Sir Duke

Taking a look back at 100 years of Ellington.

On a mid-July afternoon in 1964, a young man ambled down the boardwalk at Atlantic City, killing time before a concert on the Steel Pier by the Duke Ellington Orchestra. By chance, his stroll brought him within hailing distance of the maestro. The young fan tentatively approached his idol and nervously said hello. The eminent composer-bandleader smiled graciously and thanked the young man.

That may have been the only time Harrison Ridley Jr. spoke with Duke Ellington, but the maestro has had a long-standing effect on Ridley, who's now one of Philly's most well-respected jazz personalities.

Ridley remembers his first encounter with Ellington's music—a 1951 radio broadcast of "In a Mellotone." A pre-adolescent Ridley immediately headed for Treegoobes Record Shop on Lancaster Avenue and purchased the 78. Today, he owns 611 Duke Ellington LPs plus 113 CDs never released on vinyl, and saw the band perform on about 25 occasions.

Born in the nation's capital on April 29, 1899, Edward Kennedy Ellington expressed early interest not only in the piano, but also in painting; he was awarded a scholarship to the Pratt Institute, which he fortunately declined. This visual arts background has fueled innumerable metaphors, especially those characterizing Ellington's compositions as paintings consisting of tonal colors. His musicians were the hues on his palette; he composed scores not for the instruments of the band, but for his individual players.

Ellington had what virtually no other composer in history has had—a consistent working orchestra with which he could workshop his songs. They traveled almost incessantly, often playing rural dance halls one night and prestigious concert halls the next.

"The band was his instrument," Ridley says, emphasizing a point familiar to anyone who has attended his lectures on Ellington (nine this year and counting) or his Temple University courses (over two decades' worth).

The unique character of the Ellington Orchestra has presented a formidable challenge for the repertory companies scuffling in its wake. The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band stepped up admirably to the plate with their inspired performance of "Black, Brown and Beige" in February.

The Lincoln Center Orchestra, which has already presented an unprecedented amount of Ellingtonia this year, just released Live in Swing City: Swingin' with Duke (Columbia). The disc swings mightily, despite an occasional tendency toward kitsch. Their "Black and Tan Fantasy" captures all the corniness of its 1927 progenitor, but none of the infectious rhythmic bounce.

Of course, it's a bit unfair to compare contemporary efforts with the genuine article. The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition corrals the orchestra's entire RCA Victor output onto 24 CDs. It's a stunning compilation, reaching back to the fertile Cotton Club period of the '20s (when their trade was rather derogatorily known as "jungle music") through Ellington's last sessions in 1973.

It's only appropriate that the centennial anniversary of Duke Ellington's birth should close out the 20th century, since his body of work could be said to represent the most important musical achievement of this era.

The past 100 years have seen the birth and evolution of the music known as jazz, and Ellington was its most eloquent spokesman. This, despite his strong objection to "jazz" and any other terms that could pigeonhole a particular style. He often repeated that there were only two kinds of music—good and bad. On one of the final tracks in RCA Victor's box, an ailing Ellington satirically declares to his audience that the band is about to reveal what music will sound like a century in the future—"100 years from today, in this computerized, air-conditioned, prefabricated plastic jungle."

The band proceeds with a parody of free jazz before launching into the familiar strain of "Basin Street Blues." Duke Ellington always claimed indifference to the notion of posterity. Nevertheless, he would have been happy to know that, at his own centennial mark, so many of our beloved sounds are still his.

Beginning on Sunday, April 25, Harrison Ridley Jr. will devote four consecutive weekly Temple University WRTI (90.1 FM) radio programs to the music of Duke Ellington.