THE INTERNATIONAL DEMS BULLETIN DUKE ELLINGTON MUSIC SOCIETY 04/3 December 2004 - March 2005 26th Year of Publication FOUNDER: BENNY AASLAND |
Voort 18b, 2328 Meerle, Belgium
Telephone: +32 3 315 75 83
Email: dems@skynet.be
The Jazz Baron by Mike Matloff
DEMS 04/3-55
See DEMS 03/1-13/1
The fact that DEMS Bulletin is accessible through internet has
resulted in several interesting reactions from people who have
encountered DEMS Bulletin for the first time. One of these people is
Mike Matloff, who found references to previous articles about Timme
which were from the pre-internet period of DEMS Bulletin. He is a
university student and asked us in July of this year for copies of
these articles to use for his term paper on Timme Rosenkrantz for a
jazz history class. After receiving our copies he asked permission to
share these with Fradley Garner, who was currently doing a
translation of Timme's memoirs "Dus Med Jazzen". Fradley mentioned
DEMS to Bente Rosenkrantz Arendrup, a 80 year old nice of Timme. She
also asked for copies of the articles in DEMS Bulletin. She wrote us
a long letter, not for publication and she promised to write
something about her beloved uncle for DEMS Bulletin as soon as she
would be back home and could consult her files. In August DEMS
received a copy of the paper by Mike Matloff with the permission to
publish it. He wrote: "I know that Frad (editor, organizer,
translator of Timme's memoirs) said he would post my term paper on
the jazz Web site for the Albany Times-Union newspaper (a New York
paper). I don't know when he'll have time to do it, but I'll let you
know when he does, because that way people could enjoy the photos as
well. If you want to print the paper's full text that is fine. I hope
people enjoy it. Feel free to include my e-mail in case anyone should
want to contact me."
We are very grateful to Mike for his contribution to DEMS Bulletin
and we will give you his e-mail address if you want to contact him.
We do not publish his e-mail address to safeguard him from a lot of
spam.
DEMS**
Acknowledgements
I would sincerely like to thank Fradley Garner, the
journalist translating Timme’s book into English, for his help
with this paper. Mr. Garner was able to provide the author with
numerous helpful sources and to serve as an expert source himself. He
generously gave of his own time and without him this paper would not
be possible.
Here is Mr. Garner’s Bio:
Fradley's cite: Fradley Garner is an American freelance writer and
translator based in Denmark. The former Denmark contributor to Down
Beat, he is international editor of Jersey Jazz, journal of the New
Jersey Jazz Society. Garner is translating and annotating the Danish
memoirs of Baron Timme Rosenkrantz, while searching for an American
publisher. He wrote the author profile for the book.
The author thanks Mr. Garner for his kind assistance with
this paper.
The Jazz Baron (1)
When it comes to jazz royalty, you’ve probably heard of the Duke
and the Count. But very few have heard of the Baron. A journalist,
record producer, and so much more, Baron Timme Rosenkrantz—or
Timme, as he was known to friends (2)—was above all a
devotee of jazz.
Born in Copenhagen on July 6, 1911 (3), Timme was a real baron
whose ancestors were Danish aristocrats. (4) An unlikely jazz
fan, he got hooked on jazz as a young boy when someone brought an
American jazz record to his school. (5) Soon he was spending all
his money on records by Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Duke
Ellington. (6) He studied journalism and in 1933 founded one of
the first European jazz journals, Jazzrevy. (7) A year
later, at the age of 22, he sailed to America to hear American jazz
firsthand. (8)
"Denmark is quite a nice country," Timme wrote in the Danish magazine
Jazz. (9) "Our food is fat and good, our beer is first
class, our girls are good looking.... But our jazz is not really up
to par."
He arrived in New York in 1934 and immediately fell in love with the
swinging Harlem jazz scene. (10) He met John Hammond, who took
him to see the amazing talent at the Savoy Ballroom. (11) He
became close friends with the Duke. (12) He met all the great
musicians and saw all the great bands. Timme wasn’t just a
visitor in Harlem; he lived it—its sights, its sounds,
and its people.
"Timme made close friends on the jazz scene," wrote journalist Ole
Bech-Petersen. (13) "He knew it from the inside, and was a
regular in night-clubs, bars, studios, dance halls, record shops, or
anywhere else he might hear jazz." He knew all of the famous jazz
musicians and "listened to music with them, partied with them, smoked
pot with them and drank huge quantities of alcohol with
them." (14)His list of friends reads like a "Who’s Who" of
jazz and includes Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington,
Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Art Tatum, and Fats Waller, among
many, many others. (15)
Timme was the first white European journalist to write about the
Harlem jazz scene. (16) In his lifetime, he wrote for many
Scandinavian newspapers (17) and magazines and for such famous
American publications as Down Beat, Metronome, and
Esquire, as well as the British magazine Melody
Maker. (18) Starting in 1934, he lived alternately in New
York and Denmark, often staying in New York for long periods of
time. (19)
Timme had a persuasive charm. In 1938, he talked the president of RCA
Victor into letting him hand-pick a dream band and produce the
recording. (20) The result was two 78-rpm records by "Timme
Rosenkrantz and his Barrelhouse Barons" that Down Beat and
Metronome called the best records of 1938. (21) On record
for the first time were tenor saxophonist Don Byas, trombonist Tyree
Glenn, and vocalist Inez Cavanaugh. (22)
Inez was Timme’s love, and they were together until he
died. (23) He saw her at the Traveler’s Club in Harlem and
told her, "Where have you been all my life?" (24) She was a
journalist as well as a singer and had written articles for several
magazines including Down Beat and Metronome. (25)
Together, Timme and Inez wrote the liner notes for Billie Holiday
Greatest Hits (26), a record produced by good friend John
Hammond; they co-managed a Paris club, Chez Inez; (27)
and they co-wrote the lyrics to Is This to be My
Souvenir (28), which Inez sang on the 1938 RCA Victor
record. (29)
When World War II started in 1939, Timme found himself stranded in
New York for the duration of the war. (30)
"I had to find some way to make money; I had no more in the bank,"
Timme writes. (31) Always the humorist, he continues, "I had a
collection of a hundred records, and I figured that if I sold those,
I would be able to buy another couple of hundred, sell those, buy
400, and so on until I had a million records and was a very rich man
indeed."
He opened the Mel-O-Dee Music Shop in Harlem in 1940. (32) He
sold records in the front and had a rehearsal hall in the back that
was used by such notables as violinist Stuff Smith, trumpeter Bill
Coleman, and bassist John Kirby, among others. (33) His very
first customer was Louis Armstrong, who offered to buy $50 worth of
records—a large sum in those days. (34)
During the war he was also a "dance partner for hire" at a dance
club, an employee at the Commodore music shop, and for a short time
the host of his own radio show, "Rhythm is Our Business," on local
station WNEW. (35) But his most important job was producer. From
1944–45 he recorded jam sessions at his apartment, where he
"held open house, day and night" for willing musicians. (36) His
recordings, released on his own labels "New York," "Baronet" and
"Embassy" (37) include such notables as violinist Stuff Smith
and pianists Robert Crum and Erroll Garner. (38)
Garner, a unique virtuoso pianist and composer of the famous tune
"Misty," (39) was Timme’s discovery. (40) Timme heard
him playing intermission at a small club on 52nd street and knew he
was special. (41) They became friends, and soon Timme made the
very first recording of Garner on November 16, 1944, in Timme’s
apartment. (42) He recorded Garner on at least six more
occasions from 1944–45 (43) and also featured him in
concert at Times Hall. (44) Garner became an incredible success,
largely because of Timme’s early encouragement and support.
In June 1945 Timme produced, recorded and hosted a concert at New
York’s Town Hall (45) that featured numerous jazz legends
including drummer Gene Krupa, vibraphonist Red Norvo, pianists Teddy
Wilson and BillyTaylor, violinist Stuff Smith, trumpeter Bill
Coleman, saxophonists Flip Phillips and Don Byas, and bassist Slam
Stewart. (46) In 1946, he produced recordings for Continental
records of Red Norvo, pianist-composer Jimmy Jones, saxophonists
Harry Carney and Charlie Ventura, and his lifelong companion,
vocalist Inez Cavanaugh. (47)
Timme was also the first to bring an American jazz band to post-war
Europe in September 1946. (48) The band, directed by Don Redman,
featured Don Byas, Billy Taylor, Inez Cavanaugh, vibe master Tyree
Glenn, trumpet and vocalist Peanuts Holland, and trombonist Quentin
Jackson. (49) In 1947 he brought the first bebop band to
Europe (50)—Chubby Jackson and His All Stars—and in
New York produced and recorded a series of Friday jam sessions at
Café Bohemia that featured pianist Lennie Tristano and
trumpeter Rex Stewart, among others. (51)
In the late 40’s Timme and Inez moved to Paris where they set up
and co-managed a jazz club, Chez Inez. (52) Timme continued
writing and collecting jazz photos (something he had done since he
first set foot in Harlem in 1934) into the 50’s and 60’s,
always returning now and then to New York where his close friends
and favorite music were. (53) In Denmark in the mid
60’s he hosted a popular jazz program on Danish and Swedish
national radio. (54) He recalled old times with the jazz elite
and played recordings from his vast collection. (55)
In 1968 he proudly opened Timme’s Club, a jazz night-club in
Copenhagen that featured pianist, composer, and good friend Mary Lou
Williams on its opening night. (56) Later Teddy Wilson, Ben
Webster, and Inez also played there. (57) Timme, who had been
battling an ulcer for many years, was photographed at the club
nursing a glass of milk. (58) He was in New York, the city whose
music and people he loved, when he died on August 11, 1969, from
complications related to his stomach and liver. (59)
Today, Timme’s legacy extends far beyond his recordings. He was
an author who published not only jazz articles but also three novels
and a collection of short stories, in Danish. (60) He published
two books about the American jazz scene, "Too Bad America Has to be
So Far Away" in 1938 and "Jump Out the Window and Turn Right" in
1954, also in Danish (titles translated). (61)
Timme had a great sense of humor, and as Duke Ellington noted, he was
a "wit extraordinaire." (62) For example, he once referred to
Art Tatum’s dexterous rendition of "Tea for Two" as "Tea for Two
Thousand." (63) Here are some other representative examples:
Una Mae Carlisle is the most beautiful jazz musician I have ever
met—Monk wasn’t even a runner-up. I had such a bad crush on
her that I had to fill my pockets with ice cubes, otherwise I’d
go up in smoke.... Oh well, enough of that—that was 20 years
ago, and the ice has melted. (1967) (64)
I am very restrained in many ways. I didn’t eat my first rum
cake till I was 15, and never smoked till I was 20. I am still shy in
the company of women... the only thing I’m really crazy about is
elderberry soup. (1964) (65)
And then there is Benny Carter, also one of the genuine greats of
jazz. He can do anything. He plays all saxes, trumpet, trombone,
piano and drums—I’ve even seen him play ball.
