Duke Ellington & His Orchestra - Things Ain't What They Used to Be

[JMcCarter12]

Playing this song in jazz band I have a 50 measure solo I love it it has a great groove to it

[MrPopLoli]

Those who lived in Baltimore Maryland in the 50s & 60s might find this song very familiar. It was the opening theme music for the "Harley Show" a late night radio jazz show sponsored by The Harley Sandwich Shops from 1952 until sometime in the 70s.

[SaxJockey]

Superb ALL American Sound - Hodges, Ellington & Orchestra, Alto Sax (Buescher) and Mouthpiece (Otto Link Tone Edge - probably). A winning (and irreplaceable) combination!

[123must]

Beautiful !

Thanks

[JazzmanZL]

the person who disliked this should be shot. this band swings so frickin hard!!!!

[Easleytee]

Name a contemporary Jazz musician equal to the following: Ellington Armstrong Holiday Vaughn Bechet Hawkins Young Tatum Webb Parker Fitzgerald Monk To name but a few.

[jwright123456789]

@Easleytee How about Meldhau, Metheny, Corea, Redman, McBride?

[MusicFreddy]

@Easleytee hiromi

[mrjazzydude]

What's the guy on the left doing at 1:15?

[bluesborn]

I think the Rabbit was one of the greatest soloists in Jazz music with the finest tone I've ever heard.

[Streamline09]

Amazing that Hodges would be dead only 8 years later. Hard life on the road, but a beautiful sound that will live on...

[trembleweeds]

No music being read by anyone, awesome.

[bobbyfearfactor]

Does anyone know where to find the transcription for that little piano intro he does at the beginning?! I want to learn it so badly.

[scottjop656]

@bobbyfearfactor It's in Db with a lot of triplets! got that and ur golden haha.

[logografia]

Take it away Duke, you the man!

[Gboogie1956]

Swingin' cats ;)

[jshaw6000]

Here is our attempt at this song: /watch?v=3k6anV-833o

It's not as good as the original but we tried.

[Arielforsklein]

That was great!

[lorraineedmay]

Oh, how I love this number. Thank you very much for posting.

[sucableadi]

can't you hear how it swings?

[Mriietube]

Does this piece of music belong to the "Swing"-genre ?

[daleanderson1908]

@Mriietube

No, its considered a Blues.

[t7g8g7]

It's swing.

[Nachtmusik02]

Yup, it does!

[mexijew]

It's jazz following a blues progression

[czechnoob]

Sure.. you can hear the drum line, "falling rain drops", tss: tsts tss:... :D

[hremdldw]

Charlie Parker called Johnny Hodges ,Lily Pons a term of indearment.One alto sax player to another. The only other alto player you put in the same sentence would be Benny Carter.

[eric1love]

Smooth trak

[tjc197]

I have another one of Hodge's solos on this song transcribed. It's just awesome.

[BurgSprinta]

Johnny Hodges is great. This composition is great. Things really ain't what they used to be. Its almost impossible to find great music like this these days.

[vcfreak]

@BurgSprinta i completely disagree. Great music is most definitely in existence today. Use the Internet as a resource, but also learn to accept new genres! This is coming from a student and performer of swing and bebop. Find what you like in one and hear it another. It's not hard if you try...

[SaxJockey]

@BurgSprinta

I'm with you on this one!

[Dasa28]

Haha, yeah, and we're supposed to do this for High School Band...

[bubba9166]

My man Johnny doesn't even break a sweat. What a horn player he was.

[SaxJockey]

@bubba9166

I find this with most of Johnny's performances on video - cool personified.