duke ellington's “east st. louis toodle-o”

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Duke Ellington's “East St. Louis Toodle-O” RevisitedMichael BaumgartnerPublished online: 29 Jan 2013.

To cite this article: Michael Baumgartner (2012) Duke Ellington's “East St. Louis Toodle-O”Revisited, Jazz Perspectives, 6:1-2, 29-56, DOI: 10.1080/17494060.2012.729703

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Duke Ellington’s “East St. LouisToodle-O” RevisitedMichael Baumgartner

“East St. Louis Toodle-O” (in its original spelling) is one of the few Duke Ellingtonworks which had accompanied the composer, pianist and bandleader from his veryearly career up to the 1970s. During his lifetime, Ellington conceived six differentarrangements of “East St. Louis.” The first of these arrangements was cut to recordno less than six times between November 1926 and March 1928, the most of allearly Ellington compositions.1 Victor waxed a slightly altered version in late 1927. Athird arrangement, part of the repertoire until 1937, was recorded for the first timein 1930. A completely revised, fourth arrangement has survived as a fragmentaryshort score (penciled by Ellington) and was recorded in 1937, ten years after the firstversion, under the title “The New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” for Irving Mills’s short-lived Master Records label. Ellington wrote a fifth arrangement in 1947, which has sur-vived as a Carnegie Hall concert live recording, and as a holograph short score withparts copied by Tom Whaley. A sixth arrangement dates to 1956, recorded on thealbum Historically Speaking. There is a holograph short score, with parts—probablyalso copied by Whaley.

These six arrangements of “East St. Louis” are significant in Ellington’s oeuvre andthey give a glimpse into the band’s working methods. They further show how a singlework served—for over forty-five years—as a playground for experimentation withform, structure, instrumentation, improvisation and solo order. “East St. Louis” isnot the only early composition to which Ellington returned throughout his career.Others that also remained in the band’s book are “Black and Tan Fantasy,” “CreoleLove Call,” “The Mooche” and “Mood Indigo.” However, “East St. Louis” was Elling-ton’s first major success which subsequently enjoyed sustained prominence. “EastSt. Louis” is by far the most recorded early Ellington composition. Between November1926 and February 1932, it was released on twelve occasions on various labels. Incomparison, “The Mooche” was released six times in the same time span, “JubileeStomp” five times, “Black and Tan Fantasy” four times and “Mood Indigo” andCreole Love Call” each three times. This large selection of “East St. Louis” recordingsallows for an excellent case study, which can address essential questions in regards to

1In the same period, “Black and Tan Fantasy,” in comparison, was recorded four times (including the unissuedtakes). At this place, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Steven Lasker and Gus Wildi for numerous,valuable contributions, to Walter van de Leur, John Howland, Steven F. Pond, and the anonymous reviewersfor many constructive comments and suggestions and to Matthew Evans-Cockle for copy editing this paper.

Jazz Perspectives, 2012Vol. 6, Nos. 1–2, 29–56, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17494060.2012.729703

# 2012 Taylor & Francis

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the output of the early Ellington band. These concern issues of authorship, improvisa-tional practices in 1920s jazz, and the relation between recordings and live perform-ances that are based on the same scores.

“East St. Louis”was Ellington’sfirstmoderately complex composition tobe recorded. Itwas written shortly before “Black and Tan Fantasy”—“East St. Louis” twin composition,as it were, since it has a similar structure. Both works consist of a string of more or lessindependent sections. “East St. Louis” incorporates two contrasting sections, almost anti-thetical in mood. In its earliest arrangement (1926), Bubber Miley plays a bluesy thirty-two bar AABA theme in C minor over a brooding, repeated eight-bar passage, twiceascending and descending in minor thirds. This theme is contrasted with a more light-hearted, ragtime-tinged C-section, which appears towards the end of the work, first as afull statement (for two trumpets and a trombone), then as a trio variation (soprano saxo-phone and two clarinets) and finally abbreviated. Two solos appear between the openingAABA and final C-sections, first a trombone solo by Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton over thechords of the C-section and then a clarinet solo over the chord progression of the A-strains. The composition concludes with a coda, a restatement of the A-strain withMiley soloing over the eight-bar passage in minor (see Table 1).

The first recording of “East St. Louis”makes one wonder how Ellington and his bandmembers managed to raise the level of their composing, arranging, and performing insuch a relatively short time span. After all, none of the roughly one dozen sides, whichthe Washingtonians recorded before “East St. Louis,” demonstrate any of the qualitiesfound in “East St. Louis.”Most of these tunes are based primarily on standard pop songforms. Without any further access to original scores or playlists from Ellington’s earlycareer, the picture will remain incomplete.

Table 1. “East St. Louis” Formal Plan Comparison.

Voc (29 November1926)

OKeh (19 January1928)

Vic (19 December 1927)

Br (14 March 1927)Col (22 March 1927)Cam (ca. 8 March1928)

Pathé (same day asCam)

Intro (vamp on A) 3 saxes / p / tuba or b 3 saxes / p / b 3 saxes / p / b (newscoring)

A1/A2/B/A1 Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp)C3/C2 (solo) n/a n/a Harry Carney (bar)on CC (solo) Nanton (open tb) Nanton (open tb) Nanton (muted tb)on AA (solo) Clarinet solo Bigard (cl) Rudy Jackson (cl)C1/C2 (fullstatement)

Brass trio (open?) Brass trio (open?) Brass trio (open)

C3 (trio) 2 clarinets / soprano sax Harry Carney n/aC2 (full statement) Brass trio (open?) Brass trio (open?) n/aA1 Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp) Miley (muted tp)

Note: Voc = Vocalion; Br = Brunswick; Col = Columbia; Cam = Cameo; Vic = Victor.

30 Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis Toodle-O” Revisited

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“East St. Louis” was Ellington’s third composition after “Choo Choo” and “ParlorSocial Stomp” which he recorded, but the first number to radically differ from hisearlier recordings, because of its intricate arrangement, the logical compositionalflow, and a unique distribution of solos and tutti sections. How much experience incomposing did Ellington have prior to November 1926? Did he write other tunesnext to “East St. Louis,” “Birmingham Breakdown” (recorded at the same date as“East St. Louis”), “Parlor Social Stomp,” and the piano composition “Jig Walk”?Which tunes did he and his musicians play during their live gigs? How many ofthese works were original compositions? These questions exemplify the kind ofmurky terrain early Ellington scholars have to navigate. Precisely for this reason, thefirst part of this paper produces more questions than answers.

Authorship in Early Ellington Compositions: The Case of “East St. Louis”

Authorship in early Ellington compositions is often hazy. It has remained unclear towhat extent Ellington is the sole author of many of his early compositions andwhether other band members actively participated in the creation of these works.The genesis of “East St. Louis” may shed some light on the subject. The copyrightcredits name Miley as co-author with Ellington. As will be argued below, “EastSt. Louis” also bears traces of other contributors as well. To unravel questions ofauthorship I will begin by exploring the subtle distinctions between Ellington andhis band members as composers, arrangers, borrowers, and improvisers.

Since no scores or sketches have survived of the two early recorded arrangements of“East St. Louis,” one can only hypothesize as to who wrote the main melody, the minor-key eight-bar passage, the C strain and trio variation, who arranged the C strain andtrio, who determined the order of the solos and the soloists and who had the idea ofthe main theme recapitulation as a coda, of withholding the C-strain theme until theend, of using contrasting sections, and of initially interpolating the C strain.

Miley told his friend, Roger Pryor Dodge, that the inspiration for “East St. Louis”“came one night in Boston as he was returning home from work.”Miley “kept noticingthe electric sign of the dry-cleaning store Lewandos. The name struck him as exceed-ingly funny and it fashioned itself into Oh Le-wan-dos.”2 This event most likelyoccurred during the first extended tour to New England in the summer of 1926 ofThe Washingtonians, Ellington’s early band—a few months before “East St. Louis”was first recorded.3

2Roger Prior Dodge, “Bubber.”H.R.S. Society Rag (October 1940), 11. See also the respective music example there.Reprint in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 455.3According to Mark Tucker’s reconstruction in Ellington: The Early Years (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,1991, 187f.) of their itinerary, the Washingtonians did not play in Boston, but in many places around thecapital of Massachusetts, such as Waltham, Brockton, Dedham etc. Since the band headquartered in Salem andLewando was a dry-cleaning chain throughout the Boston area, Miley’s initial spark might have ignited inSalem. Miley must have communicated his discovery to the rest of the band, since Ellington recalled later thatevery time the musicians saw a “Lewando Cleaners sign” they would start singing: “Oh, Lee-wan-do!” (DukeEllington, in collaboration with Stanley Dance. “The Art Is in the Cooking,” Down Beat (7 June 1962), 13–15.Reprint in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 332–338: 335).

Jazz Perspectives 31

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Dodge astutely notes that the minor “Lewandos” triad “hook” is prominentlyaudible in Charlie Green’s trombone solo on Fletcher Henderson’s 1924 recordingof W. C. Handy’s “The Gouge of Armour Avenue.”4 Green’s solo “became especiallypopular with trombonists, and was probably common musical knowledge ever sinceGreen had first played it,” a little more than two years before the first recording of“East St. Louis.”5 Pursuing Dodge’s lead, Mark Tucker concludes that bars 17–23 ofGreen’s solo correspond, approximately, to the first (and closing third) A strain of“East St. Louis,” and bars 1–8 of Green’s solo to the second A strain.6 Not only arethere many resemblances in the melody line, but both solos are also played over aneight-bar strain in minor, muted and at the same tempo (♩ = circa 163). “EastSt. Louis” suggests that Ellington and/or Miley had directly borrowed a melody fromanother musician. Ironed-out, Green’s improvisation became Ellington’s theme.

