Alison Kerr's Jazz Blog
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Alison Kerr's Jazz Blog
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s death – on May 24, 1974 – I’ve asked a number of jazz musicians and aficionados to share their thoughts and feelings about this titan of the music. Today: the doyen of British bass players, Dave Green. Tomorrow: Bruce Adams

How did you first hear or become aware of Duke Ellington and his music?

I first became aware of Duke Ellington when I was a young teenager, maybe around the age of 15. I used to listen to Willis Conover’s Jazz Hour which was broadcast over the Voice Of America every night at 12.15am on medium wave. The reception wasn’t that good but the music was fantastic. The programme opened up with Willis Conover saying “This is the Voice of America Jazz Hour” followed by Duke playing Take The ‘A’ Train. It was wonderful and mesmerising.

What was your first Ellington record/CD? Or the recording/tune which first piqued your interest?

The first LP that I bought was Duke Ellington At His Very Best on RCA Victor. It was a compilation of various Duke Ellington tracks from the 1940s including Jack The Bear featuring the wonderful young bassist Jimmy Blanton. Of all the great bassists in the history of the music, I still go back to Blanton as my biggest influence.

Which period or periods of Ellington’s career are you fondest of?

My favourite period of Duke’s career is the 1939-41 band known as the Blanton/Webster band.

When you hear his name being mentioned, what springs to mind?

Duke’s name to me represents the peak, in fact the very summit of the music we call Jazz.

Did you ever see him and his band perform?

I went to see Duke at the Hammersmith Odeon on Valentine’s Day 1965. It was an unforgettable experience. To see and hear the band live was sensational. The legendary names of Cootie Williams, Ray Nance, Lawrence Brown, Johnny Hodges, Russel Procope, Harry Carney were still there. To hear the saxophone section, which included Paul Gonsalves, was alone worth the price of admission. I couldn’t believe the sound of Johnny Hodges’ alto and the baritone of Harry Carney. It was a wonderful evening of Duke’s music which I will never forget.

Which are your favourite recordings?

My favourite recordings are too numerous to mention but here are a few:

The Duke Ellington Jimmy Blanton duets recorded in October 1940. Jimmy Blanton was a true innovator of the bass. He was just 21 when he recorded these four duets with Duke.

The legendary live recording from Fargo, North Dakota on 7 November 1940. This recording shows how great the band sounded on a live date. It was Ray Nance’s first night with the Duke.

From the studio recordings of the 1940/41 band – Sepia Panorama, Jack The Bear, Cottontail, Take The ‘A’ Train, Sidewalks of New York, All Too Soon, Harlem Air Shaft, I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good, Warm Valley, Jumpin’ Pumpkins.

I’ve just picked out a few but I love all the records that were made by the 1940/41 band. From March 1940, when the band started recording for RCA Victor, the band took off. The addition of Jimmy Blanton in the rhythm section and Ben Webster in the saxes spurred Duke onto new heights of inspiration and in 1940 he produced a series of masterpieces one after the other.

– Such Sweet Thunder, released in 1957, which includes the exquisite Johnny Hodges playing The Star Crossed Lovers.

– Black, Brown And Beige – the 1944 RCA Victor recording.

Are there any particular Ellington numbers you like to play?

It’s a constant inspiration to play Duke’s music. Of course, I love to play Take The ‘A’ Train. I also love to play the songs written by Billy Strayhorn or in collaboration with the Duke, such as Isfahan, Day Dream, Passion Flower and Something To Live For.

A few months ago I did a live recording at the Pizza Express, Dean Street with singer Ian Shaw, saxophonist Tony Kofi and pianist Barry Green. The album, which is being released in June on CD and LP on the Pizza’s new label PX Records, is titled An Adventurous Dream and is dedicated to the music of Billy Strayhorn and his collaborations with Duke. Some of the titles we do are Blood Count, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing and Passion Flower. There’s a couple of gigs coming up with the group – the Swanage Jazz Festival on July 12 and the Watermill, Dorking on August 20.

I’m also involved in a couple of other Duke projects with the pianist Alex Webb.The Pocket Ellington is a seven piece band dedicated to playing the music of Ellington small groups. The band includes Alan Barnes, Tony Kofi and drummer Winston Clifford. The debut gig with the band is at the Pizza Express, Dean Street on September 2.

The other project with Alex is a tribute to Ben Webster called Big Ben which we are doing at the Scarborough Jazz Festival on September 29. This involves the same line-up as the seven piece except it has Clark Tracey on drums plus a string quartet to recreate the Ben Webster with strings LP Webster’s Dictionary, which was recorded in London in 1970 and which I was honoured to play bass on.

