Jazz Articles about Duke Ellington

About Duke Ellington

Anatomy of a Standard

"Prelude to a Kiss" by Duke Ellington

by Tish Oney
September 28, 2016

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 ...

Book Review

Why Jazz? A Concise Guide

by Douglas Groothuis
June 3, 2016

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 ...

What is Jazz?

How Teachers can Swing in the Classroom

by Douglas Groothuis
April 8, 2016

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 ...

Year in Review

Top 15 "Read" Articles: 2015

by Michael Ricci
January 2, 2016

All About Jazz tracks how often an article is read, and the articles listed below represent our top 15 published in 2015. Deconstructing Money Jungle Duke Ellington by Graham E Peterson Published: October 23, 2015 John Coltrane and the Meaning of Life John Coltrane by Douglas Groothuis Published: January 22, 2015 Kind of Purple: Jazz Musicians on ...

What is Jazz?

Deconstructing Money Jungle

by Graham E Peterson
October 23, 2015

Duke Ellington was born at the turn of the century. Because his career stretched from the roaring twenties to just after the Nixon scandal, and because of the large breathe of his work he has been a household name for decades. Most individuals know Ellington for his work pioneering big band music, as a bandleader, composer, and brilliant improviser. Few ever reference Ellington's solo piano music or small ensemble work; mainly because he did not make many recordings of this ...

Album Review

Duke Ellington: At The Cotton Club

Read "At The Cotton Club" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
October 11, 2015

These recordings by Duke Ellington from 1937-39 emphasize his unique place in the history of jazz. On the eve of the Swing Era, they open with a solo piano piece. Ellington introduces it as “Swing Session" but it's actually “Soda Fountain Rag," the first piece he ever wrote, in 1913, aged 14, while working as a soda jerk in the Poodle Dog Café on Georgia Avenue in his home town, Washington D.C. Ellington recalled: ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Duke Ellington

by John Eyles
October 6, 2015

This article was first published in 2005. Building a jazz library? Then you'll definitely need some Duke Ellington as a cornerstone of it. The Duke is frequently cited as the greatest jazz man of them all, with his main rivals for the crown being Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. Ask ten Ellington fans to list their ten favourite Ellington albums and the chances are you'll end up with at least 60 albums to choose ...