Duke Ellington and his orchestra

[MrAudioProducer]

When it was filmed? 1939? 1940?

[lliiaamm0099]

@MrAudioProducer i think it was 1932

[0806stella]

Awesome talent and so glad I am able to enjoy this GREAT performance!!!

[pinux3]

Fantastico assolo del grandissimo "rabbit"...

[neyuAudi]

16 people think that rebecca black is good music

[bentmode]

fuck. from 1:33 to 2:38. probably the greatest moment in music.

[dcbandnerd]

D.C.'s own Duke Ellington. We love ya, Duke! :-D

[EvidenceFragmentary]

I listen to alot of death metal. And I really appreciate this music and give thanks to the creators, because without them, my genre ultimately would not exist. Respect. Real talkent, real composers, on real instruments. So much feeling :)

[arrow091]

@EvidenceFragmentary I agree with everything you just said there.

[wendeebyrd]

how can anyone not like this? if you like any music of today people like Ellington are who you have to thank!!

[JOEdoesThings22]

sonny greer. do people not notice he has timpani with him?

[alemoonacre]

Simply the best jazz orchestra of history

[Glove398]

Don't Get Around Much Anymore...Johnny Hodges...wow.

[MRROJINEGRO95]

the favorite is the mooche but i never hear people really talk about it i just find the song amazing!

[barbarellagb]

My dad taught me to love this man, his music and his orchestra. Best thing he ever taught me. He saw Duke but could never finish the story because he always broke up, saying only "it was B.A. UUteeful !"

[MrsNesbittMusic]

if anyone fancies seeing my swing house remix

/watch?v=1cKT3U7c8ds

[cutececi5]

I can't find this version on itunes!!! Help! :(

[ejaiven]

its amazing that whe can have the oportunitty to listen this tunes 70 years later, uffffffff.....

[msdgarcia]

Fucking Great

[MissEmoRawwr]

this song is stuck in my head ,was watching a movie in history n it had this song in it it was a gd movie about the old days in germany , some fun looking danceing goes towards this sort of music <3 it

[samkanghobonoob]

applause

[douglasgorney]

Does my heart good to see this has gotten over a quarter of a million views. The Blanton-Webster band ftw!

[Shabannie]

Thank you for posting this great clip!

[bassdrumbone64]

The Orchestration was genious. I would never in a million years at that point in time think of voicing instruments like that.

[BeachSurfer434]

Thank God im taking evolution of Jazz. Jazz has opened me to another side of music i never found for my soul. And to think i was missing out on this guy.

[LEONCODAJJ]

Es un popurrí (medley) de 4 temas de Duke Ellington (p):

1.Mood Indigo, 2. Sophisticated Lady, 3. It don't Mean a thing if it ain't got that swing (RAY NANCE , vl y voc; Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton ,tb;Ben Webster,ts)

4. Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Johnny Hodges ,as)

El contrabajista esJimmy Blanton.

[tristramshandy3]

Mood Indigo=best song ever. 

[kajobike]

Who is or is not "the greatest American composer" is subjective and very open to argument. Duke was great, but to simply discount artists such as Copland, Barber and even Porter and Gershwin is, to me, ignorant. No disrespect intended, and this is still some wonderful stuff.

[pooperscoopr69]

@kajobike

When Gershwin heard Duke's Sophisticated Lady he opined: "I'd trade my entire musical career to have written Sophisticated Lady."

[kalchin72]

when was this song released & what's it called?

[kajobike]

@kalchin72 A medley of Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, It Don't Mean A Thing, and Don't Get Around Much...

[sk8rchick1020]

Just finished watching swing kids in my 8th grade honors comp. lit. and i heard my favorite Jazz song and had to hear it again, Duke Ellington is Amazing!!!

[charlie170846]

The great Duke also visited this country (the Netherlands) several times. Those were the days....!

[Bullets4Brains6]

I'm sure it says it somewhere but I can't find it. Does anybody know when this particular video is from?

[dcbandnerd]

Wow...to think this video was uploaded at the beginning of my freshman year of high school and now I'm just finishing my first year at university. I'm getting nostalgic over a video that's older than my grandmother. Hahaha.