It is not known who composed the accompanying eight-bar opening strain in minor,originally scored for alto, tenor and baritone saxophones and tuba (see Example 1).7

Gunther Schuller attributes the composition of this passage to Ellington.8 While thisis plausible (although not proven), it would be equally important to know whetherEllington or Miley harmonized and instrumentalized the A strain (Schuller assumesit was Ellington). Miley may have played a considerably more important role in con-tributing to early Ellington compositions than usually acknowledged. TrombonistJoe Nanton supports this hypothesis: “Bubber was an idea man. For instance, we’dhave a printed orchestration. . . Bubber’d always have some stuff of his own andsoon we’d have a trio or quartet on the part. . .”9 It is unknown whether the C-strain theme may have been conceived under similar circumstances.

The C-strain melody line and accompaniment seem borrowed too. Martin Williamshas noted that the C strain “suggests one of the themes” of Scott Joplin’s and LouisChauvin’s “Heliotrope Bouquet” (1907).10 Tucker adds that “basic outlines of itssixteen-bar chord progression can be found in many songs and ragtime pieces,among them Joplin’s ‘Maple Leaf Rag,’ A. J. Piron’s ‘I Wish I Could Shimmy LikeMy Sister Kate,’ and W. C. Handy’s ‘Memphis Blues’.”11 Both musicians, Ellingtonand Miley, were arguably well versed in ragtime and its derivates which were widelyplayed by many New York bands. There is, however, one reason to attribute the author-ship of the C strain to Ellington.

The harmonization of the C strain is not as much conceived linearly as vertically,which is to say, chordally. It is possible (but not proven) that Ellington developed

4Pryor Dodge. “Bubber Miley,” 253.5Ibid., 253.6See the comparison of Miley’s solo in “East St. Louis” and the one by Green in “The Gouge of Armour Avenue” inTucker, Early Years, 249–250.7See the transcription of the vamp and theme.8Gunther Schuller, Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 327.9Inez, M. Cavanaugh, “Reminiscing in Tempo: Tricky Sam Goes Over the Great Times He Had with Duke,Bubber, Freddie Jenkins.” Metronome (February 1945), 17, 26; reprinted in Tucker (ed.). Ellington Reader, 466.Nanton attributes the composition of “East St. Louis” solely to Miley (Ibid, 467).10Martin Williams, The Jazz Tradition. Second Revised Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 103.11Tucker, Early Years, 252.


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the C strain on the piano, out of an existing ragtime composition, by gradually alteringthe musical material through a process of improvisation. The result is a ragtime strain,scored in an idiomatic stride piano style, but played both by the brass section and in avariation by the reed instruments. The melodic, closing figure at the cadence is thesame as the one that Nanton plays at a cadence in “Take It Easy.” This use of thesame figure in two tunes further suggests that the band streamlined its compositionscollaboratively during rehearsals.

Borrowings as from “Heliotrope Bouquet” and Green’s trombone solo in “TheGouge of Armour Avenue” were not uncommon in early Ellington compositions.For instance, the theme of “Creole Love Call,” played by three clarinets, is based onJimmie Noone’s clarinet solo in King Oliver’s “Camp Meeting Blues” of 1923.12 Simi-larly, the first chorus of “Black and Tan Fantasy” is based on Stephen Adams’s spiritual,“The Holy City,” and the final bars quote Chopin’s “Funeral March.”13 Furthermore,the organ-like opening section of the “Immigration Blues” resembles Turner Layton’s“Dear Old Southland,” a 1933 recording in which Ellington quotes the spiritual “Deep

Example 1. Opening strain, as played in all early versions (except on Victor).

12Wolfram Knauer, “Ellington, Duke,” Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 2nd edition, (Kassel and Stuttgart:Bärenreiter and Metzler, 2001–7), col. 269.13See, among others: David Metzer, “Shadow Play: The Spiritual in Duke Ellington’s ‘Black and Tan Fantasy’,”Black Music Research Journal vol. 17 no. 2 (Autumn 1997), 137–158, here 140.


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River.”14 He reused the same spiritual material of the “Immigration Blues” in themiddle section of “The Blues I Love to Sing” (first recorded in 1927).

The different contributions to “East St. Louis” shed light on the broader question ofauthorship in early Ellington compositions. Regardless of copyright credits, it is safe toassume that “East St. Louis” and probably also other early Ellington compositions werewritten in a collaborative process that may frequently have involved borrowingmaterial.

Formal Aspects in “East St. Louis”

The C strain has been dismissed by various commentators. Martin Williams finds it“inappropriate,” “weak, out of place, and perhaps affected”15, to James L. Collier itis “sunny and a little aimless,”16 to Peter Gammond “a jovial but slightly inanejumpy rhythm”

17 and its variation—played by the reed section—is to Schuller a“trite polka-like phrase.”18 Yet this C strain, in fact, the entire structure of “EastSt. Louis,” can be better understood when seen in a broader historical perspective.The composition stands at the intersection of New Orleans practices and New York/Chicago innovations. Ellington is equally indebted to both ragtime and Tin PanAlley practices,19 as shown in the combination of the thirty-two bar AABA form inC minor and the eighteen-bar C strain in the relative major key.20 The formal structureof “East St. Louis” markedly differs from Ellington’s other 1926 and 1927 compo-sitions, such as “Parlor Social Stomp,” “Birmingham Breakdown,” “Hop Head,” and“Washington Wobble,” which all are based on the older ragtime strain-form prin-ciples.21 “East St. Louis,” on the other hand, presents more than just a series of con-trasting thematic and key areas, and a string of solos. As Tucker observes, Ellingtonwithholds the “secondary theme until the piece is well underway.”22 Even thoughNanton solos on the harmonic progression of the secondary theme (in the relativemajor of E♭) after Miley’s thirty-two bar opening chorus, this secondary theme isnot heard until towards the end of the composition, performed by the whole band.“East St. Louis” has a hybrid structure, which places its conception beyond the standardforms of mid-1920s jazz compositions, such as the blues, ragtime multi-strain form,verse-chorus song, and the AABA chorus song. The combination of a blues-inflected

14Schuller, Early Jazz, 335.15Williams, Jazz Tradition, 102.16James Lincoln Collier, Duke Ellington, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 112.17Peter Gammond (ed.), Duke Ellington: His Life and Music, (New York: Da Capo Press, 1977), 73.18Schuller, Early Jazz, 328.19This is not to say that Tin Pan Alley writers would not have been influenced by the ragtime idiom.20The AABA form is hardly perceivable, since it only occurs once in its complete form, mostly because the bridgeappears only once.21Ellington’s original composition, “Parlor Social Stomp,” which was recorded prior to “East St. Louis” (in March1926), follows a ragtime multi-strain-form. The composition is based on the succession of several 16-bar sections:Introduction–A–B–B–A1

–transition–C (trio)–C1 (trumpet solo)–D (alto sax)–D1 (trumpet)–D2 (see for a detaileddiscussion Tucker, Early Years, 157).22Ibid., 251.


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melody over the eight-bar passage in minor and the ragtime-influenced C straintowards the end of the composition, creates a highly effective and original composition,based on stark contrasts between minor and major keys, between somber and light,between solo and tutti sections and between diverse instrumental colors.

First Arrangement: The Kentucky Club Era

Tucker assumes that “East St. Louis” “must have been in the Washingtonians’ reper-toire by October or November 1926.”23 Even though the initial idea for the compo-sition came in the summer of 1926 the short motif in question probably only grewinto a full composition when Irving Mills had made arrangements with Jack Kapp ofVocalion, a subsidiary of Brunswick Records, to record a few Ellington numbers.Indeed, music publisher and songwriter Harrison Smith, who was briefly Ellington’smanager, recalled that Kapp “asked Duke to knock out a tune for Vocalion’s EastSt. Louis trade.”24 Ellington’s first session would be recorded with the General Electricsound equipment which was inferior to the then state-of-the-art Western Electricsystem. Presumably, the opportunity to record for a somewhat prestigious label forthe first time, with an electric over a mechanical recording sound system, must havegiven Ellington an additional impetus to submit an extraordinarily well craftedcomposition.25

Kapp titled “East St. Louis” at the actual Vocalion session of 29 November 1926,which suggests that the work had probably not been in the repertoire of the Washing-tonians.26 Kapp, and perhaps also Mills, may have pieced together the title from a shortannouncement, published in Variety roughly half a year before the recording date:“Jonas Perlberg, dance promoter, has discovered a new dance, ‘the toad-de-lo’ whichhe ran across in St. Louis.”27 Ellington may have constructed the explanatory anecdoteafter the Vocalion session, once “East St. Louis” had become the Washingtonians’ firstsignificant hit:

23Ibid., 250.24“Letter to Marshall Stearns, [n.d.], IJS vertical file. And Irving Mills told Pat Willard, one of Ellington’s publicity

people, the same thing (interview with Brooks Kerr, 20 March 1985),” Tucker, Early Years, 308.25It is not known whether Kapp’s ledger entries “n[ot] g[ood]” for “A Night in Harlem” and “Who Is She” relate tothe inferior quality of the composition, performance or recording. It is, however, known that Kapp rejected theother two Ellington originals recorded that day (Steven Lasker, Booklet of The Original Decca Recordings: EarlyEllington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings of Duke Ellington 1926–1931. 3 CD Set. GRPRecords, GRD 3-640, 1994, 39).26Tucker, Early Years, 250. See also the facsimile of the respective company ledger in Lasker, Booklet of OriginalDecca Recordings, 38–39.27Variety, 9 June 1926, 42. The toddle—an African-American dance—was fashionable in World War I and gainedwidespread popularity among whites in the early 1920s. Derived from an African-American shaking dance, thetoddle is closely related to the shimmy and in the 1920s also to the Chicago. The C strain of “East St. Louis”could be best danced as a toddle. For a history of the dance see: Chadwick Hansen. “Jenny’s Toe Revisited:White Responses to Afro-American Shaking Dances.” American Music vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 1987), 1–19. Tuckerdiscusses the different spellings of “toodle-o,” as they appeared on the numerous recordings of Ellington’s tune(“On Toodle-oo, Todalo, and Jenny’s Toe.” American Music vol. 6 no. 1 [Spring 1988], 88–91). See also thelast installment of the discourse between Hansen and Tucker: Chadwick Hansen. “Reply to Tucker.” AmericanMusic vol. 6 no. 1 (Spring 1988), 91–92.