(1966) (66)
Timme was also an avid photographer and photo collector. (67) In
1939 he published the first jazz-photo book, "Swing Photo Album
1939," featuring photos of the movers and shakers of jazz. (68)
It was republished in 1964 and today it is a collector’s
item. (69) Over his lifetime, he amassed a collection of more
than 2,000 photographs which have become part of the Timme
Rosenkrantz Collection at the University of Southern
Denmark. (70) Librarian and historian Frank
Büchmann-Møller has put together a selection of these
photographs in Is This To Be My Souvenir, available from
Odense University Press. (71)
Timme collected biographical data on jazz legends with the intention
of publishing a jazz encyclopedia, but he gave it up when Leonard
Feather (a good friend of Timme’s) beat him to the punch in 1955
with his Encyclopedia of Jazz. (72) Timme’s last
book, a collection of memoirs titled Dus Med Jazzen ("getting
familiar with jazz"), was published in Danish in 1964. (73)
Büchmann-Møller writes that the memoirs "offer a unique
view of jazz and some of its famous musicians." (74) Journalists
Fradley Garner and Bente "Topsy" Arendrup, Timme’s favorite
niece, are currently translating the work into English and are
actively seeking a publisher. (75)
Another contribution of Timme’s was as unofficial "jazz
ambassador" between the United States and Europe. As mentioned, he
brought many jazz greats to Europe to play at his clubs in Paris and
Copenhagen or to tour Europe, as the Don Redman orchestra did. He
also released recordings of many American artists under his own
labels in Denmark, bringing the legendary music of Lionel Hampton,
Dizzy Gillespie, Stuff Smith, Oscar Peterson, Gerry Mulligan, and
Dave Brubeck to an eager Danish public. (76)
But he also brought European jazz to America. On his radio show at
WNEW he played Danish and Swedish (as well as American)
jazz. (77) At the 1947 jam sessions at Café
Bohemia (78) he introduced Swedish clarinettist Stan Hasselgard
and Danish drummer Uffe Baadh to the American public. (79) And
his articles in Danish and Swedish publications instilled a love of
jazz in his fellow Scandinavians and encouraged them to come to New
York, where they would seek Timme out and oblige him to be their
unpaid tour guide, a role he accepted graciously. (80)
Timme loved blacks at a time when prejudice and segregation were all
too common. He worked with, drank with, and spent his life writing
about the people of Harlem. His long-time companion Inez was black,
and he was lovingly called "a colored white man" and "the
world’s whitest Negro" by fellow journalists in
Denmark. (81) He hated intolerance and once spoke up to a
gangster who was hurling racial insults at Art Tatum. (82) His
reward was a bash in the head with the butt of a gun. A black friend
who saw it all said Timme had a "black soul." (83)
Timme wrote, "I came to Harlem to hear jazz, but I found much more
than that. I found a charming people, whom I befriended. I found
clever artists, great musicians, fine authors and painters,
phenomenal dancers and artistes. I also found excellent journalists,
doctors, scientists and much, much more. But above all, I met a
people with a sense of humor that, considering their own lives and
history, is as wondrous as it is admirable." (84)
And the people of Harlem loved him back. There were two memorial
services for Timme after he died—one in New York and one in
Copenhagen—and in them Duke Ellington, Tyree Glenn, Teddy
Wilson, Ben Webster, Inez, Don Byas, Charlie Shavers, and many others
paid tribute. (85) Duke wrote in his autobiography Music is
My Mistress, "We are thankful to Timme Rosenkrantz, and may God
bless him and minimize the grief of his relatives, who may be assured
of the great love felt for him by all of us, his friends." (86)
Timme never made a lot of money; in fact, he often lost large sums of
money on his undertakings. (87) He started a magazine called
Swing Music that folded after a single issue and another
called Riff that never saw the light of day. (88) His
record shop, where he let musicians rehearse for free, closed after a
year. (89) His 1945 concert at Town Hall was a success musically
but a failure financially. (90) And his two clubs, Chez
Inez and Timme’s Club, had very short
lives. (91)
"He was perhaps the world’s worst businessman," said journalist and long-time
friend Doug Dobell. (92) "He preferred to dig the music and
musicians rather than make a business out of them."
And although Timme was a talented writer, "you will not find volumes
of his works that are truly representative of his literary stature,"
Duke noted. (93) "The reason for that is that he was a very
unselfish man who always dedicated himself to the great musicians he
loved and to the music they played.... His patronage of music
consumed most of his time."
For Timme, it was all about the music. More than anything else, he
loved that swingin’ jazz, no matter whether it was swing or
boogie-woogie, whether the musicians playing it were black or white,
Danish or American.
In an interview about what constituted "real" jazz, Stuff Smith said,
"Ask Timme Rosenkrantz. He knows. He knows jazz. That’s one sure
thing about old Tim." (94)
’Nuff said.
Endnotes
Note: Please see the Reference List, which appears after the
Endnotes, for the complete citation of sources mentioned in the
Endnotes.
(1) From synopsis of English-version of Rosenkrantz’s Dus Med
Jazzen.
(2) From "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.
(5) From Bech-Petersen’s article in Jazz Special First
International Edition.
(6) Synopsis.
(7) Synopsis.
(8) From "Here I am, Where’s My Music," and Jazz Special
article.
(9) I don’t have the citation for the original source in the
magazine Jazz. I got this quotation "second-hand" from the
Jazz Special article.
(10) From "The Barrelhouse Baron" and "Here I am, Where’s My Music."
(11) "The Barrelhouse Baron" and the outline of a presentation to
publishers.
(12) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(13) Jazz Special article.
(14) Ibid.
(15) Ibid, plus personal communication w/journalist Fradley Garner,
friend of Timme’s and translator of Timme’s memoirs Dus
Med Jazzen.
(16) Synopsis.
(17) Jazz Special article and "The Barrelhouse Baron." Timme
wrote for Danish and Swedish newspapers, and especially for the
Danish newspaper Politiken, which he published.
(18) Synopsis.
(19) Jazz Special article.
(20) Synopsis and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(21) Ibid.
(22) Ibid.
(23) Synopsis, outline, and personal communication w/Fradley Garner.
(24) Outline and "Voutie! Slim and Slam, Wow: Inez Cavanaugh."
(25) "Voutie."
(26) From Billie Holiday Greatest Hits album.
(27) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(28) As per the music to "Is this to be my souvenir."
(29) Personal communication w/Fradley Garner.
(30) From "Reflections, Reflections, Reflections on Louis Armstrong."
(31) Ibid.
(32) Ibid.
(33) Ibid.
(34) Ibid.
(35) Outline, Jazz Special article, and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(36) "The Barrelhouse Baron." It’s true for 1944-45 because we
have recordings from ’44 and ’45 that he made at this
apartment. See album The Complete 1944 Rosenkrantz Apartment
Transcription Duets and the Errol Garner discography on The Jazz
Discography Web site.
(37) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(38) "The Barrelhouse Baron," Complete 1944 Rosenkrantz Apartment
Transcription, Jazz Discography Web site. About the 1944
recordings of Smith and Crum, one reviewer says, "These rare
recordings, Stuff Smith & Robert Crum: Complete 1944 Rosenkrantz
Apartment Transcription Duets, show us that "free jazz" existed way
before the work of saxophonist Ornette Coleman, indeed even before
the famous Tristano-Konitz-Marsh sessions of the '50s."
See http://www.allthingsstrings.com/issues/Strings109/reviews.html.
(39) Erroll Garner biography in The Encyclopedia of Popular Music.
(40) Synopsis.
(41) Outline.
(42) The Jazz Discography Web site.
(43) Ibid.
(44) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(45) Synopsis.
(46) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(47) Ibid.
(48) Synopsis and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(49) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(50) Ibid.
(51) Ibid.
(52) Ibid.
(53) Jazz Special article and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(54) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(55) Ibid.
(56) Ibid.
(57) Büchmann-Møller preface to Is This to be My
Souvenir.
(58) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(59) Ibid.
(60) Ibid.
(61) Jazz Special article and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(62) Duke Ellington’s Music is My Mistress.
(63) James Lester’s biography of Art Tatum.
(64) Jazz Special article.
(65) Ibid.
(66) Ibid.
(67) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(68) DEMS article and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(69) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(70) Per the University of Southern Denmark’s Web site and Is
This to be My Souvenir.
(71) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(72) "The Barrelhouse Baron" and Is This to be My Souvenir.
(73) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(74) Is This to be My Souvenir.
(75) Personal communication with Fradley Garner.
(76) "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(77) Ibid.
(78) Synopsis.
(79) Is This to be My Souvenir and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(80) Outline.
(81) Jazz Special article and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(82) Jazz Special article.
(83) Ibid.
(84) Ibid.
(85) "The Barrelhouse Baron" and Is This to be My Souvenir.
(86) Music is My Mistress.
(87) Jazz Special article.
(88) Ibid.
(89) Jazz Special article and "The Barrelhouse Baron."
(90) Jazz Special article.
(91) Jazz Special article and the outline.
(92) Coda article.
(93) Music is My Mistress.
(94) Pure at heart.
Reference List
Bech-Petersen, O. (2002). Timme Rosenkrantz: "A Colored White
Man." Jazz Special, First International Edition. Havnegade,
Denmark: Jazz Special.
Büchmann-Møller, F. (2000). Is This to be My Souvenir?
Jazz Photos From the Timme Rosenkrantz Collection 1918–1969.
Denmark: Odense University Press.
Dobell, D. (1969). Timme Rosenkrantz. Coda, a Canadian jazz
magazine, issue of September 1969. Contact Stuart Broomer, Editor, at
Coda, 30 Taunton Road, Toronto, ON, M4S 2P1 Canada, (416) 487-3597,
broomer@sprynet.com.
Ellington, D. (1976). Music is My Mistress. An unabridged
republication of the original 1973 work that was published by
Doubleday, with updated discography. New York: Da Capo Press.
Garner, F.H., Outline of a presentation to publishers, Adventures in
Jazzland: A Danish Baron's Harlem Memoirs, 1934-1969. For English
version of Dus Med Jazzen, Mine Jazzmemoirer, by Timme
Rosenkrantz (Copenhagen: Chr. Erichsen, 1964).
Garner, F.H., The Barrelhouse Baron. Prologue for English version of
the Danish book Dus Med Jazzen, Mine Jazzmemoirer, by Timme
Rosenkrantz (Copenhagen: Chr. Erichsen, 1964). Edited May 6, 2004. In
ms.
Garner, F.H., Timme Rosenkrantz, author profile for publisher
presentation of the English version of the Danish book Dus Med
Jazzen, Mine Jazzmemoirer, by Timme Rosenkrantz (Copenhagen: Chr.
Erichsen, 1964). Photo ca. 1934, uncredited. (This source is simply
called the synopsis in the endnotes.)
Holiday, B. (1998). Billie Holiday Greatest Hits. An album
with liner notes by Timme Rosenkrantz and Inez Cavanaugh. New York:
Columbia.
Lester, J. (1994). Too Marvellous for Words: The Life and Genius
of Art Tatum. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mathiasen, J. (2003). More About Timme Rosenkrantz. On The
International Duke Ellington Music Society (DEMS) Bulletin Web
site at http://www.depanorama.net/ dems/03dems1c.htm. Voort 18 b,
Belgium: DEMS.
Mathisen, L., Rosenkrantz, T., & Cavanaugh, I. (1938). Song: "Is
This to be My Souvenir?" Music by Mathisen, lyrics by Rosenkrantz and
Cavanaugh.New York: Lincoln Music Corporation.
Muze UK Ltd. (2000). Erroll Garner. In The Encyclopedia of Popular
Music, online version (as provided by
http://www.theiceberg.com/artist/632/erroll_garner.html).
London: Muze UK Ltd.
Rosenkrantz, T. (1962). Reflections, Reflections, Reflections on
Louis Armstrong. Down Beat, 29(20), 50.
Rosenkrantz, T., "Here I am. Where's My Music?" From English version
of Dus Med Jazzen, Mine Jazzmemoirer, by Timme Rosenkrantz
(Copenhagen: Chr. Erichsen, 1964). Engl. vers. by F.H. Garner, Part
One, 1934, chapter 1. In ms.
Rosenkrantz, T., "Voutie! Slim and Slam, Wow: Inez Cavanaugh." From
English version of Dus Med Jazzen, Mine Jazzmemoirer, by Timme
Rosenkrantz (Copenhagen: Chr. Erichsen, 1964). Engl. vers. by F.H.
Garner, Part Two, 1935-1969, chapter 2. In ms.
Smith, S. (1991). Pure at Heart. Lewes, UK: Allardyce,
Barnett, Publishers.
Smith, S., & Crum, R. (2000). The Complete 1944 Rosenkrantz
Apartment Transcription Duets. An album featuring duets by Stuff
Smith and Robert Crum. Lewes, UK: AB Fable. Go to
http://www.abar.net/ to order this album online.
Togashi, N., Matsubayashi, K. Hatta, M, et al. (2004) Blue Note
Records Discography: 1939–1944—Session Index. A Web page at
http://www.jazzdisco.org/bluenote/1939-dis/. Part of the Jazz
Discography Project whose home page is at http://www.
jazzdisco.org/.
University of Southern Denmark. (2004). Det Danske Jazzcenter's Samlinger.
