The Ellington Effect workshops take place once a month, and David picks a different Ellington composition to analyze for each one.  In about two hours, he talks through the piece note by note, line by line, analyzing the piece at both macro and micro levels.

David Berger has studied the music of Duke Ellington for over 50 years, and has transcribed over 500 Ellington and Strayhorn arrangements and compositions.  Because of this, he is able to make connections to Ellington's other pieces, talk about trends and eras in Ellington's writing, and discuss the influences of changing personnel on the music over time.

At the end of each workshop, David answers questions for a half hour or so.  These are always lively and fascinating, as workshop attendees tend to include some highly knowledgable Ellingtonians as well as plenty of intelligent musicians who ask insightful questions.

 

A full year before Ellington took up residency at the Cotton Club he recorded Birmingham Breakdown and then recorded it again three months later. It never gained the popularity of East St. Louis Toodle-oo, Black And Tan Fantasy, Creole Love Call, or The Mooche, but Ellington held it in high enough regard to revisit it eleven years later dressed in a new arrangement entitled The New Birmingham Breakdown. Where his late 1930s updates of East St. Louis Toodle-oo and Black And Tan Fantasy were inferior to the originals, The New Birmingham Breakdown easily translates into a solid swing chart.

 

Although the original meaning of the title has eluded modern audiences, like todalo, everyone in the 1920s knew the title referred to the popular dance called breakdown. The other famous breakdown title from back then is Chicago Breakdown composed by Jelly Roll Morton and recorded by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 

 

Ellington’s composition comes out of the stride piano tradition with deep roots in ragtime. Besides the repetitive syncopated rhythms and melody note with chromatic harmonies created in the bass and inside parts, the multi-strain form is a dead giveaway. Except for the two excursions into C minor, the tonic to subdominant march key structure is retained. 

 

All the repetition creates a swirling feeling like being stuck. He achieves a similar effect in 1935 with the aptly named Merry Go-Round.

 

A          8 bars repeated in C minor

B          20 bars repeated in Ab major

A          8 bars repeated in C minor

C          8 bars alto sax solo repeated in Ab major

B          20 bars in Ab major

C          8 bars trumpet duet repeated in Ab major

D          12 bar baritone sax solo Blues in Db 

D          12 bar group improvisation Blues in Db 

 

Personnel recorded for Vocalion November 29, 1926

 

Otto Hardwick: alto saxophone and clarinet

Rudy Jackson: tenor saxophone and clarinet

Edgar Sampson: alto and baritone saxophone and clarinet

Bubber Miley, Louis Metcalf, trumpets

Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton, trombone

Fred Guy, banjo

Duke Ellington, piano

Bass Edwards, tuba 

Sonny Greer, drums