Jazz Workshop: Listening Guide to Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige - Part 2 - Brown - Page 2

Section 1
(1:33)
Theme 1A – 8-bar with slow, Caribbean groove

(1:42)
Theme 1B – 8-bar quick Caribbean groove

(1:52)
Variation on Theme 1A

(2:01)
Variation on Theme 1B; last two bars (2:08 – 2:10) transition to section 2.

Section 2
(2:10)
8-bar riff

(2:19)
Four-bar passage by saxophones; shout from Ellington at 2:22 announces

(2:24)
Theme 2 – 8-bar plunger-mute trumpet makes two-bar statement, then joined by second trumpet.

(2:33)
New riff – by two trumpets, only 4 bars this time; the rhythm comes from traditional Jamaican music. (Piano, with a groove from the Bahamas, is audible in the breaks.)

(2:37)
Trombone plays 2-bar vamp, drawn from traditional Puerto Rican music; vamp repeats with reeds and trumpet counterpoint at 2:40, then restated as a turnaround at 2:42

(2:46)
One beat on the floor tom kicks off another vamp, this time with reeds playing second, syncopated vamp over top; trumpets still playing counterpoint; continues for 12 bars

(3:00) Restatement, with some alteration, of Theme 2, trumpets and clarinets reaching zenith at 3:13

(3:14)
Saxophones repeat the last six-note phrase of Theme 2, sotto voce, three times

(3:21)
Trumpets and clarinets play same six-note phrase in crescendo, for a cap…but clarinet lingers for the lead into “Emancipation Celebration”

ii. Emancipation Celebration

(3:23)
Lone, low clarinet (Harry Carney) meanders slowly, ponderously, with horns responding at 3:28 with quick “Yankee Doodle went to town” phrase

(3:30)
Carney now joined by tenor sax (Ben Webster) and the two climb to a dreamy partial statement of main theme that’s then punctuated by the horns (3:37); sax and clarinet wind slowly down, then horns again pick up (3:50), joined by reeds and building up to a clarinet crescendo (3:56).

(3:58)
Horns blast, drums crash, repeat, and 7-bar “Emancipation Celebration” theme appears at 4:03 on cornet (Rex Stewart) with reeds underscoring.

(4:11)
Reeds enter the front line and respond to theme for 6 bars, with cornet returning for quick tag on the 7th and 8th bars.

(4:20)
Stewart restates theme, this time full 8 bars with reeds underscoring

(4:29)
Trombone joins trumpet for Variation 1 (8 bars) on theme, reeds still underscoring.

(4:39)
Reeds restate of Variation 1, this time with trombone and trumpet underscoring

Article Author: Michael J. West

Michael J. West is a writer, editor, and dilettante jazz critic in Washington, D.C. In addition to BlogCritics, he writes for JazzTimes, Washington City Paper, and AllAboutJazz.com. He occasionally writes at Pop Musicology, too. He's very cute. …

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