Duke was, is, and forever will be, the best.

[benforshee]

id be afraid to try it i love my horn too much to do that

[benforshee]

at 5:05 look at the trumpet player in the background

[WillHiccups]

@benforshee That's sweet! Wonder what would happen if he would have dropped it... there goes 1,000 dollars.

[davidsparten666]

good stuff.... to bad i was not around back then.... what i would give...

[mikebuddy1]

It's funny but the further back into this music you go the better it's gets.Mood Indigo,Sophisticated Lady,It don't mean a thing,Don't get around much anymore.The cream of American art form.

[GassyMaskz]

Nothing of the sort, it just goes that way for popular music.

[SUMERUP]

@mikebuddy1 absolutely!

[EyeLean5280]

@mikebuddy1 - Agreed. I love early jazz, the earlier, the better.

[tdirtyatl]

The Greatest American Composer. Period.

[Mooseman327]

I agree with this statement and "blue47er"'s below.

[pharcelle1]

Did I step on your tale?

Ah!

 you poor thing!

[tarjr94]

Does it matter? The music is good anyhow

[marksmartus2]

It looks to me like this was recorded live, but the sound is out of synch with the picture. Duke's hands match perfectly what you are hearing.

[Montenegrokurac]

it was recorded live, but I assume the synchronization got lost because somebody cleaned the sound a little afterwards. there's a better synchronized version of this on youtube, but there's much more crackling and such.

[pharcelle1]

We know Duke was the man, but correct me if am not mistaken in pointing out that this is not actually a live recorded performance.

Looks like miming for TV to me. And yes I know the band were more than capable of the production

[spencerrich]

That's a definite maybe. It probably went straight to film roll, not TV. That said, it may not be the scenes we're seeing that were recorded.

[ductapeunion]

Are seriously the truther of jazz? Let me know 'cause if not I might just have to lambast you for the rest of your miserable YouTube career. Let it alone you frik'n a-hole.

[blue47er]

And when they ask 'who was the greatest composer of the twentieth century?' you may reply, 'Edward Kennedy Ellington.'

[turicollura]

What a great song and performance!!

[antoniettacuomo]

solo duke poteva avere una orchestra di tal fatta..che grandi personaggi....fantastici.

[LLJtbone]

Wow, this is some old stuff but very cool. Duke, he must have been some character back in the day. Love his music.

[Adopebeat13]

Nice

[bufsolja]

A Classic performance by the greatest American composer ever!

[neverknewtillnow]

This clip is a "Classic" and one I will treasure. Thanks for posting.

[daynasaur123]

Wow, not only a great composer, but one of the best piano players I've heard in jazz!

[BrunoJazzmanLeicht]

I play this with one of my trumpet students. It's a challenge to swing it. Monk tried it too. Sounded great.

Best wishes,

Brew

[0thebigeasy0]

great!

[tarjr94]

I wish I was around to be able to see those days, it seemed so much nicer than what we know modern day to be. I wish I could've seen what it would have been without so much technological stimulation that we would forget about the simple things in life such as music, back then, that's all they had to keep themselves amused. So they created a very deep form of musical entertainment, which took some two dozen people to perform, unlike today where music is created in a studio amongst four people

[garandomatic]

No doubt. My father was lucky enough to meet Duke in the late 60s when his HS band director, a military musician during WWII, took the band to see Duke Ellington play at a local theater. Duke greeted the teacher by name, my dad got to shake his hand. Imagine that!

[benforshee]

this is mood indigo not it dont mean a thing

[karinablacktie]

It's a montage.

[minimullet93]

is that y they said "it dont mean a thing"

[nare1109]

и в украине тоже))

[vinylman4533]

Great music in anyone's language!

[Vakkamaja]

В России тоже любят Д.Эллингтона : )

[IndependentGeorge76]

is that Ray Nance on the violin.. duke looks pretty young in this... christ i love this era

[cindydonaldson]

wow they  are good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[no1peto]

fantázia

[rokoto66]

It's time to fix me a nice glass of scotch on the rocks right now...

[foowah7]

Very cool, but I must ask if it was dubbed, the singing seems to pure for a mic to not be right in front of them...