On the University of Southern Denmark’s Web site at
http://www.bib.sdu.dk/samlinger/jazzcenter.htm.
Odense, Denmark: University of Southern Denmark.
Note by DEMS. We did not find any Rosenkrantz article in Tucker's
"The Ellington Reader" however there are a couple of interesting well
written interviews by Inez Cavanaugh (Tucker p462).
Duke's Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue
DEMS 04/3-56
It is almost twenty years since this very interesting article by
Eddie Lambert was first published in Coda Magazine, issue 205,
Dec85/Jan86. We are very pleased to be able to reprint it, with the
permission of Stuart Broomer, editor of Coda, and Elaine Norsworthy.
Since 1985 we have learned more about the background to the work,
especially the events of Newport 1956, thanks to Charles Waters'
researches and George Avakian's recollections. But we are aware of
nothing which doesn't sit easily with what Eddie had to say in 1985.
So, apart from a few remarks in square brackets which are ours, we
reprint Eddie's text as he wrote it.
DEMS
In Coda Eddie's article ended with an appendix listing 19 recordings
of Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue which had been issued at
the time of writing. An up-to-date listing would look very different,
and we have not reproduced or revised it. A later list can be found
in the Annual Review of Jazz Studies 1993 pp48/49 as a Summary of
Interludes between Diminuendo and Crescendo In Blue
(20Sep37-28Jul56) which belongs to a study by Charles Waters
titled: "Anatomy of a Cover: The Story of Duke Ellington's
Appearance on the Cover of Time Magazine." For more recent
details of issued and unissued recordings, consult the usual
discographies, Nielsen, Timner 4th edition, and The New DESOR.
Eddie also prefaced his article with a lament for the failure of most
writers on jazz and modern music to get to grips with the scope of
Duke's achievement. While the situation has improved in the
intervening years, there is still much shallow writing around, and in
this respect too, his observations remain valid. This is how he began
his article:
The failure of the majority of jazz critics and indeed writers
dealing with twentieth century music in general to comprehend the
nature and magnitude of Duke Ellington's achievements is unfortunate.
Perhaps they cannot believe that a black man without academic
training or an academic background can really be the outstanding
figure in the music of our time. The jazz critics seem to prefer to
concentrate on small segments of his vast output - the Miley years,
1940, "Such Sweet Thunder" - in order to be able to spend more time
extolling the work of minor figures and thus give the illusion of
broad-mindedness. It is also true that such an approach makes their
task an easier one, avoiding the need to study in depth the music of
a man who was a subtle and often elusive artist, as well as one who
may have upset some cherished prejudices.
After this introduction, Eddie continues:
Many years ago André Hodeir speculated on why Duke Ellington's
1956 Bethlehem recording of Ko Ko was inferior to the 1940
original. Inferior it certainly is, a fast, perfunctory run-through
of a score which deserves, indeed demands, a thoughtful
interpretation. The strange thing is that Hodeir chose to concentrate
on this one failure on "Historically Speaking The Duke," an LP of
twelve tracks of which only one other contains a less than
first-class Ellington performance. The LP includes the best version
of the 1926 East St Louis Toodle-oo on record; another
masterpiece of the big band jazz playing in the re-make of Billy
Strayhorn's Midriff; and a new Strayhorn score of great
originality in Upper Manhattan Medical Group. Yet the most
written about item is the mediocre Ko Ko.
This is a good example of jazz writers - for Hodeir's followers
in this matter are many - turning their backs on Duke Ellington's
achievements. In recent years air shots have been released showing
that the band had started to play Ko Ko at a faster tempo very
soon after the 1940 Victor recording, that far from being a 1956
innovation this was close to the tempo at which the 1940 band had
played Ko Ko most often. Yet writers continued to write about
the Bethlehem as if Duke had indulged in a deliberate act of musical
vandalism.
The non-studio recordings by the Ellington band from the late
thirties onwards which are now available show that the performance of
old repertoire by the band was a much more complex affair than it
appeared at the time when M. Hodeir first accused Duke of desecrating
a masterpiece.
Another Ellington recording which is a favourite target of those who
wish to denigrate his achievement is the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival
recording of Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue. Again
simplistic thinking, insufficient knowledge and dulled sensibilities
lead to the cry that here is another masterpiece despoiled. Yet any
person who listens to the available versions of this piece will soon
find a much more complicated pattern than such judgements suggest.
Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue, in the version heard on the
first recording, consists of 10 choruses of 12 bar blues plus a 6 bar
coda in its first part and 12 choruses plus a 10 bar coda in its
second part. The first two choruses of Crescendo are extended
by two bars each via some curiously syncopated breaks for the trumpet
section. The last chorus and coda of Diminuendo are played by
solo piano; otherwise the piece is ensemble throughout with brief
functional contributions from (in the original recording) Cootie
Williams, Harry Carney and Barney Bigard. There are no improvised
solos. The tempo is medium fast in 1937, tending to increase later
although the version of 9 June 1945 is fractionally slower than the
original. The harmonic structure is basically twelve bar blues with
characteristic Ellington variations. The piece is built on sequences
of blues riffs, highly melodic cells or motifs which are scored in
call and response patterns between the sections. As is so often the
case in Ellington's writing the trombones have an important and
independent role throughout, while in Crescendo In Blue a
clarinet trio is used to provide a contrasting tone colour. The brass
remain open throughout. The dynamics are exact1y as described in the
title Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue. Suggestions that
Ellington performed the piece in reverse sequence - that is to say
with the climax in the middle - appear to be entirely erroneous.
The first recording of Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue is the
September 1937 studio version which was first issued on two sides of
a 10 inch 78-rpm record. As was the case on all popular music
recordings of this era the dynamic range is severely restricted, a
crucial factor in this piece as the title indicates. The band's
performance is rather stiff, especially on [take] -2 which has only
been made available in recent years and sounds like a first recording
with the -2 indicating a second choice. The band's playing makes one
suspect that they were not too familiar with the piece and this
indeed could be one of the many Ellington creations which were
presented to the band for the first time in the recording studio.
One of the most interesting questions raised by a study of
Ellington's recorded output is that of how many times some of his
masterpieces were actually performed in public. Andrew Homzy has made
an in depth study of The Battle Of Swing and has been unable
to find evidence of a single performance outside the recording
studio. Basic information in this area of Ellington research is so
scanty, however, that we simply do not know how often, if at all,
Duke performed many of his scores outside the recording studio until
the proliferation of off-the-air recordings, concert recordings,
etc., which occurred in the early forties. The information conveyed
by these is only partial, but the overall impression is helpful even
if it is inconclusive for any particular number.
After the original Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue, the next
known recording dates from the middle of 1945. Accounts exist,
however, of the piece causing a near riot at a big band festival on
Randall's Island in 1939 [actually May38 – DEMS Bulletin
03/1-4/1]. As at Newport the audience could not contain its joy. One
wonders if Duke recalled this event at Newport in 1956;
certainly he was a man with a long memory.
When Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue re-appears in the
discography in 1945 we learn an interesting fact about Ellington's
attitude to the work. He was dissatisfied with the transition between
the Diminuendo and Crescendo sections and it is
unfortunate that no earlier 'live' recordings exist to show how he
handled this problem in the late thirties and early forties. The 1937
version has Diminuendo In Blue on one side of the disc and
Crescendo In Blue on the other, the transition being the break
while the listener turns over the record; so the original has nothing
to tell us on this aspect.
The 1945 versions all have a third 'movement' inserted between the
two parts. This is always an already extant Ellington composition:
Rocks In My Bed, Carnegie Blues and I Got It Bad were
tried out until Duke settled on Transblucency as the most
suitable piece. These triptych versions were given the overall title
Blues Cluster and there are five recordings of this in the
Duke Ellington Treasury Series plus several more from other
broadcasts and concerts in 1945 and 1946. On broadcast the station
announcer usually invites Duke to the microphone to introduce the
Blues Cluster to the audience.
The Blues Cluster is never wholly satisfactory because none of
the other compositions used sounds like an integrated part of
Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue. But these mid-forties
performances are first class. It should perhaps be pointed out that
there can be no question of commercialism here, for in 1945 one did
not extend a six minute piece to nine minutes in order to enhance its
selling potential. Popularity was a three minute thing. So too oddly
enough was the 1946 studio version of the work as Diminuendo In
Blue was recorded for Musicraft but without Crescendo; the
reasons for this curious state of affairs are now unfortunately lost.
But we do know why the V-Disc recording, which is taken from the 7
July 1945 D.E.T.S. broadcast, has no interpolation: Carnegie Blues
has been edited out of this particular Blues Cluster for
V-Disc issue.
A version of Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue can be found on
a rather poorly recorded lp of material from a Cornell University
concert on 30 April 1947. This is of particular interest as here the
two parts are separated by a piano solo by Ellington; after
Diminuendo In Blue has ended Duke's piano moves out of tempo
and introduces new thematic material. When he re-introduces the
original tempo the rhythm section re-enters into Crescendo In
Blue. This may have been in the nature of an experiment, for the
Blues Cluster format is used again on some later
performances.
When Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue next appears on record
it is on an lp taken from a broadcast from Birdland on 30 June 1951.
Here, five years before Newport, we find the two parts joined by a
long tenor saxophone solo by Paul Gonsalves. When the 1956 Newport
performance was first reported and the record issued it was pretended
that the Gonsalves solo was a spontaneous event. More latterly it has
been claimed that Paul played this interlude once in 1951 and that in
1956 Duke recalled the reaction of the Birdland audience. But this is
not true either. In April 1953 Charles Wilford reported an Ellington
concert in Pasadena for the "Melody Maker" and Diminuendo And
Crescendo In Blue was performed. Between the two parts Paul
Gonsalves played "a seemingly unending succession of choruses that
must have lasted quite five minutes and duly aroused the fans as
intended." [This performance was recorded and has been issued in 1985
on the lp GNP Crescendo GNPS-9045.] In his recollections of his year
in the Ellington band (1951-1952) alto saxophonist Willie Smith
recalls (in Stanley Dance's "The World Of Swing") that "people used
to get up in the middle of a number and start yelling. Diminuendo
And Crescendo was one (such)". It was not just at Newport in 1956
that the piece had this effect on audiences; it happened at Randall's
Island in 1939, at Birdland in 1951, at Pasadena in 1953 and
doubtless on other occasions too.
So we arrive, chronologically, at the famous Newport 1956 version.
This is an inspired performance with superb Ellington piano, a hard
swinging rhythm section and fiery band work. From about halfway
through Paul Gonsalves' solo (which is characteristically off mike)
the crowd noises build up and partially mask the music. The success
of this performance and the attendant publicity meant that for the
next few years Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue became a
regular standby at Ellington concerts and dances. Many recordings
have survived from these events and several have been issued on lp.
For those who find the excited atmosphere of Newport 1956 not to
their taste these later recordings are to be preferred and they do
give a better impression of how the great Ellington band of 1956-59
interpreted this score. The June 1957 Carrolltown recording and the
version thought to come from Stockholm [actually from Göteborg]
in November 1958 are the best, and on these both the Gonsalves solo
and the band are recorded better than at Newport. The July 1956
version from Fairfield was done shortly after Newport; there are
flaws in the tape during Diminuendo And Crescendo (Jerry
Valburn tells me that a good quality transcription does exist) but
the remarkable thing here is the Paul Gonsalves solo, 38 choruses
compared with 27 at Newport and in excellent sound with Paul clearly
'on-mike.' When Cat Anderson comes down front to add his high note
trumpet decorations to the final ensemble on this version he stands
right in front of the recording microphone with the result that the
band suddenly recedes into the background. This is a less than ideal
version overall, but for the Gonsalves solo it is undoubtedly the
best.
An interesting aspect of the 1957 Carrolltown recording is that the
first two ensemble choruses of Crescendo In Blue are missing.
This is not because they are edited out, for other (unissued)
versions exist with this same cut. All such performances that I have
heard come from dances and it may be that the syncopated brass breaks
in these choruses 'threw' the dancers and were therefore omitted when
the piece was played at a dance.
