Customer Reviews

Carnegie Hall Concerts, January 1943

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Ellington's large works have usually been slammed by classical music critics, who apparently expected him to produce Beethovenian sonata-allegros. Furthermore, they had very little idea of the popular models Ellington took off from. "Black, Brown, and Beige" in particular suffered from this kind of ignorant dismissal. Ellington's dearest ambition was to be taken seriously as a composer, in the sense that Bartok and Stravinsky were, rather than as a "mere" bandleader and songwriter, and these criticisms made him insecure and extremely defensive. After his critical mauling, Ellington withdrew "Black, Brown, and Beige" for a time and jettisoned at least two movements. When BB&B returned, it had been substantially rethought. Fortunately, all the original had been recorded (although not all of it at the Carnegie Hall concert), and that's what this CD gives us here. This is a highpoint of Ellington, which means a highpoint of American music (popular or classical), and for that reason alone, this CD justifies its existence. In addition, you get the Ellington band of the Forties in performances of classics like "Ko-ko," "Rockin' in Rhythm," the portraits of Bert Williams, Florence Mills, and Bojangles, "Cotton Tail," "Black and Tan Fantasy," "Boy Meets Horn," and many more Ellington standards, as well as "Rose of the Rio Grande," to remind you that the band wasn't in it just for the art. The sound isn't the best, even for recordings of the period, but that consideration is absolutely irrelevant for people who actually listen to music, rather than to engineering.

This was the first of Duke's Carnegie Hall concerts (Benny Goodman got his chance not later than 1938!). It turned out to be quite a trauma for Duke, since the suite "Black, Brown and Beige" was not well received by the critics. This recording, by the way, is actually a composite of recordings (because of technical problems or damage suffered by materials in storage?) made here and in Symphony Hall in Boston a few days later, apparently before all the negative punditry got to Duke. This is the only complete "BB & B", and, to my ears, much more convincing than various truncations later on.
The rest of the performances are less important historically but very enjoyable for Ellington fans or anyone who cares about jazz music. There is a beautiful trumpet solo on "Black & Tan Fantasy", variously attributed to Ray Nance or Wallace Jones, which in any event recalls Bubber Miley's melodic gifts as much as his growl. "Dirge" is not to my knowledge available elsewhere and is built around a fine Lawrence Brown trombone solo. Solos of similar quality occur throught the recording though I must say I miss Jimmy Blanton and Barney Bigard.
Doesn't quite equal the miracle in the Crystal Ballroom at Fargo but still a great event.

This set is extraordinary.Of course,the sound quality is not hi-fi,but it's very acceptable for a live recording of the war days.But more than this,like Duke's magnificent live recording in Fargo,1940,this concert includes some of the greatest music ever played.First, a look on the players: Rex Stewart,Shorty Baker,Wallace Jones,Ray Nance,trumpets;Lawrence Brown,Juan Tizol,Tricky Sam Nanton,trombone;Johnny Hodges,Harry Carney,Ben Webster,Otto Hardwicke,Chauncey Haughton,saxes;Fred Guy,guitar;Junior Raglin,bass;Sonny Greer,drums;Betty Roché,vocals;and of course,Duke on piano.The highlights ? All the tunes! But mostly,and incredible,more than six minutes long version of the old "Black and tan fantasy",with superlative playing by Hodges (did he ever played something that wasn't superlative?),great,very great growl and muted trombone by Sam Nanton (1904-1946),maybe the greatest master on this very difficult instrument;listen to his almost human voice when he plays trombone;this is truly overwhelming.Nobody never played trombone that way."Moon mist",a Billy Strayhorn (1919-1967) original,is a perfect vehicle for the violin of Ray Nance (1913-1976)."Jumping punkins" features Sonny Greer,Duke's greater drummer with Sam Woodyard (1925-1988).Then,the portraits: "Portrait of Bert Williams",featuring Sam Nanton in another extraordinary wah-wah intervention;"Portrait of Bojangles",one of the immense masterpieces from 1940,with a furious tenor sax solo by Ben Webster(1909-1973),maybe one of the greatest things ever blown;"Portrait of Florence Mills",aka "Black beauty",features the underrated Shorty Baker.Then comes THE masterpiece,the tune that will urge you to buy the set: "Koko",another 1940 gem.Don't miss it,this is one of a handful of masterpieces in the history of jazz.Nanton is sublime,and the arrangement is completly out of this world.Two minutes and twenty seconds of pure madness.I really wonder who many hours it took them to rehearse this amazing,short piece of music."Stomp",or "Johnny come lately",is a very difficult composition by Strayhorn,with great band playing."Black,brown and beige",an almost 50 minutes long suite,is a masterpiece which was very rarely played by Duke's band.It features,among others,some unreal playing by Sam Nanton.Then,another gem from 1940,"Jack the bear" and "Cotton tail",played at an incredible tempo by Ben Webster.The relaxed an melancholic "Day dream",in which Johnny Hodges swings one of the greatest things ever played on alto sax;"Boy meets horn",featuring Rex Stewart (1907-1967),another underrated master.And finally,"Mood indigo",one of the most beautiful tunes ever composed.Please,don't miss this very important concert,because it includes some of the greatest things ever played.Just forget the sound quality (which is not so bad),and let Duke's band seduce you .

