Contrasts / Composer

Watch Johnny Hodges in All of Me

Smaller groups within the whole
The challenge for Duke Ellington was to create a workable balance between his ceaseless artistic exploration and the popular requirements of that era. In collaboration with his players, Ellington worked out a series of solo voices that arose out of the orchestra and functioned like regular characters on a situation comedy.

Ellington employed two innovations:

> He made recordings for smaller groups (sextets, octets, and nonets) drawn from his then 15-man orchestra.

> He composed pieces that were concerto-like and focused on a specific instrumentalist, as with Jeep's Blues for Johnny Hodges and Yearning for Love with Lawrence Brown.

Different types of voices
Ellington used a technique called vocalizing, having instruments sound as close to the human voice as possible, and voices sound as close to instruments.

In On A Turquoise Cloud, the two primary "voices" are singer Kay Davis, who emits wordless "vocalese" that sounds exactly like an extra-human instrument, and a trombonist, whose solo that could easily be mistaken for a human voice.

Listen (0:30) >

In It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing),Ivie Anderson scats over Wellman Braud's slapping bass in the intro. Trombonist Joe Nanton's very-vocal muted solo states the famous melody with antiphonous call-and-response patterns with the wah-wah-ing ensemble already written in.

Listen to the different "voices" (0:30) >

Use the comment section below to respond: Can you think of examples of music today in which musicians switch "voices" with instruments?

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