Duke Ellington
Black, Brown, and Beige
Night Creature
Edward “Duke” Ellington was the first African American bandleader to be invited to play at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He responded by composing Black, Brown and Beige, a Tone Parallel to the History of the American Negro, performed at Carnegie on January 23, 1943. The work was conceived as a history of the black man’s experience in America, and the music is accordingly wide-reaching, from up-tempo jazz to crying blues. Work songs with a heavy beat recall the slave’s experience, contrasted by Ellington’s own buoyant, sophisticated brand of big band writing. The piece broke both classical and jazz compositional conventions with its ambitious scope and fusion of styles. Sadly, its very ground-breaking nature may have caused the lukewarm response it received from contemporary critics, and Ellington never performed the work in its entirety again.
Ellington’s shorter Night Creature also marries symphonic structures with jazz idioms. The 1955 piece depicts the Harlem night life Ellington knew well, from elegant clubs to seedy joints, and his stated goal was “to make the symphony swing.” The night, Ellington wrote, “sparkles in tingling and tinkling tones,” and here the piano solo does as well. Various dance rhythms from bright swing to pulsing beguines reflect the beat of different clubs and keep this tribute to the night hopping.
July 21, 2001