[mundotaku]

In those times the microfones whould catch the sound better than today. The problem was that if you had to many mics close to each other then an interference sound would occur, so the mic was only for the singer

[minimullet93]

there is no mic

[ch365ris]

Great film clip! Duke Ellington was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century! Was wondering if you'd mind adding the names of the songs played to your description in order:

1. Mood Indigo

2. Sophisticated Lady

3. It don't Mean a thing if it ain't got that swing

4. Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Anyone looking for video featuring a particular song would appreciate it.

Thanks!

[czechnoob]

Thankyou for the list :)

[4u2b1ib12]

Beautiful...

[dvideto]

Its like string players using a bottle of some sort to use as a finger slider on the strings for a effect..its all good! just like the plunger thingy.

[UNC3345]

I like the guy throwing around his trumpet in the background...

[iruetheworld]

i would have never thought that the trumbone could make such sound.

it was great trumbone solo :)

[trice702]

almost sounds like someone singing huh?

[Esenciafluida]

Grandioso y supermaravilloso. Crisoldeltiempo.

[gonzo7017]

What is the last song that they play? I've heard it before but I can't remember.

[JayFitd]

It's called "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"

not sure who wrote it

[dougsusername]

duke did

[richardsull119]

Duke Ellington wrote "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", also known as "Never No Lament". Bob Russell wrote the lyrics.

[unclebobunclebob]

I really beg to differ. Duke DID swing. Did you ever hear Kinda Dukish? It swings outrageously.

[tjc197]

Duke never did swing. He just had a swing beat. What he did was what I call "pure" jazz. This is what I consider a real jazz band. And as far as I'm concerned, jazz was called blues originally.

[tjeeta12]

blues is a type of jazz that follows the blues chord progression and generally is set in 12 bar phrases though 16 bars and 13 bar alterred phrases do occur.

[JOEdoesThings22]

@tjc197 what are you talking about duke never swung? swing isnt a style or a beat, its a feel. As far as im concerned Duke was swing hard as heck whether he knew it or not.

[boleary100]

@JOEdoesThings22 Quite right, Sir. "Mainstem", with the Blanton-Webster band is arguably the swingingest record ever. How can a band NOT swing with Blanton in it? Or Sonny Greer, for that matter. I've heard that accusation levelled at Ellington so often, and put it down to the fact that the Ellington band is always doing so much MORE as well. Great from the 20s to the 70s, from Bubber Miley to Money Jungle to Eastbourne Performance (1973), that's some record.

[YuriPRIME]

Mmm... love those groovy tunes. They are really good background for writing stories... Cheers :)

[lmlm11]

Why did this go away?

[cavaleer]

Merchants in the record-industry for one thing. It's cheaper and easier to promote a single "star" and make money off that. Then electric instruments and the smaller groups like the Beatles, were much easier to market and promote to kids. What really killed good-great music though was the conversion to the electric instruments in the 1970s. People stopped playing instruments, so they stopped learning to read and write music. 25 years later, all we have is Pop and Rap, with a few good rockers.

[MUN7001]

thos are big labels, you have to look for some good music these days, i have alot of big bands today, that are recent, and the musicality is just as good

[cavaleer]

That's what happened. I didn't say there weren't talented artists today. But the reason they're so hard to find is because of the merchants who are in charge of America's musical art. It's disgusting.

[JRCrowley]

It didn't. It's here on YouTube. This stuff is dope.

[seevickyrun]

Love that Duke!

[ElLeonMusical]

What's the Trombone players name that does solo for It don't mean?

[UNC3345]

Joe "tricky sam" Nanton

[nordensgoger]

tears in my eyes, FANTASTICS

[Ropanik]

great musicians...the gods of the sounds...

[54spiritedwill54]

Duke sounds great!

[pmhiztory]

are there any sound effects on this? i did not know that the trumbone( i think it is the trombone where the guy stood up and used a covering to open and close the sound)could sound like that. it sounds like some one was doing vocal effects on this. either way this is great. i love blues and jazz. i believe this is the blues , am i correct?