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We were talking about this old man, after a hard day’s work in the field, where he andhis broken walk [are] coming up the road. But he’s strong, in spite of being so tired,because he’s headed [home] to get his feet under the table and to get that hot dinnerthat’s waiting for him. And that’s the East St. Louis Todalo.28

This idyllic portrayal of the old, hard-working man stands in stark contrast to theevents which had actually occurred in East St. Louis, Illinois, nine years prior to the Voca-lion recording date. Black, southern migrants, seeking industrial employment in thenorthern cities to gain economic advancement and freedom from racial injustice,clashed violently with white, local workers reacting to the migration.29 The whiterioters, led by brutal ringleaders, intended to cleanse the city of African Americans.Indeed, following the uprising, the population of black residents fell by between 15,000and 23,000 members, a figure representing more than half of the African Americaninhabitants of East St. Louis.30 Denise von Glahn argues that, by using “‘East St. Louis’as his theme song for a number of years, Ellington subtly kept racial consciousness inthe forefront of his work.”31 However, since he did not choose the title himself, Ellingtonin all likelihood did not connect the atrocious events of 1917 with his first signature tune.

“East St. Louis” quickly gained considerable recognition. It was Ellington’s mostpopular early work between the release of the Vocalion record on 20 January 1927and the first Brunswick recording session a month later, on 28 February 1927.Regular broadcasts as the signature tune from the radio studios of Loew’s stationWHN, as well as the occasional remotes from the Kentucky Club, furthered the com-mercial success of the Vocalion record. In order to cash in on the song’s success, Kappand Mills recorded “East St. Louis” one more time and released it on the flagship labelof the company, Brunswick.

Kapp’s expectations must have been high for the first Ellington session for Bruns-wick, since none of the three 28 February takes were issued.32 The next Brunswickdate, 14 March was entirely devoted to “East St. Louis.” The orchestra needed threeattempts before a single successful take was recorded. Tucker observed that for therecording session for Gennett little less than a year earlier (30 March 1926) the pro-blems originated in the band:, “[t]he lack of ensemble unity . . . may have stemmedin part from the addition of extra players” and “from inadequate rehearsal.”33

However, this no longer explains the cumbersome recording process for the Brunswickdate. The band had reached a different level, and had been gaining quite a reputation inNew York. Meanwhile, a top manager now supervised the band while its recording ses-sions were conducted by the leading executives in the record business. With the move

28Ellington, in an interview with Jack Cullen for station CKNW, Vancouver, Canada, 30 October 1962. Reprintedin Tucker, Ellington Reader,” 338–341.29Charles L. Lumpkins, American Pogrom: The East St. Louis Race Riot and Black Politics, (Athens, OH: Ohio Uni-versity Press, 2008), 77 and 74.30Lumpkins, American Pogrom, 124.31Denise von Glahn, The Sounds of Place: Music and the American Cultural Landscape, (Boston: Northeastern Uni-versity Press, 2003), 145.32The metal parts were presumably destroyed soon after the session, and no test pressings are known to havesurvived.33Tucker, Early Years, 169.


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into the limelight, the expectations grew. Ellington and his band members may havebeen under similar pressures at the third recording of “East St. Louis” for Columbia,only eight days after the Brunswick session. It took three takes to get a satisfyingresult, which Columbia released a little less than three months later (10 May 1927).

Improvisational Practice Among Jazz Soloists in the 1920s

These early recordings of “East St. Louis” represent an invitation to address the stillunsolved problem regarding the improvisational practice that was customary in earlyjazz. Jazz scholars agree that solos hardly ever are completely improvised. In fact, inearly jazz recordings, solos were often carefully planned, and tended to be based onearlier conceived material. While the macrostructure of the solo would remainunchanged, the soloist could experiment with details, for instance by adding embellish-ments, or altering phrasing and articulation. Because of its multiple recordings, “EastSt. Louis” is one of the few 1920s jazz tunes that offer an excellent vehicle to investigatethe genesis of such solos. Nanton’s trombone solo, in particular, gives a detailed viewon how a soloist conceived a memorable solo.

Previous commentators have offered contradictory evaluations of Nanton’s solo in“East St. Louis.” The trombone specialist Kurt Dietrich, for instance, finds the solo“rather jaunty, in stark contrast to the atmosphere of gloom that pervades much ofthe piece.”34 Eddie Lambert on the other hand, observes that Nanton’s trombonesolo “becomes notably more vigorous” from the Vocalion to the Pathé recordings.35

Schuller states that “Nanton’s slightly stiff but good-natured solo” is the same on theBrunswick and Columbia recordings. Indeed, when listening to the two solos, it isevident that Nanton cultivated a “solo style based on only a few notes.”36 A comparisonof the solos on all seven early “East St. Louis” recordings further reveals that Nantonplays the same solo every time—except on the Victor recording. Still, Berini andVolonté claim that Nanton’s solo on the Pathé-Actuelle recording is “not on thelevel of the previous versions regarding the execution, taken into considerationthe decidedly faster tempo which destroys the theme”37 (see Example 2). Hence, thesolo in “East St. Louis” does not grow “more vigorous,” as suggested by Lambert,but rather—in the words of Schuller—“once the ‘improvisations’ were set, theyremained unchanged for a certain period.”38

Why the solo is identical on all the recordings except the one on Victor is unknown.Was it Ellington who strove to preserve the shape of the composition once it had beenestablished? Or was it Nanton who decided to stick to a given solo? Were they answer-ing to their audience who may have expected that a solo should sound as heard on therecord? Did Nanton decide to play the same solo on recorded versions of “East

34Kurt Dietrich, Duke’s Bones: Ellington’s Great Trombonists, (Rottenburg, Germany: Advance Music, 1995), 28.35Eddie Lambert, Duke Ellington: A Listener’s Guide, (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999), 9.36Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, op. cit., 51.37Antonio Berini and Giovanni M. Volonté, Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, (Firenze: Ponte alle grazie, 1994),129.38Schuller, Early Jazz, 328.


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St. Louis” but would he change it at live performances? Richard Sudhalter offers anexplanation as to why early jazz musicians stuck to recorded solos: “the need to con-serve, to render permanent, seems part of the overall context of the time, logical reac-tion to a basically fugitive idiom.”39 It was, of course, also in the interest of a particularsoloist to keep a successful solo unaltered, as it would solidify his originality.

Second Arrangement: The Cotton Club Era

The Victor version presents a reworked arrangement. While Tucker has commentedthat Ellington re-orchestrated the opening strain,40 Schuller has noted a reorderingof the individual sections (see Table 1).41

Between Miley’s statement of the theme and Nanton’s solo, Ellington inserts a bar-itone solo for Harry Carney. Probably in order not to exceed the three-and-a-halfminute limit of the ten-inch record, Ellington has omitted the C-strain reed trio andthe ten-bar C-strain recapitulation of the tutti brass-section, before Miley’s A-straincoda. On the Victor recording, it appears as if one hears first three consecutivesolos, then the tutti brass-section and finally Miley’s closing statement, instead oftwo solos, the tutti brass-section, the reed trio, a shortened recapitulation of the tuttibrass-section and Miley’s coda, as on the other recordings. This impression is deceiv-ing. Carney’s solo on the Victor recording is actually a slightly altered rendition of thereed trio and the recapitulation of the tutti brass-section. In other words, Ellingtonshifted the final C strain on the Victor recording towards the beginning of the work,after the opening AABA statement. Since virtually the same musical material is

Example 2. Transcription of Nanton’s trombone solo, as played in all early versions(except on Victor).

39Richard M. Sudhalter, Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915–1945, (New York:Oxford University Press, 1999), 428.40Tucker, Early Years, 253.41Schuller, Early Jazz, 328–9.


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played by a single instrument (instead of three), the much criticized final C strain nowseems decisively lighter. Viewed in this light, the 19 January 1928 OKeh recording mustbe placed between the Victor and the Vocalion, Brunswick and Columbia records. Onthe OKeh version, Carney plays the same eight bars that appear on the Victor record-ing; however these bars appear in their “original” place, that is, towards the end of thepiece, before the recapitulation of the tutti brass-section.

For theVictor arrangement the tempohas been considerably slowed down. TheVoca-lion recording is at ♩ = 163, and the Victor recording at ♩ = 131. While for Schuller theslower tempo “drags,”42 for Tucker it “enhances” “themysteriousmood for the piece.”43

There may also be another reason for the choice of a slower tempo. Ellington and hisband recorded for Victor on 19 December 1927, two weeks after they began theirtenure at the Cotton Club, on 4 December 1927. The different mood of this versionmay reflect a change in musical taste, since the merry, quasi Charleston feeling of the1926 Vocalion recording has been replaced by a more somber sound.

The Victor arrangement is made shortly after the start of Ellington’s tenure at theCotton Club, and it conforms to the novel “jungle sound,” reportedly called for byits management.44 While the “jungle” is a complex concept that mixes among othersprimitivism, atavistic African American culture, white modernism, racism, black sexu-ality, exoticism etc.—in the eyes of the white owners of the Harlem clubs, the “jungle”was a calculated marketing strategy to attract a white, wealthy mid- and downtownManhattan clientele. Early Ellington compositions such as “East St. Louis,” “Blackand Tan Fantasy,” and “Immigration Blues” became associated with “jungle music.”

