Jazz Workshop: Listening Guide to Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige - Part 2 - Brown - Page 3

(4:48)
Full orchestra enters (and at full blast) for Variation 2 on theme, with all but trumpet and trombone dropping out for last two bars (4:55 – 4:57)

(4:57)
Cowbell signals repeat; reeds restate Variation 2, trombone and trumpet again underscoring, with all but bass (Junior Raglin) and drums dropping out for last two bars (5:04 – 5:06)

(5:06) Two-bar bass turnaround

(5:08)
8-bar bass solo with trumpet and trombone playing riff at two-bar intervals: 5:08, 5:11, 5:13. This is Variation 3.

(5:18)
Repeat Variation 3, with riff much softer (5:18, 5:20, 5:22)

(5:27)
Full orchestra restatement of Variation 3

(5:36)
Trumpet and trombone quietly restate variation 1, reeds underscoring, with repeat, even softer, at 5:46

(5:55) Piano (Ellington), just barely audible, recapitulates main “Emancipation Celebration” theme for 8-bars

iii. Mauve (aka The Blues)

(6:10)
Four-bar horn intro, followed by obbligato by alto sax (Otto Hardwicke)

(6:30)
Begin vocal (Betty Roche) statement:

The blues ain’t nothin’ but a cold gray day,
And all night long it stays that way.
‘Tain’t somethin’ that leaves you alone,
‘Tain’t somethin’ I want to call my own,
‘Tain’t somethin’ with sense enough to get up and go,
‘Tain’t nothin’ like nothin’ I know.

The blues don’t know nobody as a friend,
Ain’t been nowhere where they’re welcome back again.
The low, ugly, mean blues.

(8:13: Clarinet and trumpets at shrill high note)

(8:19)
16-bar tenor solo by Ben Webster; in 8th bar (8:51) Carney’s baritone makes very brief counterpoint.

(9:23)
Horns make soft transition into more forceful, fiercer horn theme (later used for “Carnegie Blues”), repeat, then a two-bar return from Webster at 10:04 that overlaps Roche’s return

(10:11)
Begin second Roche vocal statement, in new theme (with obbligato):

The blues ain’t nothin’ that you sing and rhyme,
The blues ain’t nothin’ but a dark cloud marking time.
The blues is a one-way ticket from your love to nowhere
The blues ain’t somethin’ but a black crepe bell ready to wear.
Sighin’, cryin’, feel ‘most like dyin’,

(Return to original vocal theme)
The blues ain’t nothin’,
The blues ain’t nothin’,
The blues…

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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