We’ve already done a couple of gigs with Big Ben, including the London Jazz Festival last November. Tony Kofi does a brilliant job of emulating Ben’s playing and does it with great respect for the great man.

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To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s death – on May 24, 1974 – I’ve asked a number of jazz musicians and aficionados to share their thoughts and feelings about this titan of the music. First up … the wonderful British saxophonist, clarinettist, bandleader, arranger and composer Alan Barnes. Tomorrow: Clark Tracey …

How did you first become aware of Duke Ellington’s music?

When I was 15, my parents bought me a Selmer alto saxophone for the then exorbitant sum of £200 from Stock and Chapman’s music store in Manchester. An old musician sat in the corner smoking a roll-up, perhaps sensing that I was being spoiled, said: “Now you’ve got that, get a Johnny Hodges record.” Soon afterwards, I purchased a remarkable collection of JH small band performances on Verve, featuring lots of other Ellingtonians – Ben Webster, Billy Strayhorn, Sonny Greer and Laurence Brown amongst them. There were a few non Ellington names on there as well: John Coltrane (not given any solos!) and trumpeter Emmet Berry (often called the greatest Ellingtonian to not join Ellington). I loved the music, with great charts featuring lots of blues and rhythm changes type things alternating with gorgeous ballads. The Strayhorn composition Day Dream really caught my ear. The sleeve notes mentioned that Hodges made these records when on a break from Ellington in the early-mid 1950’s so next purchase was an Ellington recording.

What was your first Ellington record?

It was The Popular Duke Ellington, which is a 1966 session revisiting and reworking some of the Duke’s biggest hits. It started with Take The A Train and then there were lovely versions of Mood Indigo, Perdido and Black and Tan Fantasy. I didn’t know at the time that Duke was constantly revisiting earlier material, including the medleys with which he would begin his concerts, getting the hits out of the way quickly so that he could move on to newer things. There is an unbelievable version of I Got It Bad on there with Hodges getting the biggest alto sound ever! It would be a while before I got around to hearing the first versions of these tunes.

Which period or periods of Ellington’s career are you fondest of?

I like all periods of the band’s history, but if pushed I’d have to choose the Blanton/ Webster years. Blanton revolutionised jazz bass playing giving it such a strong solo voice. Ben brought so much to the band, joining one of the greatest sax sections ever. Cottontail was a huge hit for him of course. There’s a general opinion that the band lost its sound when Hodges left for a few years but Willie Smith always sounds good in this band (as he did in every band he joined). I also loved the bands after Paul Gonsalves came in.

When you hear Duke Ellington’s name being mentioned, what springs to mind?

I always think of the courage he must have had to keep a band of this size and quality on the road whilst constantly composing new music. He invested his song royalties back into the orchestra and created something completely unique. It will never happen again in this way. He wrote specifically for the strengths of his players who were all, first and foremost, jazz musicians. I also think of his catch phrase “love you madly” which could be used in the most ironic way.

Which are your favourite recordings? (And why?)

I love the later suites – Such Sweet Thunder, The New Orleans Suite and Queen’s Suite. A lot of Sweet Thunder was written by Billy Strayhorn and their relationship was a complex one. I love jazz compositions that develop rather than just being in the tune, string of solos, tune. There are many examples of longer form writing for the band right from Reminiscing in Rhythm, Harlem Airshaft and Black, Brown and Beige. As well as all the most famous things I have four albums that I constantly return to: Duke Ellington’s Spacemen – The Cosmic Scene, Piano Reflections, which is piano trio, Unknown Session from 1960 (a beautifully recorded small band) and Blues in Orbit. Money Jungle is a brilliant session with Duke, Charles Mingus and Max Roach which still sounds contemporary.

Are there any particular Ellington numbers you like to play?

I regularly play Chelsea Bridge, A Flower is a Lovesome Thing, Tonight I Shall Sleep With a Smile on My Face, I let a Song Go Out of My Heart, Johnny Come Lately, Do Nothin’ Til You Hear From Me and Drop Me Off in Harlem. I like playing Charlie the Chulo and The Mooche on duo gigs with David Newton.

Here’s Alan leading an all-star band on Harlem Airshaft at the much-missed Norwich Jazz Party in 2012.

For details of Alan’s forthcoming gigs, visit his website

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One of the most prestigious – and ambitious – items in this year’s Edinburgh Jazz Festival programme is a concert by a brand-new, specially-formed band on the penultimate night of the ten-day event. And, bizarrely, we have the Olympics to thank for it ..