If the performance of Black, Brown and Beige (BB&B) on January 23rd, 1943 were the only thing on this double CD, it would be cheap at ten thousand dollars. BB&B was not just a premiere of a new work but the start of a new direction for Ellington's composing. Sadly, the critics of the day weren't happy with it and this had a negative effect on the Duke. Objectively, the performance does have some weak points and most of the second half of Beige, the third (last) movement, is spent aimlessly wandering around before coming to a pompous closing. Ellington was a procrastinator and it sounds that he left Beige for too late and hurriedly threw something together at the last minute. To be fair, in spite of its unhappy ending, the first part of Beige, which includes Sugar Hill Penthouse, is absolutely beautiful, without parallel and far beyond category. Also worth mentioning is that Ellington was in constant activity at the time with traveling, playing live performances and doing radio shows. He did not have the luxury of being able to take some time off and work exclusively on this project until it reached a satisfactory conclusion.

The other side here is that both serious and jazz critics seemed to have completely missed the bus on this composition. They did not see the significance of the fact that for the first time someone had written an entire jazz concert piece that lasted nearly three quarters of an hour. At least one critic complained that it was not made for dancing, if you can believe such a thing. Worse yet from the critics' point of view, BB&B was presented as part of Ellington's first concert in the most hallowed venue of serious music in the USA, which further upset some critics who didn't believe that a dance or jazz orchestra should be playing serious music. Some critics said the story that Ellington was trying to tell was much too big for the time allotted, that this work was too ambitious and maybe a little beyond his abilities as a composer. There is some validity to these last points, especially given that Ellington had never done anything so large before and there were absolutely no precedents to refer to. At the same time, there were also no references that the critics could use for their evaluations, which may explain some of the negative reviews. BB&B was about three times longer than anything Ellington had done previously.

The negative reviews of this composition hurt Ellington deeply. They hurt him to the point that he never recorded BB&B in full and never played it in its entirety again except for a single performance in Boston a few days later. He did record and perform excerpts from BB&B after the recording ban was lifted and again in 1958 with Mahalia Jackson singing but never the entire composition. This is truly a shame. Even worse, Ellington's next extended composition, New World A-Comin' (NWAC), which also premiered in Carnegie Hall on December 11th, 1943 was the perfect fourth movement to Black, Brown and Beige. BB&B told the past and present (1943) stories of black people in America while NWAC set the tone for a better and happier future. To my knowledge, they were sadly never played together. The time in between those two concerts would have given Ellington the chance to rework the last part of Beige into a fully finished product. He would then have had the rare luxury of re-premiering a somewhat revamped BB&B along with the original premier of NWAC played together as an unprecedented hour long performance.

I do know that BB&B came right from Ellington's heart as he was deeply concerned about the poor situation of black people in the USA back then. It was music, but the purpose was more than just entertainment or pushing the musical envelope. It made a statement, a statement that was really more positive than the actual situation in those days warranted. This positive attitude was based on Ellington's optimism that the situation of blacks would get much better after WW2 ended because of their contributions to the war effort. It may have gotten slightly better at the time, but it took 21 more years for the Civil Rights Act to become the law of the land and finally end racial discrimination. BB&B also took jazz to a new level (not the first time the Duke had done this and not the last) both as a composition and for the many beautiful individual performances that it contains.

As to the sound quality, there were two microphones used. One was for the band, the other for the spoken announcements and the soloists. They were fed into a speaker backstage and the output went to a recording studio by telephone... We are very lucky indeed to be able to enjoy this historic and wonderful performance today, nearly seventy years later.

I have the entire (all 45 CD's) DE series on the Classics label from France, the Alternative Takes (10 CD's) series, the Treasury (28 CD's) series, all six of the Carnegie Hall Concerts from the forties, Fargo, and many other DE items in my collection. BB&B has been one of my top Duke Ellington favorites since I first heard it on LP around forty years ago. I think it is one of the most important pieces of American music ever written, in any genre. Don't hesitate over buying this CD. It will be the best musical investment you will ever make, even at ten thousand dollars.

One of the greatest concerts ever. Black, Brown and Beige is a very interesting work of art. Johnny Hodges playing of "Come Sunday" is extraordinary. Worth the price just to hear those few minutes.

The audio quality is hideous but it's all we have. Historically this is such a significant recording that one must set aside the technical flaws and just appreciate how important this concert was. I believe Duke learned alot from the performances and came out of it a bit wiser, but perhaps jaded. Im sure it affected his approach to the "business" of music. Thankfully, in the end, Ellington proved them all wrong.

The sound quality of this is not even a factor in my low rating of the cd. We do not have any other way to experience perhaps one of the most important moments in all of music. It is the fact that "Black, Brown, and Beige" is split between two discs that should keep anyone from buying this. Do whatever you can to find this performance on LP (where the poor sound quality isn't so bothersome, I might add.) The fact that the suite was performed as a unified whole here is what distinguishes this performance as such a gem. I would happily have paid for a three cd set to get "Black, Brown, and Beige" together on one disc. Even the 10 seconds a good cd changer takes to switch discs is too much in this case. still, if you have no other way to access this show, it will be far from a waste of your money.