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.

Mood Indigo: Artful Simplicity

Duke Ellington used to introduce Mood Indigo with an often-repeated story: Mood Indigo is just a story about a little girl and a little boy. They are about eight and the girl loves the boy. They never speak of it, of course, but she just likes the way he wears his hat. Every day he comes to her house at a certain time and she sits in her window and waits. Then one day he doesn't come. Mood Indigo just tells how she feels. 

The details of the story varied. Sometimes they were five or six years old and would meet on the stoop, but always one of them failed to appear one day, and the other has the blues. 

Like so many other Ellington stories, this sweet tale came after the piece became famous. Originally titled Dreamy Blues, Ellington claimed to have written it in fifteen minutes (not exactly true) to make use of the newly invented microphone. 

Although his band by this point contained three horn sections with three men in each, he only used one from each section in addition to the rhythm section for a small band date. Both the trumpet and trombone used plungers with plugs underneath to add to the intimacy and exotic color. 

This trumpet, trombone, and clarinet front line is common to New Orleans groups. Normally, they voice the clarinet on top. Ellington’s unique sound comes from the two brass voiced in 3rds in plungers with the clarinet an 11th below. The trumpet is in his middle register, the trombone in his upper register, and the clarinet in his low register. 

A model of simplicity, the recording was an immediate hit worldwide and remained in the band’s repertoire for the rest of Ellington’s career. In order to keep it fresh, Ellington and Strayhorn periodically wrote new arrangements. 

Barney Bigard’s clarinet solo in the second chorus was the genesis of the piece. Bigard learned the gist of it from his clarinet teacher, Lorenzo Tio, while studying with him in New Orleans. He brought it to Duke, who wrote the opening chorus and the arrangement. Ellington neglected to credit Bigard, who ultimately sued Duke for credit and royalties. Afterwhich, Ellington was careful to pay his collaborators $75 for the use of their material in his compositions. 

Irving Mills gets credit for the lyrics, which came after the instrumental recording was a hit. This gave Mills 25% of the royalties for the lyrics and 50% for being the publisher, leaving Ellington with 25%. Mitchell Parish claimed to have been the actual lyricist and sold his work outright to Mills.

Personnel

Recorded October 14, 1930 NYC for OK as Dreamy Blues, but not released
Re-recorded October 17, 1930 NYC for Brunswick E34928-A as Mood Indigo
Barney Bigard, clarinet
Arthur Whetsol, trumpet
Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton, trombone
Fred Guy, banjo
Duke Ellington, piano
Wellman Braud, bass
Sonny Greer, drums

Form
aaba 16 bars
1 chorus head
1 chorus clarinet
1 chorus trumpet
4 bars piano interlude
1 chorus head out