In particular, the malleability of “East St. Louis” allowed Ellington to adapt the com-position to the aesthetic prerogatives of the “jungle” idioms. In this respect, the newarrangement on Victor represents the “jungle sound” par excellence. All the essentialingredients are in place, such as a slow tempo and the mysterious sounding openingstrain (now scored lower, in the key of F minor). The new instrumentation nolonger calls for three saxophones and tuba in closed-position voicings, but for amixture of instruments, such as three saxophones in open voicings, piano andbowed double bass, which provides a more colorful timbre. That a “jungle sound”effect is intended is further suggested by Nanton, who no longer plays his solo open,as before, but muted, with the same growl technique as Miley in the openingsection. In addition, Rudy Jackson begins his clarinet solo with a growl too, to continuewith a rough tone in the chalumeau register. Finally, the cheerful C strain has given wayto Carney’s ominous baritone solo on the chord progression heard earlier in the tune.

Still, these new features of the reworked arrangement do not indicate a decisiveadaptation to meet the various “jungle sound” clichés. It is possible that this versionof “East St. Louis” was coined to accompany a dance routine. Such a dance number

42Ibid, 329.43Tucker, Early Years, 255.44For a detailed discussion of the “jungle” idiom, 1920s New York society and Ellington, see Lisa Barg, NationalVoices/Modern Histories: Race, Performance and Remembrance in American Music, 1927–1943. Diss., State Univer-sity of New York at Stony Brook, 2001. See also, in the present issue, Kimberly Hannon, “Beyond the Cotton Club:The Persistence of Duke Ellington’s ‘Jungle Style’” [ed.].


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most likely opened the Cotton Club floor show, as “East St. Louis” was Ellington’s sig-nature tune. One can also assume that Ellington and his band adhered to the samearrangement as recorded on Victor. The duration of this arrangement presents anideal basis for a tightly choreographed novelty number for chorus girls. The hypothesisthat the Victor recording captures the arrangement used for the 1927 Cotton Clubshow is supported by the fact that at the same date, another tune written for thatshow, “Harlem River Quiver” by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, was recorded.45

Both tunes—as part of the same show—were recorded to promote Ellington’s new,prestigious engagement as well as Fields’s and McHugh’s Cotton Club show.

“East St. Louis,” in its new arrangement, was used in Victor’s aggressive marketingstrategy. While negotiating the recording contract with Mills, the company most likelyrequested a new arrangement from Ellington for their release, knowing that Columbiaand Brunswick (the Vocalion version was practically unobtainable at that time) eachhad their own versions of “East St. Louis” on the market. Even though Victor wasthe fourth company to record the piece, it was released almost a year later, on 7 Decem-ber 1928. Apparently, the dynamics of the record industry—“East St. Louis’s” avail-ability on other labels—warranted the delayed release. In addition to those ofBrunswick and Columbia, the market was flooded with the “dimestore record”version that the Pathé-Cameo conglomerate made in March 1928, over two monthsafter the Victor session. This rendering (which carried the Vocalion arrangement)was released on four different labels, Pathé-Actuelle, Cameo (sold mainly in Macy’sdepartment stores) and their subsidiaries Lincoln and Romeo.

A closer look at all Victor Ellington releases in 1928 reveals the label’s sales strategy(see Table 2). Before “East St. Louis,” Victor issued “Creole Love Call” and “The Blues ILove to Sing” (both with vocals by Adelaide Hall) as well as “Harlem River Quiver” and“Black Beauty” on the hit-sides. On the flip-sides were, respectively, “Black and TanFantasy,” “Blue Bubbles,” Washington Wobble” and “Jubilee Stomp.” Most of thenumbers (on both sides) had never been released. The exceptions are “JubileeStomp” and “East St. Louis.” The latter was already available on three other labelswhen it was recorded, and actually on seven labels when it was issued. Since “EastSt. Louis” was no longer a new number, but still widely popular, for it was regularlybroadcasted and performed live as the signature tune, Victor must have decided torelease it because theirs was a new arrangement representing Ellington’s novelCotton Club style, and, perhaps even more importantly, because the quality of theirrecording was superior to that of the other labels.

For similar reasons, OKeh also delayed the issue of their “East St. Louis” version. Itwas recorded on 19 January 1928 and not released until 25 December of the same year.Columbia probably urged its subsidiary OKeh (as of November 1926) to delay therelease in order to avoid competition with the issue of the parent company, since

45Abel Green’s review of “Harlem River Quiver” at Ellington’s debut show at the Cotton Club remarks: “Onecoocher, boyish bobbed hoyden, said to be especially imported from Chicago for her Annapolis proclivitieswho does the Harlem River Quiver like no self-respecting body of water. The teasin’est torso tossing yet, andhow!” (reprinted in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 31).


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Table 2. Ellington’s record releases, 1928 (Victor Records).

Hit-Side Flip-SideRecordNumber Release Date

Hit-SideRecorded

Flip-SideRecorded Artist Name on Label

Creole Love Call (0) Black and Tan Fantasy(1)

21137 3 February 1928 26 October1927

26 October1927

Duke Ellington And HisOrchestra

Harlem River Quiver (0) Washington Wabble(0)

21284 8 June 1928 19 December1927

26 October1927

–

The Blues I Love to Sing (0) Blue Bubbles (0) 21490 17 August 1928 26 October1927

19 December1927

–

Black Beauty (1) Jubilee Stomp (4) 21580 5 October 1928 26 March 1928 26 March 1928 –

East St. Louis Toodle-Oo (3) (Got) Everything ButYou (0)

21703 7 December 1928 19 December1927

26 March 1928 Duke Ellington And His CottonClub Orchestra

Santa Claus, Bring My ManBack to Me (0)

I Done Caught YouBlues (0)

21777 21 December 1928 30 October1928

30 October1928

Ozie Ware’s Hot Five

Number in parenthesis: tune available on other labels at the date of the recording session

JazzPerspectives

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“East St. Louis” had gained such popularity under its original title.46 Evidently, neitherrenaming “East St. Louis” to “Harlem Twist” nor changing the band’s name to LonnieJohnson’s Harlem Footwarmers succeeded to disguise the true origins of the recording.The new title builds on Harlem’s reputation—primarily geared towards white audi-ences—as magnet where the Cotton Club and other speakeasies were located, andwhere the nightlife promised skimpy-clad light-skinned girls and frantic jazz music.While the Footwarmers were presumably an invention of OKeh’s marketing depart-ment, Lonnie (Lonzo) Johnson did indeed exist.47

The delay of Victor’s and OKeh’s release of the “East St. Louis” recordings might beindicative of the commercial success that the composition had achieved. On the otherhand, these record companies may have realized too late that the market was floodedwith “East St. Louis” records from other labels, all produced within the time-frame ofonly a year and a half.

Third Arrangement: “East St. Louis” Without Bubber Miley

After Ellington had recorded “East St. Louis” seven times in two different arrangementsbetween late November 1926 and early March 1928, the tune had moved intothe background in the early 1930s, presumably because of a steady growth of theband’s repertoire. Nonetheless, Ellington recorded a new arrangement on 3 April 1930with the “Mills’ Ten Black Berries”48 for Velvet Tone and Diva, two Columbia subsidiarylabels. “East St. Louis” was released in their respective race series, 5 June that same year.

Much had happened in Ellington’s career sinceMarch 1928. He had built up a consider-able repertoire with a good number of major hits such as “The Mooche,” “Black Beauty,”“CottonClub Stomp,” “Doin’ theVoomVoom,” and “Rent Party Blues.”At the same time,the band’s radio exposure had grown significantly.49 In 1929 alone, it appeared in twoCotton Club revues,50 both times with scores by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, aswell as in Florenz Ziegfeld’s production of Show Girl, which ran from 2 July to 5October. Ellington was also featured in Dudley Murphy’s nineteen-minute RKO

46This assumption is backed up by the fact that the flip-side of OKeh 8638 contains “Move Over” by “Duke Elling-ton and His Orchestra.” Since “Move Over” was issued for the first time on OKeh 8638, it was no competition forColumbia and could be presented under the orchestra’s proper name.47During his stay in St. Louis, three years earlier, the guitarist won a blues singing contest. The award included anOKeh contract for a series of “race” records. Since Johnson was a recording artist of the label, the company feltentitled to borrow his name for a record, made with another artist.48A stipulation in the Victor contract—signed between the company and Ellington/Mills at the beginning of1929—stated that the label had the exclusive right to advertise Ellington’s records under his own name. For record-ings with any other company, Ellington had to use a different name.49FromDecember 1927 to February 1929, the orchestra could only be heard locally in New York over WHN and itssister station WPAP (Ken Steiner. “Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC: September 1930–February 1931,” The Inter-national DEMS Bulletin (Duke Ellington Music Society) (December 2008–March 2009), http://www.depanorama.net/dems/083.htm (accessed 25 August 2010). Then, from 11 February to 23 September 1929, their music wasrelayed from coast-to-coast over the CBS network with its nationwide affiliates, every Monday and Thursdayevening (from 6:30 to 7:00 pm) presumably from the WABC station itself and every Wednesday night (at 11pm) from the Cotton Club (Lasker, Booklet of The Original Decca Recording, 46).50“Springbirds” (opened on 31 March) and “It’s the Blackberries” (opened on 29 September).


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http://www.depanorama.net/dems/083.htm


production Black and Tan, filmed in mid-August, and he participated in no less thantwenty-three recording sessions, whichmade hismusic available to an evenwider audience.

