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Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington In Coventry
by Chris Mosey
During World War Two, the Germans rained tons of high explosives, including parachute air-mines and incendiary petroleum mines on the English city of Coventry. In addition to factories supporting the British war effort, they destroyed the city's emblematic cathedral. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, took to using “Coventry" as a synonym for mass destruction. Enemy cities would be “Coventried," Goebbels proclaimed. It was revealed after the war that Churchill had received advance warning of the blitz ...
Continue ReadingRaphael Confiant: Madame St-Clair
by Maurizio Zerbo
Madame St-Clair, la regina di Harlem Raphaël Confiant 240 pagine ISBN: # 978-8862225663 Stampa Alternativa 2017 Pur non eguagliando i capolavori del genere, “Madame St-Clair" è un esito letterario ben fecondo dell'afrocentrismo contemporaneo. Ne è autore lo scrittore martinicano RaRaphaël Confiant, cantore dell'identità creola-antillana in stretto rapporto con il pensiero panafricano. Ispirandosi alle teorie dell'antropologo Melville Herskovits, Confiant recupera in chiave narrativa la tesi che la cultura degli afroamericani vada ricollegata alla madre ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington on Storyville Records
by Chris Mosey
The legend of Duke Ellington--one of very few jazzmen worthy of the overworked accolade “genius"--continues to unfold four decades after his death. In large part this is thanks to the efforts of Ellington himself. From 1950 to 1974, he kept a private “stockpile" of recordings made for his own pleasure... and with an eye on posterity. Following his death on May 24th 1974, Duke's son Mercer donated this “stockpile" to Danish Radio. Since then ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington & His Orchestra: Rotterdam 1969
by Jack Bowers
Here's a succulent and long-hidden treat for Duke Ellington aficionados: a wide-ranging and reasonably well-recorded concert performance by the Ellington orchestra from 1969 at the Do Doelen Concert Hall in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Many of Ellington's tried-and-true favorites are here, along with a number of lesser-known themes such as tenor Paul Gonsalves' feature, “Up Jump"; “Come Off the Veldt (and Into the Bush)," a showpiece for drummer Rufus Jones; alto Johnny Hodges' star turn, “Black Butterfly"; and trumpeter Cat Anderson's ...
Continue Reading"Prelude to a Kiss" by Duke Ellington
by Tish Oney
Last month's initial installment of this column opened with an introduction to the concept of analyzing jazz standards for the purpose of adding to our understanding about the structure and elements of great songs having enduring qualities. I did not feel it required mentioning that a song's final structure and the process of songwriting were completely different viewpoints. One purview implies looking back at a final product of art and the other requires looking ahead at a blank page of ...
Continue ReadingWhy Jazz? A Concise Guide
by Douglas Groothuis
Why Jazz? A Concise Guide Kevin Whitehead 184 pages ISBN-10: 0199731187 Oxford, University Press 2011 Small books on big themes are a tough gig. Jazz is a uniquely American, musically challenging, and highly improvisational musical form. Jazz is also a rather vexing topic to explain to the uninitiated (or even to the initiated, who quarrel much over it). Several years ago, I played some late-period work of John Coltrane (the first four ...
Continue ReadingHow Teachers can Swing in the Classroom
by Douglas Groothuis
I am a jazz aficionado as well as a philosophy professor. Being in front of a classroom teaching is my favorite place on earth, second to a good jazz club with hip friends. In the midst of a philosophy class, I may wax enthusiastic about the transcendent qualities of a John Coltrane saxophone solo or the preternatural swing of Buddy Rich's timekeeping or the song-writing and band-leading genius of Duke Ellington. These comments are not merely idiosyncratic. They reflect something ...
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