NRR Project: Duke Ellington: 'Never No More Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band' (1940-1942)

 

NRR Project: “Never No More Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band”

Music by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Mercer Ellington and others

Performed by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra

Recorded 1940-1942

225 min.

I have been listening to this Duke Ellington material for a week, and I am a better man for it.

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974) was, quite simply America’s greatest jazz composer. He led bands of varying composition throughout his career. He is distinguished for the marvelous complexity of his musical statements, which absolutely burst the bounds of the genre. Nobody could communicate more original ideas than he (and his fellow composer/arrangers and musical contributors Billy Strayhorn and Mercer Ellington).

Ellington could hear the complete range of what a jazz ensemble could convey. The sounds issued from his mind with ease into the scores, the rehearsals, the frequent performances on tour. For Ellington tested the merit of his tunes and arrangements night after night in front of paying crowds. He had a living feedback system that he used to hone his work. He was peddling popular music -- much like Mozart!

As a composer/performer/bandleader (he started as an acclaimed pianist), he could select his musicians carefully and with an ear for their particular strengths to which he could then write. He was like a painter with a box of living brushes. The collaboration is heavenly.

The control and precision of his group is legendary. The time period covered in the selection, recorded between 1940 and 1942, feature bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. (Blanton bowed out due to a terminal case of tuberculosis at age 23, in 1941.) The rest of the ensemble are all-stars: there is Barney Bigard, Cootie Williams, Ray Nance, Juan Tizol. Ellington had these brilliant talents at his disposal, and he used them with verve and distinction.

Each number here is solidly within the jazz tradition. It is devastatingly tasteful. It is classic. It is ostensibly danceable, but I can’t but see a dance floor stilled to listening to it, such are its pleasures. It conveys wild bliss (“Jump for Joy”) and deep sorrow (“Rocks in My Bed”). It contains many of his classic works, such as “Take the A Train,“ “Jack the Bear,” “Concerto for Cootie,” “C Jam Blues,” “Ko Ko,” and “Cotton Tail,” but every cut is extraordinary.

Due to the limitations of 78 rpm records, each composition could be no longer than three minutes long. In that time, Ellington has to state a theme, propose variations, open up passages for improvisation, and reach a conclusion. And he does, every time, in a variety of ways but always of himself. Every song is a little universe of its own, ticking along with perfect timing.

There are gems everywhere, “All Too Soon” and “Harlem Airshaft,” “Five O’Clock Whistle” and "I Don’t Know What Kind of Blues I Got.” It pays to plow through these 66 recordings (there are extra takes of some of the numbers here as well) over and over again. Although many of his songs bear lyrics, they are at best pure music – the evocation of humanity’s thoughts and feelings at a time when great music and popular music intersected.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: the Budapest Quartet performs the Beethoven String Quartets (1940-1950).