During the late 1920s, the line-up of the band changed considerably. Juan Tizoljoined the orchestra as a second trombonist in July 1929.51 Ellington further enlargedthe trumpet section with Arthur Whetsel (substituting for Louis Metcalf52) andFreddy Jenkins.53 Finally, in January 1929 Ellington dismissed Miley, because of hisalcoholism, and consequent unreliability in keeping up with the band’s schedule andcommitments.54 On Johnny Hodges’ recommendation, Ellington hired the seven-teen-year-old Cootie Williams from the Fletcher Henderson orchestra.55

The departure of Miley made Ellington write a new arrangement for “East St. Louis,”since the solo part in the AABA section had to be assigned to other instrumentalists. Asno other trumpeter could fill Miley’s shoes when it came to mutes, Ellington decided toscore the A-strain theme for two (or possibly three) trumpets. In addition, he changedthe lead in the B strain to a call-and-response passage between the alto and baritonesaxophones and muted trumpets (and possibly trombones). He further changed theform of the composition, for the 1930 recording. He considerably simplified thecomplex structure of the earlier arrangements which are a hybrid between Tin PanAlley and ragtime (the interlocking of the A, B and C sections). Ellington entirelycut the full brass C-strain statement, the subsequent reed trio and the concludingbrass recapitulation, while the solo routines over the A and C strains now only wereover the latter. In other words, solos were restricted to the chord progression of theC strain, so that this third arrangement followed the head–solo–head structure. Elling-ton replaced Nanton’s routine with his own piano solo, followed by Carney on baritonewith Whetsel playing a counterpoint on muted trumpet, then Jenkins soloing on openhorn and finally Bigard on clarinet. Repeating the C strain four times left considerableroom for the soloists.56 A special feature of this new arrangement was Ellington’s unac-companied Harlem stride piano solo.

This arrangement shows both features of 1920s and early 1930s jazz. The head–solo–head structure57 with an emphasis on the soloists is indicative that the bandmoved awayfrom the strain-based form of the 1920s. Yet, the banjo accompaniment, the drumsemphasizing two and four, Ellington’s stride piano and Jenkins’ New Orleans stylesolo hark back to the 1920s and earlier. The foregrounding of the C strain, finally,

51Eddie Lambert and Barry Kernfeld, “Tizol, Juan,” Grove Music Online, accessed on 3 July 2010.52See, for this date, Barry Kernfeld’s entry “Metcalf, Louis” in the Grove Music Online, accessed on 20 July 2010.The change fromMetcalf to Whetsel must have happened between 25 June and 10 July 1928. Metcalf still attendedthe Brunswick recording session of 25 June. The 10 July session for OKeh was however played by Whetsel. Withregards to the spelling of Whetsel’s name, it has often been misspelled as Whetsol.53Vail, Duke’s Diary, part I, 15.54Miley missed the recording sessions for Brunswick, on 21March 1928, when “Take It Easy,” “Jubilee Stomp” and“Black Beauty” were waxed, for Victor on 30 October and 10 November 1928 and for Cameo on circa 5 December1928.55Vail, Duke’s Diary, part I, 16.56In all likelihood longer and more solos were added for live performances.57It is likely that the complete AABA was performed in live performances, and cut here, due to the time limitationsof the 78 rpm disc.


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lends the arrangement an aura of lightness and exhilaration, which the earlier arrange-ments lack. Ellington has replaced the dark “jungle mood” with a lighter tone, whichsuggests that he has abandoned a deliberate “jungle” idiom. The buoyant accompani-ment characterizes the changing aesthetics of the orchestra in the early 1930s.

Ellington’s prolific recording schedule and the regular radio exposure from the CottonClub had secured him national prominence. The only medium which the orchestra hadnot yet sufficiently exploited was cinema.58Mills, however, had begun to take steps in thisdirection by engineering a contract between Ellington and the two comedy radio super-stars Amos ’n’ Andy for their film project Check and Double Check.59 Alongside “EastSt. Louis,” the film contains four original songs—“When I’m Blue,” “The MysterySong,” “Three Little Words” and “Old Man Blues”—which were probably all recordedin preproduction by the all white RKO-studio orchestra, in early August.60

The ballroom scene, with “East St. Louis” as the theme song and followed by “ThreeLittle Words,” was shot at a soundstage of the RKO Studios in Hollywood on 14 August1930. Ellington and his orchestra perform these two tunes onscreen during the ball.Beginning with the last two bars of the A-strain—a compressed “chorus-end-introduc-tion”61—and continuing with the A-strain coda of the Diva/Velvet Tone arrangement,with a ritardando in the last two bars, “East St. Louis” accompanies a panorama shot ofthe ball room and acts as a signal for the invited guests to make their way, towards thestage where they are to attend the presentation of “Three Little Words.” A few monthslater Ellington and his orchestra were back at the Cotton Club for the winter season. Ofthe fifty-one broadcasts aired from the Cotton Club between 29 September 1930 andFebruary 1931, only six reportedly opened and/or closed with the signature tune“East St. Louis.”62

A holograph short score63 (conductor score?) (see Example 3) in the Duke EllingtonCollection at the National Museum of American History opens with an “East St. Louis”arrangement which is virtually identical with the one recorded in 1930 and the one forthe film Check and Double Check. This arrangement is the first number of a three-partmedley, including “Birmingham Breakdown” in the middle and “Black and Tan

58Ellington’s and the band’s first film appearance were in the short film Black and Tan, directed by Dudley Murphy,in the previous year.59According to Mercer Ellington, this contract came about thanks to the nationwide attention the band achievedfrom their regular radio broadcastings (Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, 34).60Vail, Duke’s Diary, part I, 38.61Wood, Graham, “The Development of Song Forms in the Broadway and Hollywood Musicals of RichardRodgers, 1919–1943” (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 2000), 79. A chorus-end-introduction contains thelast four bars of the chorus.62See the NBC log books (Library of Congress). These log books, with the “Corrected Traffic Sheets,” list song titleswith other details for twenty-seven programs (Steiner, “Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC”).63Pencil short score on “A.B.C. STANDARD MUSIC PUBLICATIONS, INC. New York City” 12-staves paper, 4pp. National Museum of American History Archives Center (NMAH), Smithsonian Institution. Duke EllingtonCollection (DEC), Series 1, Box 109, Folder 9. This manuscript is one of the earliest surviving Ellington holographsin the Smithsonian Institution. Ellington may have not written down any arrangements before 1930, or thematerial got lost. From the 1930s on, as the band grew, there was more need for worked out arrangements. Elling-ton appears to have started to keep his holographs after 1930s. Many of the early manuscripts are sketchy. Ellingtonpresumably used them to write down ideas, shape, overall structures etc., and maybe even have the parts copiedout. More scholarly work, however, is required to determine the precise function of early Ellington manuscripts.


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Fantasy” at the end. Ellington notated “East St. Louis” relatively detailed, “BirminghamBreakdown” and “Black and Tan Fantasy,” on the other hand, rather rudimentarily.“Black and Tan Fantasy” consists only of the first twelve bars (the A strain), with thetheme written down in three-part closed harmonies. “Birmingham Breakdown”

Example 3. Short score. Page 1 (of 4). Medley of early 1930s. NMAH, DEC#1, Box109:9. (Used by permission of the Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center,National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution).


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follows immediately after “East St. Louis” with a sixteen-bar introduction in C minorfor the ensemble.64 The two breaks in bars 5–6 and 13–14 feature an “ad lib.” passagefor Johnny Hodges. As in the 1926 Vocalion and 1927 Brunswick recordings, thetwenty-bar A strain in A♭ major, which Ellington requests to be repeated, follows. Itis not indicated in the holograph whether the first A strain is reserved for Ellington’spiano obbligato and the second one with the “rhythmicized chromatic chord pro-gression” for the brass section as on the Vocalion and Brunswick recordings.65 Elling-ton has only sketched the four-part chord structure for the saxophone section. Hisindication “Brass close” under the staff system leads one to believe that the brasssection indeed played the syncopated “hot jazz” theme on top of the saxophone accom-paniment. Ellington, however, does not indicate a repetition of the sixteen-bar intro-duction, as played on the earlier recordings. The short score segues after the A straindirectly into the sixteen-bar B strain. The “rhythmicized arppeggiated figure” doesnot follow the syncopated version as in the two 1920s recordings, but is notated instraight crotchets with Ellington’s remark “Lag.”66 These crotchets correspond toCootie Williams’s solo of the 1937 version of “The New Birmingham Breakdown”which the band recorded for Master.67 The two stop-time breaks are to be filledwith a short “ad lib.” lick by Hodges. Ellington requests a return to the A strain, fol-lowed by a repetition of the B strain. The sketch, however, does not reveal whetherthe A strain is to be played only once and the B strain twice as on the Vocalion andBrunswick recordings. In addition, “Birmingham Breakdown” does not end withtwo blues choruses as on the two 1920s recordings but with another, eight-bar breakto be filled by Hodges, before a five-bar chromatic passage, presumably for the saxo-phone section (Ellington labels one of the four voices with “Ten[or]”), leads into“Black and Tan Fantasy.”

