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From the same recording session as Warm Valley, it’s easy to understand Ellington’s anatomical reference. Where Warm Valley explores the gentle, loving, feminine side of life, The Flaming Sword is all about male testosterone and virility.
One of Ellington’s numerous contrafacts, the a section of this tune shares a chord progression with Stompy Jones (a swinging riff-based chart of the early 1930s) and the later Limbo Jazz, both of which are based on the chords of the universally known Happy Birthday. The Flaming Sword uses that 16-bar form as the a section of an aaba form with an original bridge in the relative minor.
In 1940 the new popular Latin line dance was the conga. Movies of the era feature Carmen Miranda with a pile of fruit on her head leading a procession of gringos around the dance floor to this infectious rhythm: 4 quarter notes and a Charleston.
Ellington’s first foray into the conga was seven months earlier when he arranged and recorded Juan Tizol’s Conga Brava with a classic Ben Webster solo and a ferocious brass soli. Conga Brava was still in the band’s book when The Flaming Sword came along. Both congas received their final recorded performances at a dance in Fargo, ND on November 7, 1940, barely three weeks after The Flaming Sword’s creation.
This short shelf life is no reflection on the quality of the music but more symptomatic of Ellington’s dilemma at this point in his long career. His fertile imagination was churning out at least a couple of new masterpieces every week in addition to vocals, instrumentals, arrangements of current pop songs, and small group charts from Billy Strayhorn. Some Ellington masterpieces from this era like Warm Valley and Ko-Ko were resurrected a decade or so later but not these two amazing congas. The music still holds up, but the dance went out of style to be replaced by the mambo, cha cha, tango, and other Latin dances.
Although The Flaming Sword is lighthearted and even comical, its structure is solid and filled with subtlety and imagination. The soloists (Williams, Tizol, Nanton, Bigard, and especially Greer) all shine in their roles. The aggressive ensemble playing has everyone in the band on their toes.