Ellington re-boot

[Serial_Apologist]

Sun 23 Feb

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028203

Mon 23 - Fri 27 Feb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002821r

Thurs 26 Feb

A story we've been told numerous times, but is arguably worth hearing again if given a fresh twist:

9.30pm Facing the Music - 9/10
Duke Ellington: in Control

Trinidad-born British actor Don Warrington tells a story of a remarkable rebirth, as jazz giant Duke Ellington (1899-1974) - reduced to playing obscure and tawdry gigs for cash in the mid-1950s - spontaneously and joyously sparks his band into life at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. With contributions from Tamara Rojo, artistic director of San Francisco Ballet, and Jochen Mnges, Professor of Leadership at the University of Zurich and Cambridge University.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002824y

Don't let anyone tell you long solos put people off jazz....

[Ian Thumwood]

This is something of a myth, especially from an artistic point of view. Ellington's late 1940s LP masterpieces was made when his work.was allegedly in decline. I think.most people now see it as being brilliant.

[Serial_Apologist]

This is something of a myth, especially from an artistic point of view. Ellington's late 1940s LP masterpieces was made when his work.was allegedly in decline. I think.most people now see it as being brilliant.

We agree! For the new incoming critics of the time Ellington's soundworld was judged old-fashioned when put up against the "moderns", many of whom in any case tended to write off big band jazz in general as redolent of Swing and their own critical take on it, as well as for not allowing for the space needed for more exploratory improvisation, which had some merit. Aside from the reality that new and more complex big band arrangements of that era were a very significant part of the advances then being made, Ellington's contribution was as it had always been, enormously influential in itself on the best Bebop arrangements, while independent in so many ways of his contemporaries' orthodoxies...In that he was no different from a good few "modernists" then celebrated for bucking trends!

[burning dog]

I agree with both Ian and SA !!

[Serial_Apologist]

I would also probably agree with Ian with regards to the jazz definition being applied to this week's choice by Soweto's stand-in, notwithstanding my own capacity for stretching boundaries in this area, but I have found her selections interesting and mostly pretty good, offering stylistic mixes with names attached I feel encouraged to investigate further, I might even bookmark the series for a repeat listening next week. One of the tracks this evening, a Rhodes keyboard-led trio, strongly reminded me of a 1973 album still in my possession which had Stomu Yamash'ta from The East Is Red as the drummer.