What purpose did Ellington create this score for, and when did he write it down? Is itpossible that Ellington and his orchestra played this arrangement live? The playlistsreveal that the medley was not performed on the road in the 1930s. Such an absencedoes not indicate with complete certainty that they had never played the arrangementlive, since the playlists of the 1930s are scarce and sketchy. A second question concernsthe issue why Ellington and his orchestra did not record this score. A quick surveythrough the recording history of the three medley compositions between the late1920s and the next decade sheds light on the question. Ellington and his orchestradid not record “Birmingham Breakdown” between February 1927 and March 1937(the month they recorded “The New Birmingham Breakdown”). They did, however,

64The key of C minor corresponds with the C minor of “East St. Louis.” Why Ellington abondened F minor andwent back to the original key remains unknown. Possibly, it is related to another significant change: the performerof the lead voice. No longer does the whole trumpet section play the theme, but only CootieWilliams. According toMercer Ellington, when Whetsel “began to lose his lip [in the 1930s], Cootie began to play both lead and solos”(Mercer Ellington, Duke Ellington in Person, 46).65Schuller, Early Jazz, op. cit., 334.66Tucker, Early Ellington, op. cit., 221. See the transcription in Tucker, Early Ellington, op. cit., 223.67See Ellington’s holograph at the NMAH, Series 1A, Box 39, Folder 6, 1 p. Ellington also indicates “Lag” for thecrotchet motive.


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record “Black and Tan Fantasy” in the 1930s once before they recorded the newarrangement of “The New Black and Tan Fantasy” for Brunswick in January 1938.

The hypothesis arises whether this sketch score reproduces an unrecorded medleyfor a Victor recording project launched on 3 and 9 February 1932. The two Victordates are of particular importance. For the first time, Ellington recorded twomedleys, a format which would become increasingly important in his live perform-ances. The first included “Mood Indigo,” “Hot and Bothered” and “Creole LoveCall,” the second “East St. Louis,” “Lots o’ Fingers” 68 and “Black and Tan Fantasy.”These longer, seven-to-eight minute arrangements were possible thanks to a newVictor invention, the Program Transcriptions series—the first venture into commercial33⅓ rpm long-playing recording.69

Berini and Volonté find the 9 February 1932 recording of “East St. Louis” “of notablyinferior quality” since it “misses completely the ingenious inspiration, dominating theearlier recordings.”70 However, this version is not much different than that of 1930.Both are in F minor and begin with the eight-bar introduction, followed by AABA.In both recordings, the trumpet section plays the first and third A strain with growlingwah-wah technique, to contrast the second A strain on open horns. However, thetempo of the 1932 version is considerably slower, with ♩ = 112 instead of 147 in the1930 recording.

The short score with the medley “East St. Louis”— “Birmingham Breakdown”—“Black and Tan Fantasy” reveals the same aesthetic concept as the recorded Victormedley, a hot jazz number wedged into the two “jungle” tunes “East St. Louis” and“Black and Tan Fantasy.” The timing between the recorded and sketched medleyalso corresponds (provided Ellington would have followed the same tempo as on therecordings): “East St. Louis” is approximately 1:20 minutes long on the 1932 Victorversion, “Birmingham Breakdown” around 2:40 minutes (as on the 1927/28 and1938 recorded versions), and the sketched fragment of “Black and Tan Fantasy”would probably have been around 3:00 minutes as on the 1932 Victor recording.

Whether or not this short score was the base for a rejected medley for the 1932Victor project, the medley is remarkable. Ellington combines three of his most impor-tant early successes. Since these three compositions were the only 1920s tunes, whichEllington rearranged in a 1930s “up to date” style for his enlarged band (all with “New”added in the title), these compositions continued to be an important asset of the band’srepertoire in the 1930s.

68Ellington had based the harmonic progression of “Lots o’ Fingers” on the one of James P. Johnson’s “Charles-ton.” He also recorded this tune under the alternate title “Fast and Furious” on 17 May 1932 (Brunswick 6355).The earliest known recording of “Lots o’ Fingers” is a transcript from a nationwide broadcasted Cotton Club showlittle over a year (29 January 1931) before the Victor recording (see Steiner, “Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC,” op.cit.). All three versions are identical in duration.69The records in this series were pressed on a ten- or twelve-inch single-sided standard groove disc, playing at 33⅓rpm. This early foray into the LP market turned out to be a commercial failure. The production ended in 1933, inpart because potential record buyers were forced to purchase a special phonograph, equipped with an electricmotor and a special chromium needle in order to properly play the microgroove records.70Berini and Volonté, Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, 168.


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This short score, the 1930 and 1932 recordings as well as the version in Check andDouble Check of “East St. Louis” reveal that Ellington emphasized the AABA sectionof the composition. The reduction of the piece down to the opening chorus and omis-sion of the C section show that “East St. Louis” now primarily was used as a signaturetune. Presumably, the band hardly played the full version in the early to mid-1930s,since Ellington and his band performed the abbreviated version on tour. The sameshort signature version was performed, for instance, during a 1933 engagement atthe Cotton Club from 9 March and 31 May. According to Steiner, Ellington openedthirty-two of the Cotton Club shows with “East St. Louis,” while the signature tunesigned off twenty-two shows.71

Fourth Arrangement: The Orchestra’s Signature Tune

Ellington revised the composition in the mid-1930s, together with two others writtenaround the same time: “Black and Tan Fantasy” and “Birmingham Breakdown,”adding “New” to their titles. “The New East St. Louis” is a testament to much thathad happened with Ellington’s music and career in the ten years since the compo-sition’s first release on Vocalion. “The New East St. Louis” demonstrates how he haddeveloped as a composer, and what he had learned from works as “Reminiscing inTempo,” “Clarinet Lament” (Barney’s Concerto), “Echoes of Harlem” (Cootie’s Con-certo), “Trumpet in Spades” (Rex’s Concerto), and “Yearning for Love” (Lawrence’sConcerto).

For “TheNew East St. Louis” he cut the C strain, to concentrate on the AABA section,now played twice. The first chorus differs little from the version in Example 2. CootieWilliams plays the theme solo in all three A strains, entering early on in bar 6 of theintroduction, which creates a smooth transition into the A strain. The lead voice inthe B strain is scored for saxophones in octaves, as in the 1930, 1932 and Check andDouble Check versions, as well as in the short score of Example 2.

Three sketches show that Ellington was experimenting with the scoring of theopening passage for this 1937 arrangement.72 A first attempt involves a somber,funeral march-like voicing with numerous major and minor seconds and a peculiar,descending line in crotchets with two appoggiaturas (bar 5). A second score roughly cor-responds to the final version. Of particular interest is Ellington’s verbal indication in thetopmargin: “Drums Roll Cimbal [sic] 1st 8 – Temple Blocks 2nd 8 / Hayes Fancy 3/slap –Billy Tuba.” The drum and cymbal rolls in the first A strain have been replaced in therecorded version (Master Records 101; 5 March 1937) with downbeat tubular bells(except in bar 5). The temple blocks, indeed, appear throughout the entire firstchorus, playing “hoofbeats.” The notated bass line—actually the theme—is not

71For a list with the shows of the twenty-second Cotton Club Parade, in which “East St. Louis” was performed, seeSteiner, “Cotton Club Broadcasts on NBC: 1932–1933.”72Short score, pencil, 2 pp. (1 p. with “East St. Louis”). NMAH, Ruth Ellington Collection (REC), REC#2, Box 8:5.Short score, 4 pp. (2 pp. with two “East St. Louis” sketches). NMAH, REC#2, Box 8:5. There is no other compo-sition or part of any composition of the 1930s for which more than one score has survived, to the best of thisauthor’s knowledge. Apparently Ellington sought the right orchestral balance for the eight-bar opening passage.


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played by Billy Taylor on tuba or on any other low-register instrument, probably to stayaway from the somber timbre of the first score. Hayes Alvis, finally, does not emphasizethe third beat with “fancy slaps,” but simply plays a walking bass figure. The third andlast score gives the opening eight-bar passage as on the recording, except that Ellingtonstill notates the later, omitted bass line. In contrast with all earlier arrangements, Elling-ton adds a two-chord, four-voice brass shout, in bars 2 and 4 of each A strain. He alsoinserts a pick-up figure in quavers (played twice in succession by the trombones inunison, bars 7 and 8 of intro and first A strain of first chorus), in order to mark theA-strain cadence.

The second chorus reveals the same elaborate and sophisticated arranging style asmany other Ellington works of the late-1930s. Three trombones play a variationbased on Miley’s melody in the first two A strains.73 In the second A strain, Ellingtoninstructs Bigard to “ad lib” high clarinet figures in response to the three trombones.The B strain also features Bigard, playing the same melody which the saxophonesection performed two octaves lower in the 1930/32 arrangement (see Example 3).Bigard is accompanied by three open trumpets and trombones playing short interjec-tions together. The arrangement ends with the concluding A strain. The saxophonesplay an eight-note arpeggio variation of Miley’s theme in unison, while two trumpets(Stewart and Whetsel)74 and three trombones perform accompanying chords.

Ellington recorded “The New East St. Louis” for Irving Mills’s short-lived MasterRecords label, and it became the label’s first release, on 1 April 1937. Since theannouncement of Master Records was hot news in entertainment circles, spun byMills’ promotion machine, it is likely that Ellington wrote the arrangement specificallyfor the occasion. A few commentators have compared the recording of “The New EastSt. Louis” with the earlier recordings of the composition. For Martin Williams, “thewhole is much better orchestrated, the juxtaposition of the featured soloist againstthe orchestration and against the other soloists is balanced and proportioned.”75 Inparticular, “there is the growth of the orchestra itself, its swing, and the obviousimprovements of its rhythm section.”76 Williams’s assessment of the “The New EastSt. Louis” has much in common with that of Hugues Panassié relating to the first orsecond arrangement of “East St. Louis” (most commentators must have had thereadily accessible 1927 Victor version in their heads). In Hot Jazz: Le guide de lamusique swing et du vrai jazz—published in English in 1936 as The Guide to SwingMusic—Panassié states still before the release of “The New East St. Louis” that “itwould not be right to say that arrangements like that in ‘East St. Louis’ . . . are no

73Short score, pencil, 2 pp, NMAH, DEC#1, Box 467:1. The fragmented sketch was identified as “The New EastSt. Louis” by Edward Green. Only the parts for “Cooty” [Cootie Williams] and “Rex” [Stewart] have survived,DEC#1, Box 109:10.74Only the second chorus is notated. While Williams pauses during the last eight bars (see part), Stewart andWhetsel play this section alone.75Williams, Jazz Tradition, 103.76Williams’s critique is particularly problematic, since it is printed in the Smithsonian Collection, which is stillused as introductory material to the history of jazz in many universities across the United States (Martin Williams,Accompanying Booklet to Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Collection ofRecordings. New York: Manufactured by CBS Records, 1987, 65).


