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.

 Just to be clear, Ellington recorded two completely different pieces entitled Cotton Club Stomp. We will be dealing with the first and more adventurous one. The upward chromatic harmony and the brass pyramids are attention grabbers, and that’s just the first sixteen bars. 

 

By 1929 Ellington had been ensconced at the Cotton Club for a year and a half. The opportunity to write vocal arrangements, dance arrangements, and instrumentals piqued his limitless creativity. He constantly invented new techniques, harmonies, orchestral combinations, and forms. The band can be seen playing a portion of this chart in the short film Black And Tan Fantasy. 

 

Cotton Club Stomp was a collaboration with Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney. Most likely Hodges and Carney came up with the basic melodic material (Jenkins’ trumpet solo at letter E through H), and Duke then provided the harmony, arrangement and orchestration. 

 

The trombone part in Tizol’s hand survives and provides the original title (C# Shout). Almost all the pitches are played as is on the recording, but some of the rhythms have been changed to make them more swinging. Whether the changes were dictated by Ellington or suggested by the players, we can’t know. What we do know is that the ensemble and soloists are riveting. 

 

Ellington resurrected this tune in 1939 in a wholly new arrangement. The relaxed tempo and more conventional scoring lacked the excitement of the original. In 1930 Ellington recorded another Cotton Club Stomp, written to accompany a dance routine. Each chorus repeats the melody with a different orchestration. Again, this lacked the spectacular nature of Cotton Club Stomp #1. 

 

Personnel 

 

Recorded New York, May 3, 1929 Victor V-38079 

 

Reeds: Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Barney Bigard (tenor sax and clarinet), Harry Carney (baritone sax) 

Trumpets: Arthur Whetsol, Cootie Williams, Freddy “Posey” Jenkins 

Trombone: Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton 

Banjo: Fred Guy 

Piano: Duke Ellington 

Bass: Wellman Braud 

Drums: Sonny Greer 

 

Form 

 

8-bar intro 

32-bar chorus extended by two bars, aaba, bari solo with brass pyramids 

32-bar chorus Head (trumpet solo with sax background) 

32-bar chorus (alto solo) 

32-bar chorus (clarinet solo) 

32-bar shout chorus