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 plaintive song tenderly rendered by Arthur Whetsol is given a simple, yet creative, arrangement. The aggressive intro serves as a foil to the relaxed melody that follows. As usual for Ellington, the seemingly opposite ideas relate beautifully to each other and are all derived from the 2-bar motif at letter A.

 

This early mood piece precedes by two years the more famous Mood Indigo (for which the genre was named). A mood piece is slow, not a ballad, not a blues, but gentle and contemplative. Ellington introduced many of these over the years. This is one of the first. Awful Sad didn’t have a long life, but its deep structure and techniques that will effect future compositions and arrangements demand our attention.

 

Although mostly melody over whole note chordal accompaniment, the 4-part brass shout over sax thumb-line and 4-part sax soli break on the final bridge at K are innovative and will be further developed by Ellington in the 1930s and ultimately copied by every other jazz arranger.

 

 

Recorded October 20, 1928 NYC for Brunswick E28441-A

 

Alto Saxes:      Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges

Tenor Sax:       Barney Bigard

Baritone Sax:   Harry Carney

Trumpets:       Arthur Whetsol, Bubber Miley, Freddie Jenkins

Trombone:      Tricky Sam Nanton

Banjo:              Fred Guy

Piano:              Duke Ellington

Bass:                Wellman Braud

Drums:            Sonny Greer

 

Henry White is listed in Timner as playing trombone, but there is only one trombonist on the recording. Timner does not list Hardwick, but he clearly plays the solo at letter F.

 

 

32-bar aa’ba song form A through D and I through L.

 

Intro: 4 bars concerted brass vs. reeds

Head: 1 chorus 32 bars Whetsol aa’, Bigard (clarinet) bridge, Whetsol final a. 3-part brass accompaniment.

Interlude #1: 4-bar tenor solo over chromatically descending minor 3rds in the alto and bari

B strain. Contrasting 8 bars repeated: Hardwick alto solo over 3-part sax background

Interlude #2: Repeat of Intro 4 bars concerted brass vs. reeds

Recap: 1 chorus 32 bars: aa’ clarinet over 3-part sax background, shout on bridge, Whetsol accompanied by ensemble on final a with ritard ending.

 

 

The rough, forceful intro, while opposite in nature from the smooth and sweet melody, nonetheless provides an intriguing and truthful preview to what is to come. The relationship is subtle, but strong.

 

The stately and somewhat aggressive intro is a call-and-response between the brass and reeds. Both sections are harmonized. Whetsol will be playing the muted trumpet melody at A, so he needs to rest for the intro. This leaves two trumpets and a trombone to play the harmonized figure. 

 

Bigard’s tenor joins them to supply the augmented 5th on the dominant F7 in bars 2 and 4. Although this is not a blues, the diatonic melody at A will be supported by numerous blue notes throughout the arrangement beginning with the C#s (enharmonic Dbs) and E’s in bars 1 and 2 of the intro. 

 

The remaining three saxes respond with their 3-part voicing of the F7+5 preceded by a voicing a whole step above. The six pitches between the two voicings comprise all six notes of the whole tone scale. The whole tone scale divides the octave in six equal parts. The augmented triad alternates those pitches and divides the octave into three equal parts. 

 

The baritone sax notes are a whole step below the root of the parallel augmented triads creating rootless G7+5 and F7+5 voicings. This adds to the whole tone effect, which was very much in vogue in the late 1920s. These two interesting bars are repeated to make sure that we will remember them for future development.

 

The rhythm section alternates between a 1-bar break and the F7+5. The bass coupled in the piano left hand play the dominant to tonic syncopated cliché. Ellington doubles the brass in his right hand, so that he can control the arrangement from the piano. Rather than strengthening the brass, piano doubling horn parts tends to make the band sound smaller. He will dispense with this practice in the next few years and stick to rhythm section functions.