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longer good today; but it is certain that they have become dated.”77 Meanwhile Wil-liams, who had much greater distance to “East St. Louis,” exhibits a teleological under-standing of the history of jazz by ignoring that both versions are testimonials of theirrespective eras. Ellington firmly positioned “The New East St. Louis” within the swingstyle, in which the thirty-two bar songs and twelve-bar blues were the most used for-mulas. The symmetrical form of intro and two choruses (8 + 32 + 32 bars), the balancebetween the sections, is in keeping with the main characteristics of many swingarrangements. With its luscious orchestration and the obbligato, virtuoso clarinetsolo, the bridge of the second chorus in particular recalls similar passages fromBenny Goodman’s output of the same period.

In its novel, sleek arrangement, “East St. Louis” continued to be the signature tune ofEllington’s orchestra for the remaining years of the 1930s. Typically, it was played withthe eight-bar introduction, followed by the two first A strains, with a radio voice-over.Ellington also performed the new arrangement several times during an engagement atthe Cotton Club in the following year. Then, from 1939 to September 1940, we know ofonly a few more occurrences, in which Ellington and his orchestra played the abbre-viated “The New East St. Louis.”78

In September 1940, during the band’s engagement at Chicago’s Panther Room at theSherman Hotel, Ellington replaced “East St. Louis” with a new signature tune, “SepiaPanorama.” By that time, the composition no longer represented the sophisticated,progressive style of the orchestra. According to the NBC logs, “East St. Louis”opened the non-sponsored “sustaining broadcasts” on the nights of 7, 8, 10 and 11 Sep-tember.79 Aural evidence, however, reveals that on the night of 8 September “SepiaPanorama” was the first composition of the “sustainer,” as it was for the many remain-ing shows from 12 September to 13 October.80

At that time “Sepia Panorama” was fairly new in the band’s repertory, for it wasrecorded in New York City a little over six weeks before the opening in Chicago.“Sepia Panorama,” however, was not destined to remain the band’s theme song forvery long. During the so-called broadcasting ban Ellington replaced some of hisASCAP-licensed compositions with new works by Billy Strayhorn and Ellington’sson Mercer. Among these new compositions was Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train,”first recorded for Standard Radio Transcription at the RCA studio in Hollywood (15January 1941). The first commercial recording took place a month later (15 February),once again at the RCA studio in Hollywood. By this time “Take the ‘A’ Train” musthave been the band’s new signature tune. An MBS radio program, broadcast fromCasa Mañana in Culver City the following day (16 February), opened and closed

77Hugues Panassié,Hot Jazz: The Guide to Swing Music, translated by Lyle and Eleanor Dowling from “Le jazz hot”(New York: M. Witmark & Sons, 1936), 178f.78Radio broadcast from the “Ritz-Carlton Hotel,” Boston, 26 July 1939; NBC broadcast from the “SouthlandsCafe,” Boston, 9 January 1940; and BBC broadcast America Dances, from the CBS radio studios, New York, 10June 1940.79Carl Hällström and Ken Steiner, “Broadcasts in September and October 1940,” The International DEMS Bulletin(December 2009–March 2010), http://www.depanorama.net/dems/093.htm (accessed 25 August 2010).80Ibid.


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with “Take the ‘A’ Train.” After the ban ended, by the end of September 1941,81 “Takethe ‘A’ Train” had achieved such popularity that Ellington neither reintroduced “SepiaPanorama,” nor “East St. Louis” as the orchestra’s signature piece.

Fifth Arrangement: The Carnegie Hall Concert of 1947

There are no traces that between September 1940 and December 1947 “East St. Louis”wasin the band book. A further revival of “East St. Louis”—twenty years after the Vocalionrecording—took place at the sixth annual concert at Carnegie Hall, 26 December 1947.Since 1943, Ellington and his band played an annual concert at Carnegie Hall, whicheach time featured an extended work. In 1947, he premiered his freshly recorded LiberianSuite, followed by a medley with “East St. Louis,” “Echoes of Harlem,” “Black and TanFantasy” and “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be.” As in the recorded medley of 1932(and in the short score in Example 2), Ellington combined “East St. Louis” and “Blackand Tan Fantasy,” yet the Carnegie Hall medley is based on a more complex arrangement.After the “East St. Louis” opening, Ellington unites the ostinato bass line of “Echoes ofHarlem”with the theme of “Black and Tan Fantasy” (played bymuted trumpets), followedby a complete statement of “Echoes of Harlem,” before the medley concludes with Lawr-ence Brown’s obbligato trombone solo, accompanied by a boogie woogie-blues, and finallyending with “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” performed by the whole brass section.“East St. Louis”was presented in a new arrangement: the eight-bar intro, an AABA chorusin D minor, and a “ragtime” C strain in A♭major. Ellington reinserts the previously cut Cstrain in a neworchestration, withmuted trumpets over a unison saxophone F pedal-point.The corresponding short score shows the horns in open voicings while Ellington hasdesigned a more complex chord progression for the introduction.82 Drummer Greerplays several rolls on the cymbals and tom-toms under the introduction, with occasionaltom-tom hits, in keeping with the second sketch for “The New East St. Louis.” It lendsthe introduction a somber and uncanny mood.

A set of parts, drawn from the 1947 short score, suggests that this arrangement wasnot originally written for the Carnegie Hall concert, but for an earlier event.83 While thetrombone and reed section parts correspond with the orchestra’s personnel at CarnegieHall, those for the trumpet section do not. Apart from soloist Ray Nance, the trumpetsection consisted of Harold “Shorty” Baker, Shelton Hemphill, Francis Williams and AlKillian.84 Ellington may have written this arrangement during (or shortly after) the

81Marc Hugunin, “ASCAP, BMI and the Democratization of American Popular Music,” Popular Music and Society7:1 (1979), 8–17, here 10.82Short score, pencil, 2 pp., NMAH, DEC#1, Box 9:9. The last two bars are notated on a separate sheet (DEC#1,Box 109:9).83The parts are for Rab [Johnny Hodges], [Al] Sears, Jimmy [Hamilton], [Harry] Carney, Scad [Shelton Hemp-hill], Dud [Bascomb], [Francis] Williams; [Claude] Jones, [Lawrence] Brown, Tyree [Glenn], NMAH, DEC#1,109:10. The part for [Shorty] Baker, is in DEC#1, 453:1, the one for [Russell] Proc[ope] in DEC#C, 461:1, andthe bass part in Series 1C, Box 466, Folder 1.84There are no parts at NMAH for neither the soloist Nance, nor Killian, who joined the orchestra shortly beforethe concert (on 18 December), as replacement for Dud Bascomb.


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band’s extended stay in Los Angeles in the summer of 1947. The orchestra resided onthe West Coast from 25 July to 6 October. During that time Bascomb was still amember of the band. This arrangement was therefore already performed before the

Example 4. Short score. Page 2 (of 2). Carnegie Hall Concert of 1947. NMAH, DEC#1,Box 9:9 (Final two measures on separate page: NMAH, DEC#1, Box 109:9). (Used bypermission of the Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum ofAmerican History, Smithsonian Institution).


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Carnegie Hall concert in December, most likely between the end of July and thedeparture of Killian in December.85

The fifth arrangement of “East St. Louis” exhibits stylistic elements of the late 1940s.For instance, the accompanying, chordal figures with semiquaver triplet pick-ups (see thesaxophone section in the B strain of Example 4) resemble Stan Kenton’s arrangementsand Gil Evans’ scores for the Claude Thornhill orchestra. Despite Ellington’s effort toadapt “East St. Louis” to the big band style of the late 1940s, it is not known howoften the band performed this particular arrangement. The Carnegie live cut for Elling-ton’s own archive is the only recording of the 1947 arrangement which has survived.

Sixth Arrangement: An Historical Perspective on “East St. Louis”

After the Carnegie Hall concert of 1947, the orchestra played “East St. Louis” infre-quently before Ellington revived it once more, for a recording at Universal Studiosin Chicago on 7 or 8 February 1956. Under the auspices of the studio’s owner, BillPutnam—one of the most sought-after sound engineers and A&R specialists in therecord business of the 1950s—the orchestra recorded twenty-three tunes. Ellingtonwas apparently pleased with the result as he informed his agent, William Morris, ofhis intention to sell the tapes to a label. The independent New York-based BethlehemRecords paid Ellington the considerable sum of $20,000 for two albums, and roughly$40,000 for the musicians.

The first of the two LPs is the concept album Historically Speaking, which presents aretrospective of the band’s music from the late-1920s (“East St. Louis,” “Creole LoveCall”), the 1930s (“Stompy Jones,” “The Jeep Is Jumpin,’” “Ko-Ko”), the 1940s(“Jack the Bear,” “In a Mellow Tone,” “Midriff,” “Cotton Tail,” “Upper ManhattanMedical Group”) and the 1950s (“Unbooted Character”). Although the liner notesstate that for “East St. Louis . . . the Duke . . . uses his original arrangement,” Ellingtonin fact wrote a new arrangement for “East St. Louis,” as he did for “Creole Love Call”and the 1930s numbers.86 The form of this sixth arrangement is intro–AABACCA.Ellington scores the introduction in close-position voicings (two altos, tenor and abowed double bass). The first C strain is performed by three trombones in close-pos-ition voicing; the second is a repetition with three trumpets replicating the tromboneparts an octave higher. The trombones are accompanied by the saxophones, withHodges connecting the two C strain parts at bars 7 and 8.

