casa Mañana in Culver City the following day (16 February), opened and closed
77
Hugues Panassié, 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 Hällström and Ken Steiner, “Broadcasts in September and October 1940,” The International DEMS Bulletin
(December 2009–March 2010), http://www.depanorama.net/dems/093.htm (accessed 25 August 2010).
80
Ibid.
with “Take the ‘A’ Train.” After the ban ended, by the end of September 1941, “Take 81
the ‘A’ Train” had achieved such popularity that Ellington neither reintroduced “Sepia
Panorama,” nor “East St. Louis” as the orchestra’s signature piece.
Fifth Arrangement: The Carnegie Hall Concert of 1947

There are no traces that between September 1940 and December 1947 “East St. Louis” was
in the band book. A further revival of “East St. Louis”—twenty years after the Vocalion
recording—took place at the sixth annual concert at Carnegie Hall, 26 December 1947.
Since 1943, Ellington and his band played an annual concert at Carnegie Hall, which
each time featured an extended work. In 1947, he premiered his freshly recorded Liberian
Suite, followed by a medley with “East St. Louis,” “Echoes of Harlem,” “Black and Tan
Fantasy” and “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be.” As in the recorded medley of 1932
(and in the short score in Example 2), Ellington combined “East St. Louis” and “Black
and Tan Fantasy,” yet the Carnegie Hall medley is based on a more complex arrangement.
After the “East St. Louis” opening, Ellington unites the ostinato bass line of “Echoes of
Harlem” with the theme of “Black and Tan Fantasy” (played by muted trumpets), followed
by a complete statement of “Echoes of Harlem,” before the medley concludes with Lawr-
ence Brown’s obbligato trombone solo, accompanied by a boogie woogie-blues, and finally
ending with “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” performed by the whole brass section.
“East St. Louis” was presented in a new arrangement: the eight-bar intro, an AABA chorus
in D minor, and a “ragtime” C strain in A♭ major. Ellington reinserts the previously cut C
strain in a new orchestration, with muted trumpets over a unison saxophone F pedal-point.
The corresponding short score shows the horns in open voicings while Ellington has
designed a more complex chord progression for the introduction.82 Drummer Greer
plays several rolls on the cymbals and tom-toms under the introduction, with occasional
tom-tom hits, in keeping with the second sketch for “The New East St. Louis.” It lends
the introduction a somber and uncanny mood.
A set of parts, drawn from the 1947 short score, suggests that this arrangement was
not originally written for the Carnegie Hall concert, but for an earlier event.83 While the
trombone and reed section parts correspond with the orchestra’s personnel at Carnegie
Hall, those for the trumpet section do not. Apart from soloist Ray Nance, the trumpet
section consisted of Harold “Shorty” Baker, Shelton Hemphill, Francis Williams and Al
Killian.84 Ellington may have written this arrangement during (or shortly after) the
81
Marc Hugunin, “ASCAP, BMI and the Democratization of American Popular Music,” Popular Music and Society
7:1 (1979), 8–17, 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 Hemp-
hill], 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.
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).
band’s 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
Carnegie Hall concert in December, most likely between the end of July and the
departure of Killian in December.85
The fifth arrangement of “East St. Louis” exhibits stylistic elements of the late 1940s.
For instance, the accompanying, chordal figures with semiquaver triplet pick-ups (see the
saxophone section in the B strain of Example 4) resemble Stan Kenton’s arrangements
and Gil Evans’ scores for the Claude Thornhill orchestra. Despite Ellington’s 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 Elling-
ton’s own archive is the only recording of the 1947 arrangement which has survived.
Sixth Arrangement: An Historical Perspective on “East St. Louis”