Eventually Duke seems to have tired at last of his masterpiece and in
1959 he started to alternate the full version with one consisting of
Diminuendo In Blue and the Gonsalves solo only, the latter now
accompanied by the band in its later stages. By the early sixties
this completely replaced the full version until even Diminuendo
was dropped and the tenor improvisation alone remained under the
title Blow By Blow. Later still this became a three way tenor
saxophone battle entitled In Triplicate, but by then the
thread with the 1937 Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue was
effectively broken.
For 21 years after its first recording Diminuendo And Crescendo
remained in the Ellington repertoire, sometimes played only
occasionally, as in the late forties, sometimes receiving
performances as in 1945 and 1946 or the years after 1956. The Newport
1956 recording documents one of the occasions when the audience
couldn't contain themselves and wait until the end of the number to
applaud. The performance is immensely exciting and the recording,
despite the audience noises and the rough edges toward the end of
Crescendo In Blue, is a classic — jazz history in the
making. Before this concert George Wein had doubted if his Newport
audience would accept Ellington, fearing that he might be thought too
old-fashioned. With his Newport triumph Ellington removed an age
barrier from the minds of jazz festival organisers. The event also
sparked off a popular renaissance of his own orchestra which had many
positive results. The Columbia LP "Ellington At Newport" was a best
seller owing mainly to Diminuendo And Crescendo and following
its success Duke spent six very fruitful years with the company. In
these years he recorded 24 LPs of superb music [actually 231/2 and one of those
pre-dates "Ellington At Newport"] most of which would probably not
have been recorded had Ellington not achieved a best selling LP at
the outset. Owing to lack of advocacy by jazz critics the majority of
these LPs are unknown to most of the jazz audience, but they are in
catalogue on French CBS (thanks to Henri Renaud) awaiting
"discovery". That they exist at all is in no small way due to
"Ellington At Newport" and Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue.
As Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue is a composed piece
without solo improvisations which was recorded on many occasions
perhaps the non-specialist reader would benefit from a few 'best buy'
suggestions. Personally I regard several versions as essential: the
1937 original in order to hear the piece played by the band for which
it was conceived; at least one of the D.E.T.S. versions from the
mid-forties because these are by a band which played the piece
frequently and knew it well; the 1956 Newport recording for its
atmosphere and impact; and one of the versions from the late fifties
because these have the best sound quality. Of these last perhaps the
1957 Carrolltown recording has the edge over the Swedish 1958
version, but there is not much in it. The best overall performances
are from the D.E.T.S. broadcasts and there are five of these each
with its own particular virtues. On the D.E.T.S. recording of 9 June
1945 the opening of Crescendo In Blue has a magic quality as
the clarinet and trombones enter in hushed dialogue. The most rousing
D.E.T.S. performance is that of 4 May 1946 which is topped by some
exciting Cat Anderson high note trumpet, while the 13 October 1945
version has Sidney Catlett on drums, an unusual and fascinating
feature. With mono recording the high note trumpet is inclined to
mask the orchestral detail and for this reason my own favourite is
the 7 July 1945 recording which does not have the Cat Anderson
additives. This can be heard as a Blues Cluster on D.E.T.S. or
with Carnegie Blues edited out on issues deriving from
V-Disc.
I have yet to hear a recording of Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue
which fails to add something to my knowledge of this fascinating
work. Anyone believing that the 1937 version says it all has a long
way to go in the appreciation of Ellington's music. As indeed does
anyone who fails to respond to this most exciting and original
composition — certainly one of the most imaginative twelve bar
blues in the history of jazz music.
Eddie Lambert.
DUKE ELLINGTON, JO. TRENT,
BLU-DISC, UP-TO-DATE
AND VARIOUS TOPICS OF RELATED INTEREST
Explored by Steven Lasker; copyright 2004 by Steven Lasker.
DEMS 04/3-57
Part One: Duke Ellington and Jo. Trent
Soon after emigrating from Washington to New York City in
1923, Duke Ellington began his long career as a published songwriter.
His earliest partner in songwriting was Joseph H. "Jo." Trent.
"The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary" (third edition, ASCAP, NY 1966)
includes the following entry on p739 for Trent, Jo, author;
born: Chicago, Illinois, May 21, 1892; died: Barcelona, Spain, Nov.
19, 1954. ASCAP 1925.
Education: University of Pennsylvania; City College of New York.
Professional manager, music publishing houses.
Staff writer, assistant director, film companies; also coach and tutor.
Broadway stage score: Rang Tang. Wrote for radio, television,
night clubs, theatres.
Author: "Modern Adaptation of Primitive Tones."
Chief collaborators: Louis Alter, Hoagy Carmichael, Peter DeRose,
Ford Dabney.
Songs: Muddy Water; My Kinda Love; I Just
Roll Along, Havin' My Ups and Downs; Wake Up, Chillun, Wake
Up; Because I Feel Low Down; Ploddin' Along;
Maybe I'm Wrong Again; Here You Come with Love; I Want
It Sweet Like You; Rhythm King.
Works: Peaceful Henry (operetta).
Trent may have been a guitarist, as musician/researcher/collector
Vince Giordano reports he owns a photo of Trent holding a guitar.
Ellington, in MIMM (p70), recalled Trent as "a nice guy who
was familiar with the routines of the publishing world. He liked my
music and he was a good lyricist, so he took my hand and guided me
around Broadway. We wrote several songs together and auditioned every
day in one publisher's office or another..." The significance of the
relationship for Ellington is underscored by the observation that
with the exceptions of Choo Choo (I Gotta Hurry Home) and
Rhapsody Jr. (copyrights deposited on 19Jul24 and 21oct26,
respectively), every one of Ellington's song copyrights prior to
10Feb27 was in collaboration with Trent.
Trent was also fairly new to the publishing business. Some of his
earliest copyrights (the earliest dates to 21Jun23) were
collaborations with Roland C. Irving published by Fred Fisher, Inc. A
photograph of R.I. [sic] Irving and J.H. Trent of the Fred
Fisher "Blues" department appears on p154 of the oct23 issue of
Metronome.
Blind Man's Buff, Ellington's first copyright, was written
with Trent (arrangement by Geo. R. Holman), published by Fred Fisher
and deposited for copyright on 24oct23. According to the 22Dec23
issue of Billboard (p54), "Duke Ellington, the pianist at the
Hollywood Inn, has succeeded Roland Irving in the professional
department of the Fred Fisher publishing house." Neither Trent nor
Ellington appear to have been associated with Fred Fisher after
2Feb24, the date the company copyrighted I Don't KnowNobody, and
Nobody Knows Me from "Runnin' Wild," with words and music by Jo.
Trent and Will Donaldson.
Trent and Ellington wrote at least eight songs together in addition
to Blind Man's Buff: Pretty Soft for You (Clarence
Williams Music Publishing Company, copyright entry dated 1Nov24);
Jig Walk from "Chocolate Kiddies" (Robbins-Engel, 3Dec25);
Jim Dandy from "Chocolate Kiddies" (Robbins-Engel, 3Dec25);
With You from "Chocolate Kiddies" (Robbins-Engel, 3Dec25);
Love Is a Wish for You from "Chocolate Kiddies" (not
copyrighted under that title); Skeedely-Um-Bum from "Chocolate
Kiddies" (no copyright entry); Yam Brown (Frazier-Kent,
4May26).
(Love Is a Wish for You is known from several obscure European
recordings. The Robbins-Engel sheet music for Jim
Dandy--published only in Germany--contains an ad that reproduces
incipits from both Love Is a Wish for You and
Skeedely-Um-Bum, titles otherwise unpublished in sheet music
form; see Mark Tucker's "Ellington: The Early Years," pages
132-33.)
Finally, Dry Long So, recorded 15Feb40 by Cootie Williams and
His Rug Cutters, is on OKeh 5690 credited to "Mills-Trent-Ellington";
the ledger sheet specifies that this is "J. Trent." No copyright
entry with this title was found, nor is the title found in ASCAP's
list of Ellington's works.
Trent and Ellington wrote one show together besides "Chocolate
Kiddies": According to the Baltimore Afro-American (17oct25,
p4), "Jo [sic] Trent and Duke Ellington are responsible for
the tunes and arrangements in Flournoy Miller's 'Backbiters' at the
Regent this week. The former has gone far in musical accomplishment.
He was in charge of the books of the Vincent Lopez Orchestra until
that organization went abroad. He received his training principally
from the distinguished Will Vodery and is also a protege of Will
Marion Cook. He has also done the score for a number of other
successes." (The Baltimore Afro-American of 24oct25 reported
on page five: "With slight changes in personnel 'Backbiters' in its
record week has undergone a process of attempted revision which
changes are like a popular English beverage, just 'arf and 'arf.'")
No songtitles were reported, alas.
Part Two: Blu-Disc, Up-to-Date, Emerson and BD&M
The earliest extant recordings of Duke Ellington were released
exactly 80 years ago in December 1924 on the Blu-Disc label and in
early 1925 on the Up-to-Date label. While the records are renowned
today for their historical significance, musical content and extreme
rarity, little has appeared in print about the company that produced
them or the entrepreneur behind the company, whose identity has long
been a deep mystery. Circumstantial evidence presented in part six
suggests he was Jo. Trent.
The dark maroon labels of Blu-Disc records bear the legend "THE
BLU-DISC RECORD CO., NEW YORK" in gold print. No mention of a parent
company or place of origin appears on Up-to-Date's labels, which show
gold print on a field of dark blue. Neither label bears patent,
trademark or copyright data. Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date went unmentioned
during the 1920s in Billboard, Variety, Talking
Machine World and Phonograph and Talking Machine Weekly.
Manhattan telephone directories of the era show no listing for either
Blu–Disc or Up-to-Date. No trademark registration is found under
either name, no corporation registered under either name in New York,
and no legal judgement was entered in that state against either
entity. No company files have ever been reported.
Some issues on Blu-Disc, and all known issues on Up-to-Date, contain
recordings from an original T2000 matrix series. Other Blu-Disc
issues contain masters originally recorded for other companies which
Blu-Disc apparently obtained by agreement with the Emerson Recording
Laboratories, which was the main supplier of recordings for the
Emerson label (using a 42000 matrix series) as well as several client
labels including three groups, the Clover/Dandy/Nutmeg group, the
Globe/Grey Gull/Nadsco/Radiex group (both groups were supplied
masters from a 3000 matrix series), also the Bridgeport Die &
Machine Co., or "BD&M" group (which also drew from the 3000
matrix series for their labels, which included Broadway, Pennington,
Triangle and other labels at various times; 11000 series BD&M
masters may also have been recorded by Emerson). Emerson also
supplied masters for the Everybodys label. Blu-Disc issues believed
pressed from masters obtained from Emerson and its client labels will
be discussed in part four.
Three Blu-Disc/Up-to-Date masters (mxs. T2006, T2016 and T2020)
appeared on the BD&M group of labels, two (T2016 and T2017) on
the Grey Gull group of labels, three (T2016, T2020 and T2021) on
Clover and six (T2006, T2015, T2016, T2017, T2020 and T2021) on
Everybodys.
These master exchanges between Blu-Disc/Up-to-Date and Emerson and
its client labels would seem to reflect cross-licensing agreements, a
form of barter. Given that a business relationship existed between
the companies, it is conceivable that Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date's
masters were recorded at the Emerson Recording Laboratories at 206
Fifth Avenue in New York City. (According to an offer found on a
mid-1923 vintage Emerson record sleeve, "A personal phonograph record
by amateur musicians becomes a treasured gift by family and
friends--the value of which vastly increases year by year. The
Emerson Phonograph Company will make such records for you at
comparatively small cost. Write for information.")