Festival producer Roger Spence explains: “The idea is that in the Olympic year, when people are coming from all over the world to London, we thought we could create a concert programme which reflects jazz as an international music. In recent years, we’ve established the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra – the concept of which is to blend eight Scottish musicians with eight international ones – but with the World Jazz Orchestra, every single member of the band comes from a different country – we have musicians coming from all over the globe.”

Taking this idea and running with it, 100-metre style, Spence realised that there was one obvious body of work from which a programme could be formed for this melting pot band. “We know that jazz is international but we wanted music with a universal appeal and for a big event like this, we had to choose a composer who is regarded by many as the very best – so we chose Duke Ellington. And the wonderful thing about Duke Ellington as far as this project is concerned, is that he wrote music inspired by music and countries all over the world. We can reflect different flavours of world music through the prism of one composer.”

The choice of Duke Ellington led straight back to Scotland and to the jazz festival itself: over recent years, the great, Fife-born baritone saxophonist and one-time member of the Ellington band Joe Temperley (pictured above) has forged a strong relationship with the festival. “He was the obvious choice to lead the World Jazz Orchestra,” explains Spence. Temperley is more familiar than most with the vast Ellington repertoire: not only did he play in the band, following the death of its original baritone saxophonist Harry Carney, but he has also – in the context of his membership of Wynton Marsalis’s acclaimed Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra – played many of the Duke’s seldom-performed suites.

And key excerpts from one such suite are at the heart of next Saturday’s concert. Along with such exotic pieces as the Far East Suite and the Latin-American Suite, the orchestra will play some of Ellington’s landmark Black, Brown and Beige, which was performed for the first time by the Ellington band for its Carnegie Hall debut in 1943. This historic concert in aid of Russian War Relief was sold out (3000 seats) days beforehand but the demand for tickets remained so intense that a further 200 people were seated on the stage.

For Ellington aficionados, the 47-minute tone poem, which fused jazz, blues, spirituals and Spanish influences, and reflected the Afro-American experience from the arrival of the first wave of slaves off boats in 1619, was a thrill to hear – though the critics were not as quick to embrace this, the jazz composer’s first, full-blown suite. Jazz critics worried that he was forsaking jazz (though he had written a number of extended compositions before, including Symphony in Black which had similar themes), while the classical world was dismissive of his aspirations as a “serious” composer.

Indeed, Ellington – who later said: “We stopped using the word jazz in 1943; that was the point when we didn’t believe in categories” – never performed it again in its entirety in concert though he recorded numerous versions of it. Some parts of it – notably the magnificent spiritual Come Sunday, written for the alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges and performed by him at Carnegie Hall almost before the ink had dried on the arrangements – have taken on a life of their own. On the Ellington orchestra’s 1958 recording of Black, Brown and Beige, Come Sunday was sung by Mahalia Jackson. Since then, vocalists as diverse as jazz singer Lee Wiley and soul singer Gladys Knight have performed it – and in Edinburgh next week, it will be sung by Cecile McLorin Salvant, whom Temperley recommended for the job.

For the octogenarian musician, it’s a joy to be able to bring this music to an Edinburgh audience. “I love Black, Brown and Beige,” he says. “It’s one of my very favourite Ellington suites. I’m particularly fond of the version with Ben Webster where he plays the solo on The Blues. We’ll be doing that piece in Edinburgh, with the Danish tenor saxophonist Jesper Thilo following in the footsteps of Webster, Al Sears and Paul Gonsalves.”

Of course, Black, Brown and Beige – as with all of Ellington’s work – was written specifically for the musicians in his band at the time; for their individual and combined sounds. Temperley says: “The secret of Ellington’s success was the ‘Ellingtonians’ – Harry Carney, Ben Webster, Cootie Williams, Johnny Hodges etc. He wrote for them. It was like a Shakespeare company. It was more than a band; it was a collection of individuals that came together and were marshalled together in an unusual way – those different voicings he used, like two trombones and a baritone.. He did not have those in mind harmonically; he was thinking of the personalities of the musicians who’d be playing.”

Given this, is it more of a challenge to play Ellington’s music; do you approach it differently? “I would say so. If you play a Basie arrangement, it’s pretty straight-ahead. With Ellington, you have to bear in mind the people who went before, and not try to impersonate them. Of course you’re influenced by them, but you shouldn’t try to sound like them.” A tall order – but Temperley and his international team will no doubt have earned their gold medals by the time they’ve completed their Ellington marathon.

