Percy Grainger was a great admirer of Jazz and the saxophone and when he joined the US Army in World War 1 was teaching the instrument to the delight of his students.
On October 25, 1932, Percy Grainger invited Duke Ellington and his orchestra to perform “Creole Love Call” as part of a music lecture at New York University. It was the first time any university had invited a jazz musician to perform in an academic context. That meeting of Grainger and Ellington is a prism refracting the broader story of the music academy’s slow and reluctant embrace of jazz. This story is, in turn, a cultural reflection of the broader African-American freedom struggle.
Duke Ellington, Percy Grainger, and the status of jazz in the music academy
On October 25, 1932, Percy Grainger invited Duke Ellington and his orchestra to perform “Creole Love Call” as part of a music lecture at New York University. It was the first time any university had invited a jazz musician to perform in an academic context. It has been argued that the meeting of Grainger and Ellington is a prism refracting the broader story of the music academy’s slow and reluctant embrace of jazz. This story is, in turn, a cultural reflection of the broader African-American freedom struggle.
Ellington had come to embody the cultural prestige now enjoyed by jazz. He appears on Washington DC’s state quarter, and his statue stands at the northeast corner of Central Park in New York City. In 1932, however, Ellington was known to official music culture only as the leader of a popular dance band and the writer of a few catchy tunes. Although he was already a celebrity, few white people outside of jazz fandom considered Ellington to be a serious artist.
That year, he received his first favorable review from a classical critic, followed by endorsements from Percy Grainger and a few other figures from the music establishment. This praise was unusual at the time. Most cultural authorities of that era held jazz in low regard, relegating it to the same position occupied by hip-hop today: undeniably popular, vibrant perhaps, but deficient in musical quality, and even, according to some critics, a threat to the nation’s morals.
Ellington’s ascent in stature parallels the social and political gains made by African-Americans in the twentieth century generally. Grainger’s role in the story is more complicated. He was prescient in his admiration for Ellington, and for jazz generally, but this admiration was coupled with condescension and lack of understanding.
Grainger was a an eccentric, and his ideas do not neatly map onto the music academy generally. Nevertheless, he is a useful reference point for the partial embrace that universities have made of jazz, and African-American diasporic music generally.
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born on April 29, 1899. He grew up in a middle-class family in Washington, DC, which at the time had the nation’s largest urban black population (Tucker, 1990). His maternal grandfather had been born a slave, and his father was a butler in Warren Harding’s White House. Most middle-class black families at the time had a piano; the Ellington household had two.
Ellington attended the all-black Armstrong High School, whose principal, Carter G. Woodson, was a historian and the founder of The Journal of Negro Life and History. Woodson insisted that the curriculum put a strong emphasis on black history at all grade levels, and the school culture was one of black pride. Ellington studied harmony in high school and took private piano lessons, but he was not a dedicated student. He began performing in professional settings as a teenager, and by age 20, was leading his own band.
By 1932, Ellington had established himself as a major figure in jazz. He had released recordings of some of his most iconic compositions, including “East St Louis Toodle-oo” (1927), “Mood Indigo” (1930), and “Rockin’ in Rhythm” (1931). His performances at New York’s Cotton Club were broadcast nationally on NBC.
He had also been featured in one of the earliest musical short films, Black and Tan (1929). Sound in movies was still a technological novelty at the time, and RKO Radio Pictures produced Black and Tan to showcase their new Photophone system. It is worth examining this film in detail, because it so clearly illustrates the social position occupied by Ellington and his music at the time of its release.
On October 25, 1932, Percy Grainger invited Duke Ellington and his orchestra to perform “Creole Love Call” as part of a music lecture at New York University. It was the first time any university had invited a jazz musician to perform in an academic context. That meeting of Grainger and Ellington is a prism refracting the broader story of the music academy’s slow and reluctant embrace of jazz. This story is, in turn, a cultural reflection of the broader African-American freedom struggle.
The saxophone is only a few instruments in wide use today known to be invented by a single individual. His name is Adolphe Sax: Hence the name saxophone.
Adolphe Sax (1814 - 1894) was a musical instrument designer born in Belgium who could play many wind instruments. His idea was to create an instrument that combined the best qualities of a woodwind instrument with the best qualities of a brass instrument, and in the 1840s he conceived the saxophone. His invention was patented in Paris in 1846.
Duke Ellington, Percy Grainger, and the status of jazz in the music academy
On October 25, 1932, Percy Grainger invited Duke Ellington and his orchestra to perform “Creole Love Call” as part of a music lecture at New York University. It was the first time any university had invited a jazz musician to perform in an academic context. It has been argued that the meeting of Grainger and Ellington is a prism refracting the broader story of the music academy’s slow and reluctant embrace of jazz. This story is, in turn, a cultural reflection of the broader African-American freedom struggle.
Ellington had come to embody the cultural prestige now enjoyed by jazz. He appears on Washington DC’s state quarter, and his statue stands at the northeast corner of Central Park in New York City. In 1932, however, Ellington was known to official music culture only as the leader of a popular dance band and the writer of a few catchy tunes. Although he was already a celebrity, few white people outside of jazz fandom considered Ellington to be a serious artist.
That year, he received his first favorable review from a classical critic, followed by endorsements from Percy Grainger and a few other figures from the music establishment. This praise was unusual at the time. Most cultural authorities of that era held jazz in low regard, relegating it to the same position occupied by hip-hop today: undeniably popular, vibrant perhaps, but deficient in musical quality, and even, according to some critics, a threat to the nation’s morals.
Ellington’s ascent in stature parallels the social and political gains made by African-Americans in the twentieth century generally. Grainger’s role in the story is more complicated. He was prescient in his admiration for Ellington, and for jazz generally, but this admiration was coupled with condescension and lack of understanding.
Grainger was a an eccentric, and his ideas do not neatly map onto the music academy generally. Nevertheless, he is a useful reference point for the partial embrace that universities have made of jazz, and African-American diasporic music generally.
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born on April 29, 1899. He grew up in a middle-class family in Washington, DC, which at the time had the nation’s largest urban black population (Tucker, 1990). His maternal grandfather had been born a slave, and his father was a butler in Warren Harding’s White House. Most middle-class black families at the time had a piano; the Ellington household had two.
Ellington attended the all-black Armstrong High School, whose principal, Carter G. Woodson, was a historian and the founder of The Journal of Negro Life and History. Woodson insisted that the curriculum put a strong emphasis on black history at all grade levels, and the school culture was one of black pride. Ellington studied harmony in high school and took private piano lessons, but he was not a dedicated student. He began performing in professional settings as a teenager, and by age 20, was leading his own band.
By 1932, Ellington had established himself as a major figure in jazz. He had released recordings of some of his most iconic compositions, including “East St Louis Toodle-oo” (1927), “Mood Indigo” (1930), and “Rockin’ in Rhythm” (1931). His performances at New York’s Cotton Club were broadcast nationally on NBC.
He had also been featured in one of the earliest musical short films, Black and Tan (1929). Sound in movies was still a technological novelty at the time, and RKO Radio Pictures produced Black and Tan to showcase their new Photophone system. It is worth examining this film in detail, because it so clearly illustrates the social position occupied by Ellington and his music at the time of its release.
No comments:
Post a Comment