Jack Chambers is a professor of music and language at the University of Toronto, and author of the biography Milestones: The Music And Times Of Miles Davis (1998). He has now produced an original, detailed and forensic examination of Ellington’s influences and achievements from the 1930s until his death in 1974. Meticulously annotated with playlist guides to each of the 11 chapters, a seven-page bibliography of works cited and a valuable index of compositions and songs, it is a major addition to Ellington studies. Chambers states his purpose as being an examination of Duke’s music “thematically, collating topics, motifs, memes, and predilections that caught his attention and inspired his restless muse”.
Briefly, these influences were reflected in the titles of his compositions. Some examples: Ellington’s fascination with trains is reflected in, for instance, Drop Me Off In Harlem, Harlem Air Shaft, A Tone Parallel To Harlem, Take The ‘A’ Train (written by Billy Strayhorn) and Happy-Go-Lucky Local. The demands of producing music for the movies (notably for Anatomy Of A Murder and Paris Blues), the impressions gathered from and during his worldwide tours and the enduring influence of Africa all provided grist for the prolific Ellingtonian mill. They came to be embodied and interpreted in a series of notable albums: The Far East Suite, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, and The Togo Brava Suite (written in gratitude to the Republic of Togo which had depicted him on a postage stamp).
The Ellington/Strayhorn takes on the works of the most famous British dramatist – the initially critically undervalued Shakespeare Suite – receive detailed analysis. He provides informative (and convincing) descriptions of the 12 compositions on the original album (which were later supplemented by 10 “bonus tracks”). Regarding The Star Crossed Lovers, Chambers celebrates “Juliet’s lament for the suicide of her young lover… conveyed with abject despair in Strayhorn’s exquisite melody as rendered by Johnny Hodges. The performance is one of the triumphs of the spectral alliance between the composer and soloist, and a brilliant evocation of doomed love.” Elsewhere, he discusses Ellington’s unique talents as a pianist and the special musical relationship he fostered between Johnny Hodges and Billy Strayhorn.
There are meticulous listings of the recordings and compositions by Duke from the 1920s until his death in 1974, a detailed bibliography and index, a playlist of all the recordings mentioned in the text, and a listing of ”Musicians’ impressions of Duke Ellington” from 1932 until 1999. These include those of Percy Grainger, André Previn, Hoagy Carmichael, Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis. All agreed on his genius, but as Chambers also notes, Ellington had his critics, especially the wealthy aristocratic and pioneering record producer and jazz entrepreneur John Hammond; he also concedes that Ellington’s concerts “became increasingly formulaic”. He appropriately quotes the late Benny Green to good effect: ”[Ellington] regarded his concert appearances as something divorced from Ellington the writer of extended works… [Once] he stepped on the concert stage, Ellington also stepped into a different persona and saw himself not so much as a composer as an entertainer.” Thankfully, Chambers provides us with fresh portraits of the bifurcating Duke.
A Tone Parallel To Duke Ellington: The Man In The Music, by Jack Chambers. University Press of Mississippi, 2025. 259pp. ISBN 9781496855749
