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Title: Ellington: The Early Years (Music in American Life Series) by Mark Tucker ISBN: 0-252-01425-1 Publisher: University of Illinois Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1991 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: A little techical for nonmusicians after the second half
Comment: Tucker is an outstanding researcher and this book adds a great deal of valuable information to Duke Ellington's early years. He provides a solid context for Duke Ellington's development in the Washington music scene. You can see how Duke soaked up neighborhood piano, ragime, and ensemble influences as he evolved from musical entrepreneur to fledgling composer. This early section added a lot of well-researched info to my knowledge of Ellington.

As the scene shifts to New York, the emphasis on personality, character, and context shifts and Tucker shifts largely to extremely detailed musical analysis of Ellington's early records. Here he betrays that this book is primarily intended for an academic audience of fellow Ellington and hardcore jazz scholars. Without keyboard skills the numerous musical examples weren't as beneficial to me, although I am sure that piano players and arrangers would find this section quite helpful. I imagine he does a useful job of counteracting many interpretations of Duke's life that there is little musical value to his pre-Cotton club work, but I already had a sense that Bubber Miley and Joe Nanton made valuable solo and compositional contributions on tunes like "Black and Tan Fantasy", "Creole Love Call", and "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" before reading this work. I did gain from how Tucker's wealth of knowledge allowed him to compare how these works compared to solos and other compositions of the period. I did not realize how influential King Oliver's stuff was on Ellington through the ideas of his soloists.

I wanted more stories of what it was like for the band in New York than I got here, but it was still a very informative read nonetheless.

I rate this book 3.5 stars for non academics, probably 4.5 stars for those who can easily comprehend the musical examples. Also a listener who is greatly attracted to music like the Okeh Ellington would probably find this a nice companion for a couple of the earlier tunes on that set.

3.5 stars

--SD

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