Part Three: Blu-Disc's Known Original Masters and Master-Pressed Issues
T2001-1 ALBERTA PRIME:
It's Gonna Be a Cold Cold Winter (So Get Another Place to Stay)
(Trent-Grainger)
Blu-Disc
T1007-A
T2002-2 ALBERTA PRIME-SONNY
GREER: Parlor Social De Luxe
(Trent-Ellington)
Blu-Disc
T1007-B
T2005-2 THE WASHINGTONIANS:
Choo Choo
(Ellington-Ringle-Schafer)
Blu-Disc
T1002-B
T2006-1 THE WASHINGTONIANS:
Rainy Nights
(Trent-Donaldson-Lopez)
Blu-Disc
T1002-A, Broadway 11437-A,
Triangle
11437-A, Pennington 1437-A,
Everybodys
1021 A
T2007-1 JO. TRENT AND THE D
C'NS: Deacon Jazz
(Trent-Ellington)
Blu-Disc
T1003-B
T2008-1 SUNNY GREER AND THE
D C'NS: Oh How I Love My Darling
(Leslie-Woods)
Blu-Disc
T1003-A
Masters T2003 and T2004 are untraced.
These masters were almost certainly recorded in November 1924, that
being the month when the song Oh How I Love My Darling was
introduced. (The song was published 7Nov24 and registered for
copyright by Clarke and Leslie Songs, Inc. on 10Nov24. The earliest
known recording of the song was made for Gennett by The Kentucky
Blowers, a pseudonym for Bailey's Dixie Dudes, on 12Nov24. The
Ambassadors recorded a version for Vocalion later that month. The
Goofus Five made a version for OKeh on 25Nov24.)
Blu-Disc's releases appeared in December according to a Blu-Disc
advertising handbill (reproduced on page seven of Record
Research 122) found by researcher Mike Montgomery in Leroy
Smith's personal scrapbook, located in the Azalia Hackley Collection
of the Detroit Public Library. The 11" x 17" handbill, printed in
dark blue ink on a light canary or yellow paper, lists the artists
and songs found on Blu-Disc records 1001 through 1009 (no higher
numbers are known). The handbill omits the "T" catalog number prefix
which is found on the labels of Blu-Disc's records.
Blu-Disc T1002 is found in two variants, one of them stamped T2006-1
on the "A" side, the other T2006-2. Broadway 11437, Triangle 11437
and Pennington 1437 are all stamped T2006-2. All master pressings
I've encountered are musically identical, show the same terminal
groove configuration and are the same take regardless of marking.
Everybodys 1021 is stamped T2006 (no take number is stamped) but
bears the true take data "T 2006-1" as inscribed in the central
area of the master wax by the engineer at the time of recording. This
hand-written (not stamped) information isn't found on the other 78
r.p.m. issues, which were pressed from stampers from which the
centers bearing this information had been excised (so-called "sunken
label" pressings) unlike pressings on the Everybodys label, which are
unmilled ("flush label") pressings.
Rainy Nights, which wasn't copyrighted until 1972, is credited
variously to "Trent-Donaldson-Lopez" on Blu-Disc and to
"Trent-Donaldson" on BD&M issues and Everybodys. The Donaldson in
question is likely Will Donaldson, who shared songwriting credit with
Jo. Trent on four copyright entries: Love Ain't Blind No More;
I Don't Know Nobody; I Don't Know Nobody, and Nobody Knows
Me; and Won't You Be My Sweet Man, entries dated 15Sep23,
10Dec23, 2Feb24 and 11Apr24 respectively. No copyrights from the
1920s by Trent-Lopez or Donaldson-Lopez were located. As was noted in
part one above, Jo. Trent was the librarian for Vincent Lopez'
orchestra, so the Lopez in question is likely Vincent Lopez. An
8Dec72 copyright entry for Rainy Nights shows "music Duke
Ellington"; "Tempo Music Inc." (There is an uncanny melodic
similarity between Rainy Nights and Naughty Man, an
uncopyrighted piece credited to "Dixon and Redman" on record labels,
which Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra recorded on three separate
occasions, each for a different company, during November 1924.)
The "B" side of Blu-Disc T1002 shows the title as Choo Choo;
the complete title is shown on the sheet music: Choo Choo (I Gotta
Hurry Home).
One copy of Blu-Disc T1002 has been reported (Storyville 6,
p26) as bearing a "Levy's" sticker, indicating that Levy's of London
imported at least one copy for sale in England.
Blu-Disc T1003-A credits SUNNY GREER AND THE D C'NS, but the handbill
shows Sonny Greer and The D C'ns.
Broadway 11437 is shown as a new release in that label's monthly
supplement for December 1924, and the other BD&M issues of
Rainy Nights (Pennington, Triangle and perhaps others) were
likely pressed and shipped simultaneously. Although Baldwin 11437,
Bury 11437, Puretone 11437 and The Mitchell 11437 are listed in
discographies as co-releases, I've yet to see or hear of an actual
copy of any of these, and can only conclude that they are either
phantom issues or else phenomenally rare. I've never found any record
on "Bury," and suspect the name may be a corruption of "Bwy," the
abbreviation for Broadway. Other unlikely possibilities (no copies
reported): Hudson 11437 and Ross Stores 11437. Reports that Rainy
Nights appears on Puritan 11437 are definitely in error: by
December 1924, Puritan was no longer associated with BD&M. Note
that only those issues of Rainy Nights that I've been able to
confirm appear in the list of original Blu-Disc masters above. (The
labels of the issues on Broadway, Pennington and Everybodys are
reproduced on the covers of Jerry Valburn's "Directory of Duke
Ellington's Recordings.")
Part Four: Blu-Disc Issues Believed Pressed from Licensed Masters
Six issues on Blu-Disc, numbers T1001, T1004, T1005, T1006,
T1008 and T1009, are believed to have been pressed from masters
licensed from BD&M through Emerson. I have seen only one of these
six, T1004. By coincidence, the titles released on all six issues
were also released at about the same time on the BD&M labels, and
it would seem likely that the same masters appeared on both labels.
(Caveat: two sides by the Frisco Syncopators, Choo Choo on
Triangle 11431 and Everybodys 1015, and Oh How I Love My
Darling on Triangle 11441, aren't pressed from Blu-Disc's
masters.) For this section, I am indebted to James Parten, who
consulted research files generously provided many years ago by the
late Max Vreede.
Blu-Disc's handbill lists Blu-Disc 1001 as by "Leroy Smith's Dance
Orchestra" (but elsewhere mentions "Leroy Smith & His Dance
Orch."). Master numbers for this issue are discographically
unreported, and no copies of the actual record are known to me.
Titles are Morning (Won't You Ever Come 'Round) and Stop
and Listen. Instrumental versions of these same titles also
appear coupled on Broadway 11442 and Triangle 11442, released January
1925 as by Michigan Melody Makers. These issues are known by
reference to monthly supplements, no copy being reported by Vreede or
known to me. Again, master numbers are discographically unreported.
Given the close relationship between Blu-Disc and Emerson, it would
seem likely that the Blu-Disc and Broadway/Triangle versions are the
same, likewise Morning (Won't You Ever Come 'Round) as heard
on Clover 1524 (copy held here), pressed from Emerson mx. 3505-1 and
credited to the Clover Dance Orchestra. This version--possibly also
issued on Emerson 10818 as mx. 42769 by Emerson Dance
Orchestra--features three strings and bears little aural resemblance
to Leroy Smith's Dance Orchestra. However, a 4" by 2" card found in
Leroy Smith's scrapbook (and reproduced in Record Research
122) contains the following text in blue ink on a blue field
(punctuation added): "Let's Take the Band Home. The tunes you have
just danced to played by LeRoy Smith's Dance Orchestra on the
Blu-Disc Records. Get them at the Cigar Counter." This suggests the
Blu-Disc versions of the titles are actually by Smith; which
orchestra is actually on Blu-Disc T1001 will only be established if
and when a copy surfaces.
Blu-Disc T1004 is labelled as by DUKE ELLINGTON'S ORCHESTRA, although
it wasn't actually played by them at all. Contents and wax stampings
duplicate those found on Broadway/Embassy/Ross Stores/Triangle 11423
and Pennington 1423, which were released in November 1924 as by Chic
Winters Orchestra: Nashville Nightingale (BD&M mx.
11024-B2 actually by Chic Winters)/Rose Marie (Emerson mx.
42733-2 by the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra). (See DEMS 79/4p1 for a
reproduction of the label of Blu-Disc T1004-A.)
Blu-Disc's handbill tells us that record 1005 was by "The Blu-Disc
Orch.," but no copies are known to me. Master numbers for this issue
are discographically unreported. These same titles are also found on
Triangle/The Mitchell 11425 (released November 1924), which suggests
that the masters are the same even though the artist's credits are
different: California Ramblers: I Want to Be Happy (Paramount
mx. 1881-3)/Steiber's Orchestra: Tea for Two (Paramount mx.
121-2 [1400 shown on label]).
The handbill lists record 1006 as another by "The Blu-Disc Orch.,"
but no copies are known to me. Master numbers are discographically
unreported. The same titles also appeared on BD&M issues, but
coupled differently. June Night was released circa August 1924
on Triangle 11391 as by Golden Gate Orchestra (Regal mx. 5536 by
Nathan Glantz); It Had to Be You was released circa July 1924
on Carnival/The Mitchell/Puritan/Triangle 11383 and Pennington 1383
as by Schubert's Metropolitan Orchestra (Domino mx. 10084-1 by New
Orleans Jazz Band).
The handbill lists Blu-Disc 1008 as by Irving Post. The same coupling
was released in November 1924 on Broadway/Hudson/ Triangle 11428:
Follow the Swallow (Emerson mx. 3465-2)/Put Away a Little
Ray of Golden Sunshine (For a Rainy Day) (Emerson mx. 3466-2) by
Irving Post [recte Franklyn Baur] and the Carolinians.
The handbill notes that Blu-Disc 1009 couples Oh! You Can't Fool
an Old Hoss Fly by Arthur Hall with How Do You Do, a vocal
duet by Arthur Hall and John Ryan. These same titles also appear on
Triangle 11438 and Pennington 1438, December 1924 releases that
contain Oh! You Can't Fool an Old Hoss Fly by Arthur Hall acc.
by May Singh Breen (ukulele) (BD&M mx. 11028) and How Do You
Do by Arthur Hall-John Ryan (Independent Recording Lab mx.
27013).
I've inspected copies of the following original Blu-Discs: T1002
(copy held here and stamped T2006-1 on side "A"); T1002 (copy held in
the Valburn collection at the Library of Congress and stamped T2006-2
on side "A"); T1003 (copy held in Ken Swerilas collection, El Cajon,
California); T1004 (Valburn collection, LoC); and T1007 (Valburn
collection, LoC). Blu-Disc T1003 is pressed on dark blue shellac that
appears black except under a strong light; the others are pressed on
black shellac. Carl Kendziora (Record Changer, Feb52) reported
two copies of T1007, one, owned by Murray Schwartz of New York, which
he had not seen, and the other which he described: "The label is dark
red with black lettering and the surface is dark blue, appearing
black except under a strong light." The only copy of T1007 I've seen
is pressed on black shellac, and like every other Blu-Disc single
I've seen, has gold lettering. (A 10" 78 r.p.m. facsimile edition of
Blu-Disc T1003 pressed on vinyl from dubbed stampers was made
available by Ken Swerilas circa 1963.)