After the Carnegie Hall concert of 1947, the orchestra played “East St. Louis” infre-
quently before Ellington revived it once more, for a recording at Universal Studios
in Chicago on 7 or 8 February 1956. Under the auspices of the studio’s owner, Bill
Putnam—one of the most sought-after sound engineers and A&R specialists in the
record business of the 1950s—the orchestra recorded twenty-three tunes. Ellington
was apparently pleased with the result as he informed his agent, William Morris, of
his intention to sell the tapes to a label. The independent New York-based Bethlehem
Records paid Ellington the considerable sum of $20,000 for two albums, and roughly
$40,000 for the musicians.
The first of the two LPs is the concept album Historically Speaking, which presents a
retrospective of the band’s music from the late-1920s (“East St. Louis,” “Creole Love
Call”), the 1930s (“Stompy Jones,” “The Jeep Is Jumpin,’” “Ko-Ko”), the 1940s
(“Jack the Bear,” “In a Mellow Tone,” “Midriff,” “Cotton Tail,” “Upper Manhattan
Medical Group”) and the 1950s (“Unbooted Character”). Although the liner notes
state that for “East St. Louis . . . the Duke . . . uses his original arrangement,” Ellington
in fact wrote a new arrangement for “East St. Louis,” as he did for “Creole Love Call”
and the 1930s numbers.86 The form of this sixth arrangement is intro–AABACCA.
Ellington scores the introduction in close-position voicings (two altos, tenor and a
bowed double bass). The first C strain is performed by three trombones in close-pos-
ition voicing; the second is a repetition with three trumpets replicating the trombone
parts an octave higher. The trombones are accompanied by the saxophones, with
Hodges connecting the two C strain parts at bars 7 and 8.
The score demonstrates an economically orchestrated arrangement of “East
St. Louis.” The arrangement provides an overall impression of a restrained, minimalist
approach, as if the piece is viewed through a distant, ironic filter, providing a self-
reflective retrospective of his work. A further indicator for such a removed stance is
that the tempo has halved from the 1926 ♩ = 163 to ♩ = 80.
85
The penciled remark by Ellington after the last bars of the arrangement “to old sheet (A♭) / Trombones” signals
that the continuation after “East St. Louis” is different than for the Carnegie Hall concert. Either Ellington has
indicated that the C strain in A♭ major should be repeated by the trombone section or that “East St. Louis”
may have opened another medley with another tune.
86
Short score, 4 pp. (2 pp. with “East St. Louis”), NMAH, DEC#1, 109:9.
Once again, the commentators were keen to compare this new arrangement with pre-
vious 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 André Hodeir, who described the album as “not just another bad
record, [but] it is the sign of a dereliction which confirms 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 some-
what differently. Ellington revisited his music from a safe distance, with critical irony
and an observant “objectivity.” Self-reflective, 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, five 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 reality—the post/hard bop and “third stream” move-
ments were in full bloom—which 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 benefit 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 Festival—The 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 Théatre des Champs Elysées in Paris on 30
January 196593—coarser, more pungent and penetrating than thirty years earlier on the
Master recording. In Paris the form was intro–AABA. It is not known whether the C
strain was also dropped during the opening concert of a three-night engagement at
Lennie’s-on-the-Turnpike in West Peabody, Massachusetts, on 11 September 1967.
87
Nat Hentoff, “Duke Ellington: Historically Speaking—The Duke,” Down Beat (30 May 1956), 21. Reprinted in:
Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 91.
88
All quotations of Hodeir, in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 301–2.
89
90
Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 232 and 249.
91
92
Cootie Williams rejoined the orchestra in 1962.
93
Apparently, in the late-1960s “East St. Louis” was no longer part of the band’s book.
Nevertheless the piece was of personal importance to Ellington. He played it as a duet
with organist Wild Bill Davison—who toured with the orchestra from September 1969
to February 1971—as 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 forty-
five years Ellington reworked and modernized a composition, largely through accom-
modating 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 Elling-
ton’s 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, Miley’s memorable growl interpretation of the AABA theme has captured
the listener’s attention, and consequently, all later soloists modeled their interpretation
after him, including Ellington’s own musicians, Cootie Williams and Ray Nance. Those
artists who recorded versions of “East St. Louis” after Ellington’s demise did so primar-
ily on tribute albums, from David Grusin’s Homage to Duke (1993) to John Pizzarelli’s
Rockin’ in Rhythm: A Duke Ellington Tribute (2010) or on concept albums such as Greg
Osby’s 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 fictional film 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 Miley’s solo. On Steely Dan’s third album “Pretzel Logic”
(1974), released a little less than two months before Ellington’s passing, Walter
Becker reinterprets Miley’s solo on an electric guitar with wah-wah effects. The
Perth-based gypsy and tango band Zigatango offers a Hungarian influenced rendering
with Miley’s 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
95
Berini and Volonté list John Lamb as the double bass player (Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, 536).
96
the AABA theme on the North-Japanese tsugaru shamisen, accompanied by an
accordion (Shamalamacord, 2009).
One of the few cover versions to salute Ellington’s continuous adjusting of the piece
to contemporary idioms is Lenny White’s recomposition “East St. Louis” (indeed titled
without “Toodle-O[o]”; on the album Present Tense, 1995). This bluesy, hip-hop influ-
enced fusion takes its inspiration from the original, phrases Miley’s growl solo on a
harmon muted trumpet as a tribute to Miles Davis, and successfully brings this reinter-
pretation into the 1990s. One can hope that future musicians will demonstrate the same
zeal of adapting “East St. Louis” to the stylistic demands of their own times.
Abstract
“East St. Louis Toodle-O” is probably the only Ellington composition which displays
Ellington’s mode of reworking and modernizing a work over the course of forty-five
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 first two
arrangements, the composition reflects Ellington’s rise to success in an exemplary
fashion. The first arrangement (recorded for the first 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 first Elling-
ton 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 Ellington’s
music during the early days of his tenure at the Cotton Club.
The third arrangement (Diva and Velvet Tone) reflects the band’s expanding,
growing proficiency. After Bubber Miley’s discharge—the soloist of “East
St. Louis”—and with the steady enlargement of the orchestra, Ellington was faced
with the need to write a new arrangement, reflecting the taste and style of the early
1930s. With the beginning of the new decade, “East St. Louis” was primarily used as
the band’s signature tune, in its abbreviated form. The fourth arrangement under
the title “The New East St. Louis Toodle-O,” recorded in 1937 on Mill’s Master
Records label, echoes the innovative features of the swing idiom.
In the fifth 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 filter, as a self-reflective ret-
rospective of his early work. From 1956 to the end of his career, “East St. Louis” played
a marginal role in the band’s repertoire.

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Duke Ellington's “East St. Louis Toodle-

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Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis

# 2012 Taylor & Francis

Table 1. “East St. Louis” Formal Plan Comparison.

Authorship in Early Ellington Compositions: The Case of “East St. Louis”

Example 1. Opening strain, as played in all early versions (except on Victor).

Formal Aspects in “East St. Louis”

“inappropriate,” “weak, out of place, and perhaps affected”15, to James L. Collier it

First Arrangement: The Kentucky Club Era

Improvisational Practice Among Jazz Soloists in the 1920s

Example 2. Transcription of Nanton’s trombone solo, as played in all early versions

Second Arrangement: The Cotton Club Era

Table 2. Ellington’s record releases, 1928 (Victor Records).

only a year and a half.

Third Arrangement: “East St. Louis” Without Bubber Miley

Fourth Arrangement: The Orchestra’s Signature Tune

Fifth Arrangement: The Carnegie Hall Concert of 1947

Sixth Arrangement: An Historical Perspective on “East St. Louis”

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