[PDF] Duke Ellington's America by Harvey G. Cohen in Arts-Photography

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. His career. the music industry. Americas social history. but not the manBy Robert J. CrawfordIf you want an emphasis on the times at the expense of the life. this book will please you. It is a highly academic treatment. often in exhaustive detail. but also a relevant and at times fascinating social history of the US for the first 70 years of the 20C.Ellington grew up in Washington. DC. perhaps the only city in America where blacks could attain a middle class life style as a matter of course in 1900. The conservative attitude of his milieu. which Ellington adopted as a guide to his entire career. was to provide an example (of professionalism. of patient tolerance for racism while quietly working to combat it) as proof of their dignity and worth: rather than overtly fight or politic. they wanted to demonstrate they had class. And they certainly did have class. According to Cohen. this strategy (or attitude) was a principal reason for his broad. non-threatening appeal. which opened a huge market to his music. He never complained. even if he did on occasion try to explain when controversies arose.Combined with his exceptional talent. Ellington hired a manager (Irving Mills) to promote him in this way. Though Irving was eventually to siphon huge amounts of money from Ellingtons profits. perhaps illegitimately. he proved an indefatigable and shrewd promoter of him as a composer of genius in addition to being a great performer. In a way. Ellington served as the bridge that elevated jazz from an ephemeral "negro" pop art form into a genuine American one that could be viewed as "serious culture." It is a legacy as great as that of Mozart in my opinion.One of the pleasures of the book is to follow EIlingtons career. from ragtime-like compositions to swing and beyond. His big break in New York was at the Cotton Club. where he was booked as "jungle fever". But he grew as an artist into areas similar to classical music. just combining it with the idiom of jazz. I got a great sense of the artist and how he fitted into his times; with a little extra time. one can supplement the read with the music to which it refers.Unfortunately. this is a very academic book in tone. which makes it very dry at times. I skimmed a lot of it. esp. the many repetitious passages that are simply exhausting proofs. It isnt a fun read. but worth the effort.Finally. this is not an intimate bio of Ellington. but more of a social and economic history - his career is very interesting. spanning the big band era. the beginnings of the recording industry. and finally television. He was also a diplomat and traveled for the State Dept to the USSR. Africa. and elsewhere. But maybe there wasnt much to his personal life: he was always on the road. always working at a prodigious rate (composing and performing). most of his relationships ephemeral.Recommended. The portrait of the working artist is fascinating and compelling: with phenomenal energy. he often did all nighters to compose. got his orchestra (always on hand) to try it out. then re-worked it all right up to the last minute. often not even writing them down. He was always changing. experimenting. never content to rest on his laurels or provide nostalgic shows.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Great and very sobering readBy Matthew HaydenExcellent and readable treatment of the social and economic conditions in which Duke made his music. Its interesting to read a history of the Duke where analysis of the evolution of his music takes second place to cogent and sometimes trenchant explication of the explicitly racist society in which Ellington made his music and managed to run a mostly-thriving commercial band. Cohen strikes the heart of the matter when he notes the social and artistic tradeoffs Ellington had to accommodate in order to remain economically viable.Its a good and entertaining story but a bit sobering to realize the barriers Ellington faced throughout his career. He persevered and did well but its a reminder that in his era. only the greatest black artists could make headway and on then with the help of white agents who didnt always have his best interests in mind.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Beyond CategoryBy Bruce HartThis is one of those books which was always going to attract criticism and it seems some readers have missed the point. The title clearly states that this is about the AMERICA Ellington had to deal with during an era when racism was to put it mildly. overt and sanctioned. The orchestra and its uniqueness is not the point of the book. That Ellington managed to tour with his orchestra and maintain his sanity is what the book focusses on. Much of the book is about how difficult it was to tour and play to just white audiences in the US and find restaurants where the band could eat. The civil rights movement also is a part of the era Cohen writes about and there are some astounding insights which reveal Ellingtons frustrations and anger at how his people were treated. (see p.398) Ellington often used his own personal money to finance what he believed in and this is the era which sometimes is difficult to imagine. The history and the story we have here is much more important than Cohens writing style and for that I rated it as such.