Blu-Disc's handbill concludes with an allusion to recordings that
would appear on the Up-to-Date label instead (along with recordings
definitely by Leroy Smith's Dance Orchestra):
Selections by Paul Robeson Star "All God Chillen
Got Wings"
Fred Weaver "Clef Club" Favorite
Part Five: Up-to-Date's Known Masters and Master-Pressed Issues
T2013-B2 PAUL ROBESON
ASSISTED BY WILLIE JONES:
Since
You Went Away
(Rosamund
Johnson)
Up-to-Date
2019-B
T2014-B2 FRED WEAVER
ASSISTED BY LEROY TIBBS:
I'll
Take Her Back (If She Wants to Come Back)
(Leslie
and Monaco)
Up-to-Date
2018-A
T2015-B1 FRED WEAVER
ASSISTED BY LEROY TIBBS:
When
My Sugar Walks down the Street (All the Birdies Go Tweet Tweet)
(Austin-McHugh-Mills)
Everybodys
1006 A
T2015-B2 FRED WEAVER
ASSISTED BY LEROY TIBBS:
When
My Sugar Walks down the Street (All the Birdies Go Tweet
Tweet)
(Austin-McHugh-Mills)
Up-to-Date
2018-B
T2016-B2 LEROY SMITH'S
DANCE ORCHESTRA:
Indian
Love Call
(Friml)
Up-to-Date
2016-A, Nadsco 1258 (a), Clover 1539,
Pennington
1453, Everybodys 1027 A
T2017-B1 = T2017-B3 LEROY
SMITH'S DANCE ORCHESTRA:
Harlem's
Araby
(Trent-Waller)
Globe/Grey
Gull/Nadsco/Radiex 1283 (b), Everybodys 1020
T2017-2 LEROY SMITH'S
DANCE ORCHESTRA:
Harlem's
Araby
(Trent-Waller)
Up-to-Date
2016-B
T2018-2 FLORENCE
BRISTOL WITH DUKE ELLINGTON AND OTTO HARDWICK:
How
Come You Do Me Like You Do
(Austin-Bergere)
Up-to-Date
2019-A
T2020 LEROY
SMITH'S DANCE ORCHESTRA:
Dixie
Dreams
(Turk-Meyer)
Up-to-Date
2017-A, Clover 1540, Pennington 1455,
Everybodys
1027 B
T2021 LEROY
SMITH'S DANCE ORCHESTRA:
June
Brought the Roses
(Openshaw-Stanley)
(Waltz)
Up-to-Date
2017-B, Clover 1545, Everybodys 1017
Masters T2009 to T2012 and T2019 are untraced.
The performances released on Up-to-Date were likely recorded in
December 1924, that being the date of the Blu-Disc handbill that
alludes to selections by Paul Robeson and Fred Weaver, and the month
in which When My Sugar Walks Down the Street was introduced,
the earliest known recording of the song being that by the Wolverine
Orchestra for Gennett on 5Dec24. McKenzie's Candy Kids followed on
12Dec24 with a version issued on Vocalion. The sheet music was
published 31Dec24. The piece was registered for copyright by Jack
Mills Music on 16Jan25. (Brian Rust's "Jazz Records 1897-1942" shows
a version by the "Regent Dance Orchestra" recorded "c. November,
1924" for Paramount but issued only on English Edison Bell Winner.
Max Vreede's research files identify the performance as one actually
recorded by Nathan Glantz. The Paramount master number, supplied by
Vreede but not by Rust, is 2075, which dates the recording to c.
April, 1925.)
Only four issues on Up-to-Date are known; all are pressed on
russet-hued shellac. Copies of Up-to-Date 2016, 2018 and 2019 are
held here. Details of Up-to-Date 2017 are known from a photo of the
"A" side's label found in Kurt Nauck's "American Records Label Image
Encyclopedia," the whereabouts of the disc itself, once owned by the
late Billy Thomas of Montague, Michigan, being unknown to me at
present. The composer's credit for the reverse is known from other
versions and copyright entries.
The label of Up-to-Date 2016-A identifies the master as T2016-1, but
T2016-B2 is stamped in the run-out area. Reference to a copy of
Everybodys 1027, which additionally bears the engineer's handwritten
notation 2016B-2 in the central area of the "A" side, confirms the
identity of the take.
The label of Up-to-Date 2017-A identifies the master as T2020;
stamped take data, if any, isn't known to me. The label of Everybodys
1027 B shows the master to be 2020. This side bears no
engineer-inscribed or stamped master/take identification.
The label of Up-to-Date 2019-A identifies the master as T2018, but
bears 2018-2 (without a "T" prefix) stamped in the run-out.
Pennington 1453 and 1455, released February 1925, as by Michigan
Melody Makers. Nadsco 1258 (a), as by Cosmopolitan Dance Orchestra,
is stamped with Emerson control number 3545-2 2 [sic].
Composers are shown as Henderson-Friml-Harbach-Stothart-Hammerstein.
Globe/Grey Gull/Nadsco/Radiex 1283 (b), as by Metropolitan Dance
Players, omits composer's credit. (I don't know if the version of
Indian Love Call issued on Emerson 10825 and Bell 316 as by
Marlborough Dance Orchestra is Up-to-Date mx. T2016 or Federal mx.
2-2531.)
Harlem's Araby was copyrighted as In Harlem's Araby.
Globe shows T2017-B1, while Nadsco shows T2017-B3; the true take's
identity should be evident by reference to engineer-inscribed
markings on Everybodys 1020, which I've never seen.
"The Everybodys Record Inc." marketed their "popular priced"
Everybodys record from headquarters at 747 Southern Boulevard,
[Brooklyn] New York (per Variety, 23Dec25, p39). A total of 85
issues were released on Everybodys, all in 1925.
Part Six: Jo. Trent--The Man Behind Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date?
Jo. Trent is heard on three Blu-Disc sides. He speaks on
masters T2001 and T2002 (he was identified by Ellington and Greer to
Brooks Kerr; on mx. T2002, Trent delivers the final line only: "Take
your fingers out of my salad, what's the matter with you?"). He
speaks and sings on mx. T2007. Trent received label credit as
co-writer of five of 14 (i.e., 35.7%) of the known titles originally
recorded for Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date: It's Gonna Be a Cold Cold
Winter (So Get Another Place to Stay) (Trent-Grainger); Parlor
Social De Luxe (Trent-Ellington); Rainy Nights
(Trent-Donaldson-Lopez); Deacon Jazz (Trent-Ellington) and
Harlem's Araby (Trent-Waller). (He copyrighted only two of
these five: It's Gonna Be a Cold Cold Winter and In
Harlem's Araby.)
Given how few copies of Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date records are known
today, distribution must have been limited and sales poor. The
company could well have been a one-person operation. Female
entrepreneurs being non-existent in the record industry in the 1920s,
that person would be a man. If he was of the same ethnic ancestry as
the artists he recorded, he was African American. He probably lived
in New York, he certainly knew Duke Ellington, he prefixed his
Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date master recordings with the letter "T" and he
elected to record a song co-written by Jo. Trent 35.7% of the time
(which is a noteworthy statistic considering that at the end of 1924
Trent's lifetime total of song copyrights numbered just 45). On
Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date's labels, Trent's name was invariably
credited ahead of any songwriting collaborator. Trent was allowed to
sing on one Blu-Disc master, Deacon Jazz, a questionable
decision considering his overtly bombastic style and difficulty
staying on pitch. As Mark Tucker remarked ("Ellington: The Early
Years," p173): "Trent's vocal performance shows more enthusiasm than
technique. He sounds like a composer belting out his own tune, and
indeed, the record primarily served to plug the song. Trent talks
through the verse and sings the chorus only once. The rest of the
record is given over to instrumental solos based on the chorus." Like
Trent, who neglected to copyright three of his four songs that
appeared on Blu-Disc, the man behind Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date would
seem to have been lax about basic business practices, at least
judging by his failure to trademark the names of either of his
labels.
Duke Ellington remembered Trent as a good lyricist and a nice guy.
Circumstantial evidence suggests that Trent was also the entrepreneur
behind Blu-Disc and Up-to-Date records, enduring cultural legacies of
the Harlem Renaissance.
Part Seven: Jo. Trent, Grey Gull Staff Composer
Here is a survey of Trent's annual output of copyrighted
songs, using data obtained from the Catalog[s] of Copyright Entries:
1923: 15; 1924: 30; 1925: 42; 1926: 42; 1927: 27; 1928: 8; 1929: 2;
1930: 3; 1931: 6; 1932: 3; 1933: 2; 1934: 5; 1935: 1; 1936: 0; 1937:
0; (later years not surveyed). If one plots a graph with Trent's
annual total of copyrights on the vertical axis and the year of
copyright on the horizontal, a bell curve results with a dramatic
spike in 1925 and 1926. 38 of the 42 songs that Trent deposited for
copyright in 1925, and 39 of his 42 songs from 1926 were "published"
by Grey Gull Records Inc. of South Boston, one of Emerson's client
labels. Grey Gull wasn't a publisher of sheet music per se but rather
a producer of cheap records pressed on inferior shellac and released
on Grey Gull and associated labels. "A" sides usually carried hits of
the day; "B" sides often contained titles that Grey Gull published
thus saving the company from having to pay royalties to an outside
publisher. Trent's 77 songs for Grey Gull accounted for 45% of the
company's total publishing copyrights in 1925-26. (Trent didn't place
songs with Grey Gull in any other years.)
Almost all--if not all--of the 77 Trent/Grey Gull copyrights credit
Trent alone, which is curious because the great majority of his song
copyrights from other years show words by Trent and music by someone
else. Melodies credited to Trent are rare in all years except 1925
and 1926. Trent's 77 Grey Gull song copyrights were entered between
24Apr25 and 9Nov26, a period when jazz lore has it that his
songwriting collaborators Duke Ellington and Thomas "Fats" Waller
were selling numerous melodies outright and cheaply and when
Ellington's output of song copyrights was slight by comparison to his
prodigious output in later years. The notion follows that remarkable
discoveries might result from an analysis of the 77 Trent/Grey Gull
copyright manuscripts--on deposit at the Library of Congress--by
someone able to differentiate the musical notation styles of
Ellington, Waller and Trent.
(The possibility exists that the manuscripts are in the handwriting
of one or more professional copyists, but that would seem unlikely
given budgetary limitations inherent in working for Grey Gull, an
infamously cheap company.)
Here are the titles of 38 songs claimed by Trent (without
collaborators) and published by Grey Gull in 1925: Always Got the
Blues; Charleston Rhythm; Cotton Blossom Time; Crazy 'bout Love; Day
Dreams; Dinah; Easy to Please; Everything I Do Means I Love You;
Happiness Will Follow Sorrow; Happy Days Will Come; I Am Broke; I
Know You Know; I'm in Love; I'm Just Dance Crazy; I Think of You;
Lindey; Lonely; Lovable Ladies; Love Is Just a Dream of You; Marry
Me; Midnight Moon; Nobody But You; Nothing to Do but Be Blue; Only
Two; Peaches; (The) Rabbit Hop (a title performed in "Chocolate
Kiddies", see Storyville 62, p47); Sadie Salome; Strut Your Jones;
'Taint No Use; Tell Your Gal; There'll Come a Time; Wait for Me; When
My Sweetie Smiles; When Rosebuds Bloom in June; When Someone Steals
Your Sweetie Away; When You're Far Away; Zulu Sue.
Here are the titles of 39 songs claimed by Trent (most if not all
without collaborators) and published by Grey Gull in 1926: Angel
Baby; Aunt Lucy; Auntie Lucy; Beyond the Blue; Charleston Mame; Come
to Papa; Dancing All the Way to Philadelphia; Every Evening; Floating
Down the Nile; Fool Me Nice; Give Us a Hug; Having Lots of Fun; I'm
Having Lots of Fun; I'm Music Mad; In Araby; In Your Eyes; Jazzin'
Around; Just a Girl Like You; Lady Lou; Lasses; Learning the
Charleston; Love and Sunshine; Love Has Won; Love Me all the Time;
Love Me Forever; Loving You, that's All; Music Mad; My Own Blues;
Pullin' Thru; Red Mississippi Moon; Someone Waits for Me; Starving
for Your Love; Sweetheart Why Are You Mad; Talking in My Sleep; Tell
Me Who's Your Sweetie; Toodle-oo; Try a Little Love; Whispering
Winds; Wishing and Waiting.
Those with Grey Gull 78s of these titles may wish to relisten to them
while paying extra close attention to the pianists encountered.
Part Eight: Jo. Trent and Fats Waller
Trent and Waller were frequent collaborators in the mid-1920s, a fact evidenced by 17 song copyrights claimed by both jointly: What Can Be Wrong with Me (copyright entry dated 4Apr24); Hello Atlanta Town (with Clarence Williams; 4Apr24); Strollin' Roun' the Town (4Apr24); That's My Man (11Apr24); In Harlem (28Apr24); My Man Cures the Blues (28Apr24); In the Springtime (28Apr24); My Baby's Coming Back Home (28Apr24); I'm Goin' Right Along (28Apr24); Mandy, I'm Just Wild about You (with Clarence Williams; 28Apr24); In My Baby's Eyes (10Jun24); Please Take Me Back (7Jul24); In Harlem's Araby (24Jul24); (That) Florida Low Down (with J. Fred Coots; 6Apr26); Georgia Bo-Bo (23Apr26); Whiteman Stomp (Whiteman is credited as a co-composer on the label of Fletcher Henderson's Columbia 1059-D, but not on the 14Sep27 copyright entry or Paul Whiteman's Victor 21119); and Wringin' and Twistin' (with Frank Trumbauer; 20oct27).