* The World Jazz Orchestra plays at the Festival Theatre on Saturday, July 28. For more information visit www.edinburghjazzfestival.com

First published in The Scotsman, Thursday July 19, 2012

This piece, published in the Sunday Herald in June 2011, was great fun to write – thanks to its subject’s wilful lack of co-operation … In the excitement of the jazz festival, I forgot to post it – but I’ve had requests recently to do so.

“Can you articulate slowly like I’m doing? Do you speak Russian? Or Japanese?” So begins my interview with the award-winning film composer and jazz arranger/pianist Michel Legrand, who is playing the Glasgow Jazz Festival next week. Instead of the anticipated Gallic charm, I find myself being treated to some Gallic grumpiness as he huffs and puffs and claims to understand neither my Scottish nor my French accent.

Just as I begin to fear for the future of the Auld Alliance, a miracle occurs. Without having to get a translator (or a neutral negotiator – he does live in Geneva, after all) involved – and before either of us hangs up on the other – he answers the original, troublesome question (which he had clearly understood perfectly well). And so begins an interview which really only improves once I twig that articulating like he does means pronouncing American names in an ‘Allo ‘Allo style – Deezy Gillespeee, Gene Kellee, Beex Beederbecke.

Actually, it’s only when he starts waxing lyrical about the great American jazz men that he’s heard that the 79-year-old temporarily stops being exasperated. Legrand, who had been a child prodigy on the piano, was studying classical composition with the legendary Nadia Boulanger when he became hooked on jazz.

“I first heard it on the radio when I was a kid. But at that time there was a German occupation in France and jazz was forbidden – so we heard some lousy jazz . Then, just after the war, in 1947 Deezy Gillespee came to Paris to give concerts. I was in the audience and I was ecstatic. I was extremely excited by it.”

The boy wonder of the French music scene in the 1950s, Legrand juggled playing jazz with being in demand as an arranger for such top stars as Edith Piaf and Yves Montand. Indeed, it was as Maurice Chevalier’s music director that he made his first trip to America. And it was there, in 1958, that he made his first recording with American jazz musicians – LeGrand Jazz, a collection of his contemporary reworkings of classic jazz tunes from earlier decades. It’s a sign of how highly regarded the young Parisian arranger was (he had already sold seven million copies of his LP I Love Paris in just two years) that he asked for – and got most of the biggest names in jazz at the time. John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Phil Woods, Hank Jones, Herbie Mann.

How did these guys react to a 26-year-old French kid running the show? “They were very kind to me,” recalls Legrand, homing in on the great tenor saxophonist Ben Webster who was “un bon papa” to him. One musician who could have been a handful was the star of the moment, trumpeter Miles Davis. Luckily, however, he behaved.

“Miles was adorable with me. I was told that when he’s hired to do a session, he comes on purpose 15 minutes late. He opens the door of the studio and before he enters, he listens to the rehearsal of the orchestra. If he likes it, he comes in and plays. If he doesn’t like it, he closes the door and he goes away and you never see him.

“So I knew this, and I was extremely nervous. And he did exactly that! He came 15 minutes late. He opened the door, he listened to the rehearsal of the orchestra for a few minutes, then he came in, sat down and after the first take, he came to me and said [Legrand assumes a growlly voice that sounds like a Glaswegian heavy]: ‘Michel, you like the way I play?’ I said: ‘Miles, it’s not my job to tell you how to play.’ He said: ‘Yes, it is – because it is your music.’ Isn’t that nice? That’s beautiful.”

In the late 1950s, Legrand began working with the young film directors who launched the New Wave style of cinema. One of his most enduring scores was written for Jacques Demy’s Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964), in which all the dialogue was sung. He and Demy – plus the film’s star, Catherine Deneuve, were reunited three years later for Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, a homage to the Hollywood musical which also starred Gene Kelly. Indeed, it was Legrand who brought Kelly to the project, having collaborated with him on various projects and become “very close friends”.

Perhaps one reason for Legrand’s longevity in the music and entertainment businesses is the fact that he finds he doesn’t want to do the same job for more than a decade at a time. After ten years scoring films in France, he relocated to the States where, almost immediately, he won an Oscar for his song The Windmills of Your Mind, from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Among the many other film scores he has written are The Go-Between (1970), Summer of ’42 (1971), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Never Say Never Again (1983) and Yentl (1983).

