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The Duke meets The Count
The Duke meets The Count
Date Posted: January 09 2010
Written By: kelly sill
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Zwee Dot!
How Chicago musician and educator Kelly Sill hears jazz music
Battle Royal––First Time! The Count Meets the Duke––Count Basie and Duke Ellington
Bassist Kelly Sill recently gave an explanation of what he calls the “god-essence” moments in jazz—those moments that transcend the music itself and form a spiritual connection between the artist and the listener. As a particular example of this, Sill notes that on a live recording of “Stella By Starlight” an audience member squeals with joy when Miles Davis plays two simple notes—zwee dot!—on his trumpet.
Zwee dot!, then, seems to be an apropos name for this column, as Sill uses classic jazz cuts to share his “listening” with us.
00:02 Really quiet, but beautiful energy.
00:05 Four-bar intro.
00:07 When the drummer comes in, the feel ratchets up.
00:14 Nicely played melody by Duke.
00:27 Subtle, contained energy.
00:33 Dig all of the trombones.
00:36 It sounds like they have two different ways of phrasing that, and are doing both at the same time.
00:54 It does sound like two different bands, each with a different personality.
01:02 All the horns are really light on their feet.
01:05 And that’s Basie playing now; before it was Duke.
01:18 That’s Duke’s arranging.
01:30 Some relentless time-playing.
01:40 Interesting––a different soloist on just the bridge.
01:50 Classic tenor shout section.
02:05 You can hear Duke grunting.
02:07 The trumpet gets a full chorus.
02:19 And now they modulate from B-flat to E-flat.
02:22 That’s Paul Gonsalves.
02:28 The reeds get to trade again.
02:33 Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet now.
02:47 And the trumpets lead us into the modulation to A-flat major.
02:51 What a call-and-response with drums and piano!
02:57 Both pianos playing through that.
03:03 You can hear Johnny Hodges on top of the saxophones.
03:09 I love both Basie and Duke playing together––so different!
03:14 D-flat major, one of my favorite keys––and one of Duke’s trombonists.
03:38 Beautiful!
03:41 Paul Gonsalves again.
04:00 Only Duke could have written that!
04:10 Cat Anderson screaming over everyone else on trumpet.
04:16 The drummer’s wailing.
04:35 I should’ve said, “the drummers are wailing.”
04:45 Copying each other.
04:57 Two very different personalities.
05:05 Bam!
05:13 Wow!
05:19 Two chords to go.
05:25 What a great ending!
Credits
Bass – Aaron Bell
Clarinet – Jimmy Hamilton
Drums - Sam Woodyard
Flute, saxophone (tenor), reeds – Frank Wess
Guitar – Freddie Green
Piano – Count Basie, Duke Ellington
Saxophone (alto) – Johnny Hodges, Marshal Royal
Saxophone (alto), Reeds – Russell Procope
Saxophone (baritone) – Charlie Fowlkes, Harry Carney
Saxophone (tenor) – Budd Johnson, Frank Foster, Paul Gonsalves
Trombone – Benny Powell, Henry Coker, Lawrence Brown, Louis Blackburn, Quentin Jackson
Trombone (valve) – Juan Tizol
Trumpet – Fats Ford, Cat Anderson, Eddie Mullens, Snooky Young, Sonny Cohn, Thad Jones, Willie Cook
Trumpet, violin – Ray Nance
Columbia CL 1715 (Mono)/CS 8515 (Stereo), released in 1962.
Recorded July 6-7, 1961.
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