[hugozabre]

wonderful what a sink plunger can do musically.....with a great musician behind,that means the performer, arranger,composer. Yes, It is nothing more than trombones, a rubber plunger and that unearthly condition of true jazz players. At least, you can buy the plunger......

[dukelester]

Nope. No sound effects. Tha's a plunger he's using.

[jammany2k]

SWING. not.....blues....christ

[jkeyes59]

No doubt that musical talent comes in all colors, but black folks had to tolerate alot of horrible conditions to do their thing. So, it's impressive, that in spite of the ill treatment received, they still achived historic milestones....

[duckkilla48]

Duke Ellington - Tom & Jerry's best friend. Love it!

[034667]

who is that trumpet player that also sang a couple of bars?

[flop4andy]

most likely it was ray nance. He was also a fab violinist.

[esfuenza]

the other is Taft Jordan, plays the muted trumpet(cornet?) and sings. he is on the right, Ray Nance is the violinist

[richardsull119]

God, I love Duke Ellington.

[Stuart7500]

Mood Indigo!! YEAH!!

[darkmaides]

Greatest American composer, at least in my own opinion, definitely one of the greatest musicians no argue.

:)

[mozgreen]

Isn't it true that all the musicians at the Cotton Club were black and all the audience /clientelle white? When black people appeared in the audience the club management introduced a cover charge only the relatively wealthy whites were prepared to pay. Ellington left the club soon after.

Who were the fools there then?

[mozgreen]

Ellington is black like all the best American musicians. It's not 'Is that so?' rather than 'Why is that so?'

Mozgreen (a white man)

[vanderbilt887]

Charles Ives, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Arnold Schoenberg (Austrian as well), Philil Glass, Steve Reich, John Cage, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Hank Williams, Frank Zappa, Brian Wilson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pat Metheny, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Johnny Cash, Glenn Miller, Bill Evans, Leonard Bernstein, Jim Morrison, Eddie Van Halen, Bing Crosby, Samuel Barber etc

[vanderbilt887]

'Like all best American musicians' - that's simply not true at all. The best American musicians are black, white etc. You can't discredit all the white contributions to American musical culture just because the black contribution has been so remarkable (which it has been and still is). All humans are musical in their very nature, black, white, Asian or whatever. It's these diversities in culture and races which makes it more interesting. Just don't discredit a culture or race.

Me (a European).

[TheSolidGloryisJesus]

Thanks. Alot. (I've been waiting for someone who reasons like you to speak out like this.)

Me(all the primary colors)

[Deejthemyth]

you forgot Django Reinhardt!

[viziermoo]

Mozgreen, I am inclined to agree with you, but the reason that the Cotton Club did it this way was because black people created a musical STYLE with little to no outside influence. Hence, it was all the rage. And on the subject of predjudiced managers- what are you gonna do?

[ticy84]

there is no black or white or red or fucking purple there is man kind that differs because of the origins of people

sorry for the (i suppose) bad english

[martingerup]

but you know - whether youre red og yellow - Duke said the word, and youre obliged to spread the word hereafter: It dont mean a thing if it aint got that swing. Here in Denmark we even say: If you ask the question what swing means, you would probably dont know the answer.

[EffinSkeletor]

"If you ask the question what swing means, you would probably dont know the answer."

lol, well no shit! you folks up in denmark are pretty sharp aren't you, eh?

[ScanlonJazz]

EffinSkeltor,

It's a Louis Armstrong quote. "If you have to ask, you'll never know." He just meant you need to listen and if you still have to ask, you'll never figure it out.

[jeuhrn]

I think it can be said that some white dudes played some piano or something at some point, then came along some black dudes and blew everyone out of the water.

[aerofredywr]

Are you from the Black KKK or something? I belive there where (are) many great black players and I enjoy most of them:Ahmad Jamal,Errol Garner and many more, but you can´t deny wite players like Bill Evans. I you do, you´r not only racist but dumb(WICH ARE MORE OR LESS THE SAME)

[stpd1957]

Well I am glad to see that so many people have watched and listened to this clip and were impresed with the Ellingon Orchestra.

[vintage1962]

Amen!

[DeadChocobo]

can there be one ONE friggin group of youtube comments that doesn't revert back to race wars...