Barbra Streisand, the star of Yentl, has proved to be one of several notoriously difficult stars – Stan Getz and Miles Davis are others – with whom Legrand has worked extremely well. Perhaps, given what I experienced down a phone line from him, it’s a case of like likes like …

Ben Webster & Johnny Hodges: The Complete 1960 Sextet Jazz Cellar Recordings (Solar Records) Released for the first time in its complete form, this is a historic encounter between two of the greatest exponents of the saxophone in jazz: tenor man Webster and altoist Hodges. It does not disappoint; in fact, it’s an absolute treasure, a must for fans of Hodges’s sinewy sound and/or Webster’s breathy tenor – and anyone who loves funky, blues-infused jazz. The dream team is swingingly accompanied by a quartet featuring Lou Levy (piano) and Herb Ellis (guitar), and this 17-track CD also includes five rare octet outings from 1961. Blues’ll Blow Your Fuse, Ifida and The Mooche-like I’d Be There (surely a tribute to their Ellingtonian background?) are among the many stand-outs.. Frankly, I’ve been playing this obsessively since before I even got my own copy (I had already worn out my dad’s) – and I’m hoping that that great tenor-alto duo of our time, Ken Peplowski and Alan Barnes, unearth some of these brilliant tunes for their next joint outing..

Carol Kidd & Nigel Clark: Tell Me Once Again (Linn Records)

Vested interest declaration time: I wrote the liner notes for this, the first duo CD by the peerless Scots vocalist Kidd and her wonderful guitarist Clark. Their duets have long been highlights of Kidd’s concerts, and this collection of 12 songs shows why. This is musical storytelling at its best, and a superb example of the scope within the duo format: along with several exquisite ballads, the songs range from R ‘n’ B – You Don’t Know Me – to a bossa nova version of Stevie Wonder’s Moon Blue. There’s a lovely arc to this highly personal album which culminates, fittingly, with The End of a Love Affair.

Cal Tjader-Stan Getz Sextet (OJC Remasters )

Stan Getz’s playing is like a cool summer breeze, and this lovely 1958 album is as fresh and lovely-sounding as his more famous, subsequent, bossa nova LPs. He and vibes player Tjader have a great rapport, and, accompanied by a quartet that includes pianist Vince Guaraldi, work their way through a delicious mix of standards and Tjader-penned tunes, with Guaraldi’s joyful Ginza Samba a rousing opener. A gem.

Scott Hamilton & Rossano Sportiello: Midnight at Nola’s Penthouse (Arbors Records)

In recent years, the American tenor sax great Scott Hamilton and the nimble-fingered Italian pianist Rossano Sportiello have increasingly sought out each other’s musical company, and their affinity is evident on all ten tracks included here. The phrase “less is more” could have been coined for this supremely tasteful double act: Sportiello’s delicate touch and Hamilton’s soulful, breathy sax were made for each other, and the choices of off-the-beaten-track tunes – among them such ballads as the beautifully spare Wonder Why, A Garden in the Rain and In the Middle of a Kiss – are spot-on.

Karen Sharp: Spirit (Trio Records) Baritone saxophonist Karen Sharp graduated from the Humphrey Lyttelton band and is now established as an in-demand solo star, who fits perfectly into mainstream and contemporary line-ups. This quartet CD, which features her Tokyo Trio colleague Nikki Iles on piano, veers more towards the contemporary and features mainly jazz compositions written by pianists as well as some familiar movie/musical numbers. A terrific introduction to Sharp’s authoritative, always-swinging baritone sax style.

Warren Vache, Alan Barnes and the Woodville All-Stars: The London Session (Woodville Records) Having written the liner notes, I’ve been living with this CD for months – and I’m still finding more things to love about it. Cornettist Vache and multi-instrumentalist Barnes may have worked together many times but this album is as exciting as they come: it features them getting their teeth into some imaginative arrangements in a septet setting. Their delight in each other’s company is evident throughout, and both are at the top of their game, notably when tearing up such storming numbers as Molasses.

Various: First Impulse – The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary (Verve) To mark the 50th anniversary of the iconic jazz label Impulse!, founded by producer Creed Taylor, an impressive, four-disc (but LP size) box set has been released comprising all six of the albums that Taylor himself produced – plus some previously unissued rehearsals by John Coltrane. It’s a great collection, with classic recordings from Ray Charles (Genius + Soul = Jazz), Gil Evans (Out of the Cool), Oliver Nelson (Blues and The Abstract Truth), Coltrane (Africa/Brass) and Kai Winding (The Great Kai and The Incredible Kai Winding Trombones).