The score demonstrates an economically orchestrated arrangement of “EastSt. Louis.” The arrangement provides an overall impression of a restrained, minimalistapproach, as if the piece is viewed through a distant, ironic filter, providing a self-reflective retrospective of his work. A further indicator for such a removed stance isthat the tempo has halved from the 1926 ♩ = 163 to ♩ = 80.

85The penciled remark by Ellington after the last bars of the arrangement “to old sheet (A♭) / Trombones” signalsthat the continuation after “East St. Louis” is different than for the Carnegie Hall concert. Either Ellington hasindicated that the C strain in A♭ major should be repeated by the trombone section or that “East St. Louis”may have opened another medley with another tune.86Short score, 4 pp. (2 pp. with “East St. Louis”), NMAH, DEC#1, 109:9.


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Once again, the commentators were keen to compare this new arrangement with pre-vious versions. Nat Hentoff, who reviewed the album for Down Beat, awarded it fourstars. Even though he observed that “among the high points are a brooding EastSt. Louis,” he judged the “album as a whole . . . enjoyable but not indispensable, sincenone of the re-created tracks are equal in quality to their originals. . .”87 The harshestcritique came from André Hodeir, who described the album as “not just another badrecord, [but] it is the sign of a dereliction which confirms once and for all thedecadence of a great musician.” Hodeir continued that “either the Duke has simplylost the remarkable musical sensibility which lay at the heart of his genius, or else hewas never really conscious of the beauty of his music.” He then concluded that “thecontemporary artist has one anguishing advantage over his predecessors, and this is asense of historical perspective which enables him to situate himself with regard to thepast . . . the title Historically Speaking means ‘The Duke Judged by His Past’.”88

While the historical aspect is certainly worthy of attention, it must be assessed some-what differently. Ellington revisited his music from a safe distance, with critical ironyand an observant “objectivity.” Self-reflective, Ellington re-examined his earliercompositions, with new musicians, and a novel approach of the familiar repertoire.Historically Speaking marks the rebirth of Ellington and his orchestra in the wake oftheir legendary Newport Jazz Festival concert, which would put Ellington back onthe map, five months later. Historically Speaking is for Ellington what E =MC2

(Roulette, 1957) was for Count Basie (aka “The Atomic Mr. Basie”), the return of aswing musician in a new musical reality—the post/hard bop and “third stream”move-ments were in full bloom—which required retooling the orchestra and its repertoire.Both albums (Historically Speaking and E =MC2) display the same refreshing, ironicand light-hearted post-swing sound.

After the critical acclaim ofHistorically Speaking, Ellington and his orchestra performed“East St. Louis” in the 1956 arrangement infrequently. They played it at a benefit concertat the Medinah Temple in Chicago on 3 April 1957,89 as sign-off tune at Basin Street Eastin New York City (only AABA), on 14 January and 17 August 1964,90 and during the CBCtelevision show Festival—The Duke in Toronto on 2 September.91 By that time CootieWilliams had rejoined the orchestra.92 Williams reclaimed the growl-solo part of “EastSt. Louis” at the second concert at the Théatre des Champs Elysées in Paris on 30January 196593—coarser, more pungent and penetrating than thirty years earlier on theMaster recording. In Paris the form was intro–AABA. It is not known whether the Cstrain was also dropped during the opening concert of a three-night engagement atLennie’s-on-the-Turnpike in West Peabody, Massachusetts, on 11 September 1967.

87Nat Hentoff, “Duke Ellington: Historically Speaking—The Duke,” Down Beat (30 May 1956), 21. Reprinted in:Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 91.88All quotations of Hodeir, in Tucker, Ellington Reader, 301–2.89Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 104.90Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 232 and 249.91Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 250.92Cootie Williams rejoined the orchestra in 1962.93Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 257.


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Apparently, in the late-1960s “East St. Louis” was no longer part of the band’s book.Nevertheless the piece was of personal importance to Ellington. He played it as a duetwith organist Wild Bill Davison—who toured with the orchestra from September 1969to February 1971—as the last number during a concert at the Teatro Massimo inPescara on 12 November 1969.94 Less than two years later it became another duet,this time with bassist Joe Benjamin at a concert at the Left Bank club in Baltimoreon 22 February 1971.95 The last known occasion on which Ellington and his orchestraplayed “East St. Louis” was at a matinee concert during the festival “Newport inNew York” at Carnegie Hall on 8 July 1972.96

* * * *

In conclusion, “East St. Louis” is a prime example of how over the course of forty-five years Ellington reworked and modernized a composition, largely through accom-modating the individual characters of the different musicians he had at his disposal atdifferent moments. Ellington arranged the composition at least once every decadebetween 1930 and 1960, a clear sign of his perennial interest in “East St. Louis.”Each of these new arrangements displayed the respective stage in his career.

Despite “East St. Louis” initial success and despite its close connection with Elling-ton’s career it never became a jazz standard, unlike later Ellington compositions such as“Sophisticated Lady,” “Satin Doll,” and “C Jam Blues.” “East St. Louis” has remained awork closely linked to the unique, yet ever-changing sounds of the Ellington orchestra.In particular, Miley’s memorable growl interpretation of the AABA theme has capturedthe listener’s attention, and consequently, all later soloists modeled their interpretationafter him, including Ellington’s own musicians, Cootie Williams and Ray Nance. Thoseartists who recorded versions of “East St. Louis” after Ellington’s demise did so primar-ily on tribute albums, from David Grusin’s Homage to Duke (1993) to John Pizzarelli’sRockin’ in Rhythm: A Duke Ellington Tribute (2010) or on concept albums such as GregOsby’s St. Louis themed album St. Louis Shoes (2003). For generations after Ellington(and probably also for the elderly Ellington himself), “East St. Louis” evoked nostalgiafor the “roaring twenties,” an imagined world of Harlem, illicit jazz clubs, loosewomen, hardboiled gangsters and Prohibition. Francis Ford Coppola attempted torecreate such a world in his 1984 fictional film Cotton Club, in which, unsurprisingly,“East St. Louis” is one of the featured tunes.

The most unusual versions of “East St. Louis” were made by rock and folk musicians,who also showed a debt to Miley’s solo. On Steely Dan’s third album “Pretzel Logic”(1974), released a little less than two months before Ellington’s passing, WalterBecker reinterprets Miley’s solo on an electric guitar with wah-wah effects. ThePerth-based gypsy and tango band Zigatango offers a Hungarian influenced renderingwith Miley’s solo in the solo violin, accompanied by bandoneon, guitar and double bass(Zigatango, 2008), while in the Oakland-based duo Shamalamacord Mike Penny plays

94Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 367.95Berini and Volonté list John Lamb as the double bass player (Duke Ellington: un genio, un mito, 536).96Vail, Duke’s Diary, part II, 419.


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the AABA theme on the North-Japanese tsugaru shamisen, accompanied by anaccordion (Shamalamacord, 2009).

One of the few cover versions to salute Ellington’s continuous adjusting of the pieceto contemporary idioms is Lenny White’s recomposition “East St. Louis” (indeed titledwithout “Toodle-O[o]”; on the album Present Tense, 1995). This bluesy, hip-hop influ-enced fusion takes its inspiration from the original, phrases Miley’s growl solo on aharmon muted trumpet as a tribute to Miles Davis, and successfully brings this reinter-pretation into the 1990s. One can hope that future musicians will demonstrate the samezeal of adapting “East St. Louis” to the stylistic demands of their own times.

Abstract

“East St. Louis Toodle-O” is probably the only Ellington composition which displaysEllington’s mode of reworking and modernizing a work over the course of forty-fiveyears, largely through a process of accommodating the individual characters of thedifferent stylists he had at his disposal at different moments in time. In its first twoarrangements, the composition reflects Ellington’s rise to success in an exemplaryfashion. The first arrangement (recorded for the first time on Vocalion) reveals how“East St. Louis” was instrumental for Ellington in shaping a unique musical stylethat would later be exploited by Irving Mills as “jungle music.” It is also the first Elling-ton composition in which he had proven himself to be a serious contender within thehighly competitive Manhattan “hot jazz” scene. “East St. Louis”may well be one of thefew compositions (along with “Black and Tan Fantasy” and “Immigration Blues”) thatallowed him and his band to cease their engagements at the Kentucky Club and moveuptown to Harlem. The second arrangement (Victor) is a testament to Ellington’smusic during the early days of his tenure at the Cotton Club.

The third arrangement (Diva and Velvet Tone) reflects the band’s expanding,growing proficiency. After Bubber Miley’s discharge—the soloist of “EastSt. Louis”—and with the steady enlargement of the orchestra, Ellington was facedwith the need to write a new arrangement, reflecting the taste and style of the early1930s. With the beginning of the new decade, “East St. Louis” was primarily used asthe band’s signature tune, in its abbreviated form. The fourth arrangement underthe title “The New East St. Louis Toodle-O,” recorded in 1937 on Mill’s MasterRecords label, echoes the innovative features of the swing idiom.

In the fifth arrangement, presented at the Carnegie Hall concert in 1947, Ellingtondisplays solid skill in adapting the composition to the prerequisites of the post-bebopand pre-cool jazz era. Finally in the sixth arrangement (Bethlehem Records, 1956),Ellington presents “East St. Louis” through a distant, ironic filter, as a self-reflective ret-rospective of his early work. From 1956 to the end of his career, “East St. Louis” playeda marginal role in the band’s repertoire.


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duke ellington's “east st. louis toodle-o”

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