[iiwagner]

Duke sounds great!

[honeydooda]

How wonderful to SEE and hear The Duke and his band again! He & Ella were my favorite musicians when I was growing up back in the 40's & 50's. Blessings on youtube...and Thanks, "bazart".

[77pinehead]

Could be, could be. Still: great music!

[77pinehead]

Wonderful. And again, here it is, the proof that the main artistic achievement of this country, music, came from black people. We kidnapped them, made them slaves, and they gave us our main reason to be proud of ourselves as a culture. Like I say, wonderful.

[jackthayer]

77pinehead not all of us were like that some like me would stop it if they lived back then and further more we all learn to forgive

[suicide1112]

Little consolation, and at best I'd say your statement is quite dubious.

[dcbandnerd]

I think I can speak for my ancestors when I say: It's alright, dude...slavery's over. All is forgiven. Seriously.

[suicide1112]

You speak for yourself, alone, and I might also add, blindly, from my vantage point.

[suicide1112]

I don't see why the whites should be proud of the achievements of Blacks.

[max1point8t]

for the same reason blacks should be proud of the achivements of whites, because color dosent mean a fucking thing.

[suicide1112]

I'd have to say that isn't a very historically accurate presentation. Though it does make for a good sound morsel.

[GingerKid5307]

something tells me you're white?

[bakunin4]

I'm sure, suicide1112, that your heart swells with pride every time you hear Haydn's EMPEROR'S HYMN played.

[suicide1112]

Something does indeed swell.

[scoopdiesel]

Jazz wouldn't be possible without John Philip Sousa(white) or the small group white bands playing romantic classical music which influenced the early black stride piano players like Jelly Roll Morton. Any attempt at pinpointing whether it was exclusively a white or black thing takes away from the beauty of the music by itself because it focuses on race and politics instead of the actual background of jazz. Jazz really came from "America as a melting pot" not from one group or race of people.

[MikeW259]

Stfu Bioch

[GingerKid5307]

no slavery = no jazz

[cavaleer]

No America= No jazz. Forced labor, aka slavery, was common throughout the Americas. But only AMERICANS created Jazz. At first the slaves were from the British Isles, Ireland and the streets of London in particular. The Irish were shipped by the tens of thousands, to the Caribbean especially. That's the source of that Caribbean accent..it's Irish.

[MUN7001]

slavery = no jazz, and how do you know that, it could have happened both ways , loser, they could have picked up instruments both ways,

[cuteambros15]

what year was this

[vrsvamp28]

WOW! I love it, great job!

[marsh75228]

Come on entertain them white folks!

[kspm01]

Absolutely brilliant!

[BobolyX2]

The bass tabs are one of the hardest i ever played.. but its such a great song!

[naoto84]

Great music, universal meaning. Greetings from Italy.

[Lualaba]

It's super hard. It's hard even to hold on to the the horn while you're working the slide with one hand and the plunger with the other. The only thing holding the horn to your face is the butt of your hand against the bell. For sure, the tricky mouthing it takes to make it "sing" like that is masterwork.

[Lualaba]

On the trombone solo(Joe Nanton), he's not strictly talking through it. He's not buzzing the vocal chords. He's just forming different vowel positions with the tongue (not tongueing) and he's got a little mute stuffed way inside, and tops it off with the plunger.

[Linkinparkk5]

still a hard art to master

[ThexplicitNV1]

look @ the smile on the duke @ 2:54

[musica54321]

Amazing trombone solo at 3:48. I've never heard anyone talk throuh their horn quite like that. The participant at 3:08 looks a little like Eddie Murphy.

[DreamlandPhoenix]

The one before him, who opens the song, looks like Will Smith. Uncanny!

[wafflehead666]

Duke is one of the immortals.

[panzerson2]

i luv u duke....u r never gonna be forgotten

[mrpossibilities]

I love how he smiles to the audience while he plays the piano. There's a sort of inevitable cheesyness about the vintage aspect of these videos that makes them so charming and adorable.

[RomanEmpress]

Killer piano. I wonder if there's recordings of him doing classical solos. *ignorant*