Part Nine: Jo. Trent and Irving Mills
Irving Mills' Gotham Music Service Inc. copyrighted three
songs by Jo. Trent, all in 1927.
Make Me Love You, with words and music by Porter Grainger and Jo.
Trent, was deposited for copyright on 15Mar27. The song was recorded
by Miss Evelyn Preer with Duke Ellington's Orchestra on 10Jan27; the
title was never issued and the masters were destroyed; test pressings
are unknown.
Goose Pimples, by Jo. Trent and Fletcher Henderson, was
deposited for copyright on 12Jul27. The song was never recorded by
Ellington, but it was recorded by Fletcher Henderson and his
Orchestra on 24oct27. (An even more famous version was waxed by Bix
Beiderbecke and His Gang on 25oct27.)
You Live on In Memory, to which Jo. Trent wrote both words and
music, was deposited for copyright on 30Dec27. The song was recorded
8Nov27 by Marguerite Lee with Duke Ellington Trio; the title was
scheduled for release on the A side of Vocalion 1150, but the issue
was cancelled prior to release and the master destroyed; sample
pressings are unknown.
As was noted under part one above, Dry Long So, recorded
15Feb40 by Cootie Williams and His Rug Cutters, is on OKeh 5690
credited to "Mills-Trent-Ellington"; the ledger sheet specifies that
this is "J. Trent." No copyright entry with this title was found, nor
is the title found in ASCAP's list of Ellington's works.
Part Ten: Irving Mills, Duke Ellington and Blu-Disc/Up-to-Date
"The band had been at the Kentucky Club about three and a half
years when I first met Irving Mills," Ellington wrote in Swing
Magazine (Jun40, p11; reprinted on page 231-32 of "Hear Me
Talkin' to You"). "We were playing the St. Louis Blues, and he
asked what it was. When I told him, he said it sure sounded nothing
like it. So maybe that gave him ideas. He talked to me about making
records. Naturally I agreed, and we got together four originals."
Ellington's Vocalion session of 29Nov26 is the earliest documented
association of Ellington and Mills. The ledger sheet for the date
shows that the four songs recorded that date were all composed or
co-composed by Ellington and copyrighted either by Gotham Music Co.
or Jack Mills, Inc.
A September 1933 Dallas News story about Ellington (found in a
press kit on Ellington published in 1933 by Mills Artists) dates the
meeting of Ellington and Mills to summer 1926. In down beat
(5Nov52, p6; reprinted on pages 233-34 of "Hear Me Talkin' to You"),
Mills told Charles Emgee: "The first time I heard Duke Ellington was
at the Kentucky Club in New York, where he had come in with the five
piece band he had been appearing with in Washington D.C. I had gone
to the Kentucky Club that night with the late Sime Silverman of
Variety who, like most newspaper men, liked to go out for an
evening of relaxation after putting his paper 'to bed' for another
deadline. I think the number that caught my attention was Black
and Tan Fantasy..."
According to Mills (in notes to Columbia set C3L-27),...."I first met
him [Ellington] in 1926....when he was leading a small group at the
Kentucky Club, at Broadway and 49th Street. I remember the occasion
well: I was with the late Sime Silverman, the founder of
Variety, who was out for an evening's relaxation after putting
the paper to rest. Though the initial impact of Duke as a musician
and person was unforgettable, one detail escapes me: I am still not
quite sure which tune it was that particularly caught my attention.
I've seen in printed that it was his arrangement of St. Louis
Blues that attracted me, though as I recall it today, I believe
it was Duke's own Black and Tan Fantasy."
Mills' discovery of Ellington at the Club Kentucky cannot, however,
be dated to the summer of 1926, when the club was closed and the
Ellington band went on a tour of New England. The club reopened
24Sep26 with Ellington. The last non-Mills Ellington recording
session of the 1920s was held 14oct26 in accompaniment of Alberta
Jones. The last non-Mills Ellington copyright, Rhapsody Jr.
(published by Robbins), was entered on 21oct26. The historic first
Vocalion session, with which Mills was provably associated, took
place 29Nov26. The first Ellington song that Mills published was
deposited for copyright on 10Feb27. The beginning of the
Ellington-Mills relationship may thus be dated to the fall of 1926.
(The certificate of incorporation of Duke Ellington, Inc., a document
on file in the municipal archives of the City of New York, was signed
23Dec29 and recorded 15Jan30 with the New York County Clerk's
office.)
In MIMM, however (p72), Ellington recalled meeting Mills for
the first time in 1923: "My initial encounter with Irving Mills
occurred during my first six months in New York. He was known as the
last resort for getting some money by those who had been peddling
songs all day without success....The procedure....was to sell those
blues outright to Irving Mills for fifteen or twenty dollars. It was
very simple--no hassle. Just give him the lead sheet, sign the
outright release, pick up some money, and go." (Ellington didn't
mention any titles.)
Jack Mills Music published one song, When My Sugar Walks Down the
Street, that appears in Blu-Disc/Up-to-Date's "T" master series.
The song's co-authors were Irving Mills, Jimmy McHugh and Gene
Austin. (Vocalist Irving Mills and pianist Jimmy HcHugh together
comprised the "The Hotsy Totsy Boys," who performed on radio and on
14May25 recorded Everything Is Hotsy-Totsy Now for Gennett.)
Considering Irving Mills' career-long effort to place Mills-published
songs onto wax, the observation that only one of 14, or 7.14%, of the
titles known to have been recorded for Blu-Disc or Up-to-Date
originated from the Mills publishing catalog would seem to rule out
the theory, proposed by Mark Tucker ("Ellington: The Early Years,"
p196), that Mills was behind the labels.
*****
Acknowledgements: Mike Montgomery, the late Max Vreede, James
Parten, Brooks Kerr,
Larry Gushee, Bill Egan, Ken Steiner, the late Mark Tucker, Jerry Valburn,
Brad Kay and Vince Giordano.
Steven Lasker, Nov04.**
How many compositions did Ellington really make?
DEMS 04/3-58
Benny Aasland and I have always been rather reluctant to tell you
which Ellington compositions stand out as being 'better' than the
others. It makes little sense to discuss minimal differences of
opinion in a group of people who by definition have almost identical
musical taste. We have always concentrated on facts and figures,
helping other Ellington collectors to sort out things. One statistic
which crops up regularly is the total number of Ellington's
compositions. Not long ago Jørgen Mathiasen published on the
Duke-LYM list an excerpt of his presentation for the 7th Nordic Jazz
Research Conference in Denmark in August of this year. We are sure
that this is of interest for Ellington collectors and discographers
and we thank Jørgen for his permission to publish it in full
in this DEMS Bulletin.
Sjef Hoefsmit
This version makes some alterations to the wording of Jørgen's
paper, solely in the interest of clear English.
DEMS
DUKE ELLINGTON's Production as a Composer
A survey of a selection of sources to his
entire production
and a methodological discussion.
by Jørgen Mathiasen.
That Duke Ellington’s oeuvre is not a closed matter for jazz
research was something I discovered when I wrote my final paper at
the university with the late Erik Wiedemann as supervisor. One day
Wiedemann introduced me to the survey of this matter he had started
in 1984. When in 1999 we reached the centennial of the birth of
Ellington, Wiedemann had still not finished the project but in the
meantime he had published two articles on the matter, the latest from
1991.
Here is in chronological order a selection of assessments of the size
of Ellington’s production, as matters were in 1999:
Source Number Year
Jan Bruér 2000 1975
André Hodeir 6000 1980
Erik Wiedemann 1200-1300 1986
André Hodeir and Gunther Schuller 2000 1988
Ken Rattenbury 1012 1990
Erik Wiedemann 1500 1991
One notices that the first assessment was proposed by Jan
Bruér as early as in 1975, that is shortly after the death of
Duke Ellington, - two researchers, namely André Hodeir and
Wiedemann have changed their assessment, and the assessments are very
different. Sometimes it is one result, sometimes another and these
are figures not suited to be presented to an audience generally
interested in Ellington. The figures create uncertainty about the
quality of the research, but below I shall present some results of my
own survey and also try to explain why these widely diverging
assessments can nevertheless be said to be all talking about the same
thing, if a couple are ignored.
As expected new literature emerged at the Centennial and with it has
come important new information with regard to Ellington’s
production as a composer. I’d like to mention three
publications: Firstly we saw an update of the Italian discography on
Ellington, now with the title The New DESOR, and compiled by
Massagli and Volonté. Wiedemann has assessed that the first
edition contained information on more than 15,000 recordings —
by far the largest jazz discography. Secondly Van de Leur
published a survey on Billy Strayhorn as a composer. The authors of
the Strayhorn literature have more than anyone else questioned the
composer credits of the Ellingtonian music, and with
Van de Leur’s book we came closer to a clarification
of the co-operation between Strayhorn and Ellington. Thirdly John
Franceschina published a survey on Duke Ellington's music for the
theatre — the first of its kind — in which the considerable
effort in this field by the Duke was examined. The book also
contained a large contribution to a list of works.
To these works come weighty contributions from Ellington
himself in Music Is My Mistress, in the discographies by
Willie E. Timner and Ole Nielsen and the filmography by Klaus
Stratemann. Contributions are to be found in many other works, for
instance in Wiedemann’s articles, which also include a
discussion of the problems associated with a listing of works. During
my survey of a selection of sources still more methodological
problems of compilation emerged, however, and with these we begin to
suspect a possible explanation of the uneven and divergent results of
the earlier research.
Wiedemann also stressed the many inconsistencies in the literature,
and it is necessary to apply a source critical apparatus to this
literature. This has not been the least important part of this
project, and since the sources are quite comprehensive, the database
of the project contains more than 35,000 records. The survey of the
sources has resulted in a model for the structure of Duke's entire
production and a new assessment of the size of the oeuvre, but before
discussing this I’d like to mention a couple of methodological
problems: The list in Music Is My Mistress contains more the
900 titles with composer credits, but we should not take for granted
that Ellington is the author of all these compositions. The Strayhorn
research has corrected some of the credits by deleting Ellington.
Certain members of the Ellington orchestra claimed that their
contribution to the music was not duly credited in all cases.
Ellington is not always the cause of this, since members of the
orchestra considered musical ideas as commodities they could sell to
the leader of the band.
There are also pieces credited to Mercer Ellington, where Duke has
had an audible influence and rightfully should have been credited.
Finally the Strayhorn research has also added Ellington as a
composer of certain pieces he has not been connected to previously.
Since there is some uncertainty about the provenance, the survey has
been directed towards music where Ellington in the sources has been
credited as a composer.
The sources divide the material into pieces and works, but before we
reach that point, we meet the orthographic problem:
Wood Woods
Well The Well
Rumpus In Richmond A Rumpus In Richmond
The six titles of the table indicate six different pieces in
Ellington’s production and show how the plural element and
articles may suggest a musical difference. If they do so one has to
evaluate in each case whether or not a musical difference is there,
but there are examples of exchanges of each of the pairs.
There are also examples of how the Ellington organization, the record
industry and the authors of the literature between them have created
an almost chaotic collection of titles. This is for instance the case
with the twelve variants of Brown-Skin Gal In The Calico
Gown:
Brown-Skin Gal
Brown-Skin Gal In The Calico Gown
Brown-Skin Gal (In The Calico Gown), The
Brown-Skin Gal In The Calico Gown, The
Brown Skin Gal In The Calico Gown
Brown-Skin Gal With The Calico Gown
Brown Skin Gal In A Calico Dress
Brown Skin Girl In A
Calico Dress
Brown-Skinned Gal In The Calico Gown
Brownskin Gal In The Calico Dress, The
Brownskin Gal In The Calico Dress
Brownskin Gal, The
Beside the various spellings the literature has an almost
impenetrable pattern for the chronology of The Brownskin
Gal.
