Fresh from his State Department tour of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent and following on the heels of his recording with John Coltrane, Ellington created this movement from the mistitled Far East Suite. Aside from Ad Lib On Nippon, which was not part of the original suite but added later, Ellington’s musical postcards from his Mideast travels supplemented by a few Strayhorn pieces captures not only the Arabic and Hindu flavors of that part of the world but always through the eyes and ears of Ellington’s American aesthetic.

Such Sweet Thunder was groundbreaking a few years earlier, but Far East Suite now embraced the 1960s jazz innovations introduced by Miles Davis and then John Coltrane: modality, ostinatos, and a looser more interactive rhythm section. At the same time, Ellington being Ellington, did not forsake his own style and especially not the blues. He claimed that he was not influenced by musical developments outside his band, but he wasn’t ignorant or immune to what the new generation of jazz musicians was doing.

The inherent challenge in modal jazz is creating the drama of tension and release and form. The traditional chord progressions bring with them form and tension and release. Staying on one chord for an extended amount of time can feel stagnant.

This entire movement is in Cm and utilizes the built-in augmented 2nds of the harmonic minor mode as well as some added blues chromatics to create the Arabic tone. Aside from the opening piano intro and the following 16-bar melodic statement at B is G7 for four bars and Cm for four bars (this pattern repeats at C), the rest of the piece, although still in Cm, has only one chord: G7 (the dominant of Cm).

The piano ostinato is joined by the bass, who at times walks the G7 and others returns to the ostinato or a variant of it. Following the intro, Rufus Speedy Jones plays an abbreviated ride pattern in his right hand with a Charleston pattern on the bass drum to reinforce the bass/piano ostinato.

We hear roots of this exotic approach going all the way back to Ellington’s first foray into Middle Eastern music—1936’s Caravan. Although Caravan has come to be played with a Latin beat, the origins of Latin music go back to the Moors in Spain Pre-1492 who had brought their music from the Middle East across North Africa, and into Spain. It became a part of Spanish culture and was then transported to Latin America by the Spanish colonists.  

Ellington goes one step further by addressing the Mid-East influence imbedded in a context of swing and blues. Rather than imitating the exotic music he encountered in his travels, he finds a place for it within his own music.

Lawrence Brown may seem like an unlikely soloist to feature on such a modernistic arrangement, but he clearly embraces the role, incorporating the Muslim call to prayer and making it (with its augmented 2nds) the focal point of his solo.

The long stretches of G7 harmony gives Ellington ample time to explore interesting modern voicings first in the saxes and then in the tutti ensemble section where the tricky rhythms create their own excitement. Lawrence Brown comes back with a reprise to finish the piece.

The excellent performance should be no surprise since this chart was in the book for two years before the Far East Suite studio recording. There was a much earlier recording for a small label, but the inclusion in the suite took more time.

Personnel

Recorded December 19, 1966 New York City for RCA Victor

Reeds: Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Russell Procope (alto sax, clarinet), Jimmy Hamilton (tenor sax, clarinet), Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Harry Carney (bari sax)

Trumpets: Cat Anderson, Herbie Jones, Mercer Ellington, Cootie Williams

Trombones: Lawrence Brown, Buster Cooper, Chuck Conners (bass)

Piano: Duke Ellington

Bass: John Lamb

Drums: Rufus Speedy Jones

Form

Intro                6 bars

Vamp               4 bars

Cm strain         16 bars (8 + 8)

G7 vamp          8 bars

G7 theme        32 bars aa’bb’

Sax soli            16 bars (8 + 8)

Tbn. Solo         28 bars (14+14)

Vamp               4 bars

Sax soli #2       20 bars (8 + 12)

Shout Chorus  Tutti 19 bars (8 +11)

Tbn. Reprise    16 bars (8+8)

Coda                7 bars