In numerous cases the same thematic material has more than one title,
and together with the varying spellings this means that several
titles may be connected to one and the same theme. How quickly new
titles could be invented is shown by the following sixteen variant
titles for a single item of thematic material:
Midnight Indigo
Grace Valse Hero To Zero Polly #1 Polly Lead
Haupe Low Key Lightly Polly A Train Polly Mix
Haupê Polly Polly Did Polly Pri
me
Haupé Polly's Theme Polly Did Continued
A principle by Ellington is that a new title does not
necessarily mean a new composition and the authors of the
literature have concentrated an impressive musical effort in finding
all the titles of a thematic material, and — with regard to a
couple of discographies — to collecting these titles in sets.
Title sets is a crucial notion in discussing the structure of
Ellington’s output and without this notion is it difficult to
get a comprehensive idea of the oeuvre. The Brown-Skin Gal and
Midnight Indigo indicate two title sets of the output.
Goof is a third such title set, irrespective of the fact that
there is just one single title in this set.
There are quite a number of inconsistencies in the literature with
regard to the compound of the title set, and it is in some cases like
going through a labyrinth to reach the goal. Here is an excerpt of a
complex set of sources to the title set John Sanders’
Blues. In this table the index titles in the sources have been
underlined and below these are the alternate titles. The table shows
the inconsistencies in both cases:
Wiedemann (1986) W. E. Timner The New DESOR
John Sanders' Blues John Sanders' Blues Commercial Time
March 19th Blues Californio Mello John Sanders' Blues
Total Jazz
The sources also disagree on the next title set, but apart from
this the set (see below) has the character of a model. This title set
is very often indexed as C Jam Blues. On the basis of the
dating I have used C Blues as the index title. Such titles
belong to the main group I, which also marks the inner core of
Ellington’s production. Then follow three subsequent title
variants, all of them recorded, and two of them copyrighted and
listed in Music Is My Mistress. Main group II marks the outer
core of the production. In main group III we find a number of dated
and undated variants of the titles of the two other main groups.
These can be placed on the periphery of the production, and with this
we have a model for a rough division of the entire source material of
the Ellingtonian oeuvre.
C Blues
Title Composed Recorded Copyright Main Group
C Blues 1941 26Sep41 I
Jam Session Nov41 1942
C-Jam Blues 21Jan42 II
Duke' Place 24Apr58 1957
"C" Blues 26Sep41
"C" Jam Blues, The 21Jan42
"C" Jam Blues III
C Jam Blues
Jump Blues
In this example we see an original composition and its various
variants. It is well-known that Ellington has also made contrafacts
of his own pieces as well as pieces by other composers, and such
pieces are — just like the derivatives — in the literature
considered original compositions by Ellington, and as such parts of
the inner core of the production.
The pieces denote the largest part of the Ellington oeuvre, but as I
have already touched on, there is another group of compositions which
we may name 'works'. Among the Ellingtonian compositions titles
like Free As A Bird, My People and Paris Blues are used
for pieces and also for works, and so we need to distinguish between
these two categories. With few exceptions this differentiation is
also used in the literature beginning with Ellington’s
autobiography. Apparently his notion of a work was closely related to
the so-called extended works. In any case compositions, which
in Music Is My Mistress by way of typography are marked as
works, have a title and are divided into several thematic parts,
which for their part are as a rule provided with titles which are
used when the part is being performed or recorded independently. When
the former condition is not met, it is not a work. It is for instance
rather remarkable that the programme music composition A Tone
Parallel To Harlem, which consists of different parts and lasts
more than thirteen minutes on the recording, has been deemed to be a
piece. Works are also title sets and are in the model treated along
the same guidelines as pieces.
When works have been included, a number of additional results appear
among the total sources now available, and with these we also arrive
at a new assessment of Ellington’s production as a composer:
Duke Ellington's Production
Works 99
Pieces 1595
Inner core 1694
Outer core 538
The total core 2232
The Periphery 951
Total body 3183
Works and pieces (inner core) have been totalled up to 1694
titles, which is equivalent to the number of title sets of the
corpus. The outer core adds 538 additional thematic
variants of the first group, bringing the total core up to 2232
titles. In addition the corpus contains another 951 titles making a
total of 3183 titles. We can now return to the earlier attempts at
assessment of the oeuvre, this time arranged by number:
Source Number Year
Ken Rattenbury 1012 1990
Erik Wiedemann 1200-1300 1986
Erik Wiedemann 1500 1991
Jørgen Mathiasen 1700 2004
Jan Bruér 2000 1975
André Hodeir and Gunther Schuller 2000 1988
André Hodeir 6000 1980
Beginning with Ken Rattenbury, he could have made a better assessment
on the foundation he chose, but apart from this the foundation itself
is incomplete. At the other extreme we have Hodeir’s first
assessment of 6,000, a figure, which is still unaccounted for. It is
regrettable that this figure is to be found in The New Grove,
while Hodeir's and Schuller's revised estimate is to be found in
Jazz Grove. Wiedemann’s survey aimed — as does mine
— at the inner core of the oeuvre, and I can confirm the
accuracy of his assessment, when taking into consideration the
sources available in 1991. The result of my survey, 1,700 title sets,
is based on additional sources, which have added new title sets. The
most frequent assessment is still the number 2,000. (It was for
instance repeated in the latest edition of Politikens
Jazzleksikon, 2003.) There is reason to believe that this
assessment all along has denoted the total core summed up according
to the principles I have outlined. In any case the
number was up to Ellington’s centennial consistent with the
sources, but it has lost its value after the appearance of updated or
new sources.
The sources also make some contributions to the issue of composer
credits. Among other things they show that Ellington
had many musical collaborators. In about 450 cases he is credited
together with others. In more than 1900 cases, however, he is
credited solely. The business ability of Ellington the
bandleader is well known, and when Ellington expressed regret that
his careers as a bandleader and as a composer were being confused, he
was contributing to the confusion himself.
Billy Strayhorn was by far the most important collaborator.
Impresario Irving Mills is among those relatively frequently credited
too, but his musical contribution to the oeuvre is disputed. Apart
from that there is reason to mention the orchestra members Johnny
Hodges, Barney Bigard and Mercer Ellington. The two last-mentioned
figure approximately with the same frequency as Peter Tchaikovsky
does in connection with Ellington and Strayhorn’s arrangement of
the Nutcracker-suite, which just goes to show how dominating a
position Ellington had as the composer for the orchestra.
As previously mentioned there have been disputes with regard to some
composer credits, - approximately 130 titles of the material. Certain
members of the orchestra were credited on early versions of Mood
Indigo and Sophisticated Lady but their names disappeared
from later versions. In some cases a composer credit in one source is
a lyricist credit in another, which for instance is the case of
Irving Mills and Sophisticated Lady. The number marks
exclusively that there are inconsistencies in approximately 130 cases
and each case should be treated independently.
The largest part of the oeuvre was written for the orchestra, while
only a small number of title sets are connected with movies and
television. John Franceschina’s survey made it clear, however,
that an important part of Ellington’s production as a composer
— approximately 30% of all title sets — is related to his
efforts, largely frustrated, as a composer for the
stage, but this often disappears from the overall picture of
Ellington. Interest is concentrated on the music for the
orchestra.
The literature on the oeuvre contains three types of dating, as the
example "C Blues" above shows. These are datings of the
time of composition, datings connected to a piece being performed or
recorded, and copyright datings. Distributed on the three levels 95%
of all title sets are dated and this gives us an outline, albeit an
incomplete one, of the chronology of the overall corpus. It is
well-known that Ellington was ambivalent with regard to the label
jazz and he is frequently quoted for the remark "We stopped using the
word jazz in 1943". The survey has a correction to this as it shows
that not only did Ellington use the word jazz in his titles
after 1943, but that he did so more frequently than he had done
before 1943.
Finally I would like to stress the importance of working source
critically with the Ellington literature. In this respect it is in
this case particularly necessary to consult more than one source for
each question, and to do this on the basis of a well-founded
understanding of a particular source's worth to Ellington research
generally, and a grasp of the mutual relation of the various sources.
To read the literature on the simple assumption that it reflects
accumulated knowledge is to invite trouble. There are errors,
shortcomings and uncertainties in all major sources on Duke Ellington
— of course not always to the same extent — and the source
critical aspect has so far been given insufficient priority in the
Ellington literature.
Notes by Sjef Hoefsmit:
All three titles in the left column under Wiedemann (1986) are
different from each other. I have not been able to trace the origin
of my wrong statement that John Sanders' Blues belongs to this
list of three titles. I know however how it happened that I confused
March 19th Blues with Total Jazz.
I wrote in DEMS Bulletin 82/4-1: March 19th Blues has been
found to be the same as Total Jazz (same as "Portrait of Ella
Fitzgerald", part 4).
I wrote in DEMS 85/3-10: 19Mar56, March 19th Blues is the same
as Total Jazz, also as John Sanders Blues, also as
"Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald", part 4.
Stanley Dance wrote in the liner notes of the Private Collection
Volume 1: March 19th Blues was also known in its later lives
as Slamar in D Flat and 22 Cent Stomp.
I wrote in DEMS 88/2-1: I disagree with Stanley Dance. March 19th
Blues is the same as Total Jazz and "Portrait of Ella
Fitzgerald", part 4. What we know as Slamar in D Flat is the
same as Rondelet. 22 Cent Stomp (from the recent Mercer
CD "Digital Duke") is the same as E and D Blues. The same
error is in the Mercer CD liner notes, written by Leonard Feather.
Stanley Dance wrote in DEMS 88/4-4: Certainly, Slamar in D
Flat was not related to March 19th Blues, but 22 Cent
Stomp is.
I wrote in the same Bulletin: 22 Cent Stomp and March 19th
Blues are indeed the same. Another title for the same piece is
E and D Blues and not Total Jazz. (Total Jazz
is the last part, part 4, of "Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald" on
side B of LP #4 of the Verve release "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the
Ellington Songbook". E and D Blues is an independent piece
that concludes this side B. When checking March 19th Blues I
made the mistake of putting the needle on the wrong track.
The first time I saw the title John Sander's [sic]
Blues was on the LP Jazz Guild 1002, a Canadian release of
1976. It was recorded on 11Jun55.
The first time I saw the title Commercial Time was on the LP
Up-to-Date 2009, a Jerry Valburn release of 1986. It was recorded on
17May55. This Capitol recording was re-released in the Mosaic 5 CD
set of 1995 under the same title, Commercial Time. The same
title was again used for the release of the 9Sep57 recording on the
French LP CBS 88653, released in 1984.
The first time I saw the title Californio Mello was on Volume
6 of the Private Collection, released in 1989. It was recorded on
5Mar58. The same recording had been released in 1981 on the Italian
LP Unique Jazz 34 as "Untitled".
In order to place different recordings of the same composition
together in the index, the New DESOR chooses the title Commercial
Time to be listed in the index as the main title and chooses the
title John Sanders' Blues as a subtitle. The title
Californio Mello was considered a wrong title. Consequently
the title John Sanders' Blues appeared between parentheses in
the 11Jun55 session; and in notes under the listings of Unique Jazz
34 and Private Collection Volume 6, the "wrong" titles "Untitled" and
Californio Mello, have been mentioned respectively.
Commercial Time was composed and arranged by Rick Henderson.
The conclusion is this. The three titles in the first group under
Wiedemann (1986) (John Sanders' Blues; March 19th Blues and
Total Jazz) have nothing to do with each other. The two titles
mentioned by Willie Timner (John Sanders' Blues and
Californio Mello) and the two titles mentioned in the New
DESOR (Commercial Time and John Sanders'
Blues) are all four identical.
Sjef Hoefsmit
These wrong identifications have also been discussed in an article by
Nick Perkins in Blue Light (at that time titled DESUK Newsletter) of
Apr95 on pages 17 and 18; in a contribution by Art Pilkington, bless
him, in the Jul95 edition on page 11; in a review of the Private
Collection Volume 2 by Dave Cavalier on page 13 of the same edition;
in an article by me in the Oct95 issue on page 13.
Roger Boyes