Duke Ellington - It don't mean a thing (1943)

Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing this awesome tune in 1943.

"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" is a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills, now accepted as a jazz standard. The music was written and arranged by Ellington in August 1931 during intermissions at Chicago's Lincoln Tavern and was first recorded by Ellington and his orchestra for Brunswick Records (Br 6265) on February 2, 1932. Ivie Anderson sang the vocal and trombonist Joe Nanton and alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges played the instrumental solos. The title was based on the oft stated credo of Ellington's former trumpeter Bubber Miley, who was dying of tuberculosis. The song became famous, Ellington wrote, "as the expression of a sentiment which prevailed among jazz musicians at the time." Probably the first song to use the phrase "swing" in the title, it introduced the term into everyday language and presaged the Swing Era by three years. The Ellington band played the song continuously over the years and recorded it numerous times, most often with trumpeter Ray Nance as vocalist.

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[MoonShade35]

my dads name is Aurelio also. Just saying.

[Aurélio Araújo]

Really? What's his nationality?

[Fake Namecus]

is that duke on the violin

[Aurélio Araújo]

Duke is playing the piano.

[Aurélio Araújo]

because I couldn't find it on 1080p and at the time (circa 2006), it was pretty difficult to find a video recorded in or converted to full HD. sorry!

[Aurélio Araújo]

Unfortunately the quality of the video is low because when I converted this video from a VHS documentary I borrowed from the university library, I didn't have a top of the range computer neither good software for a better conversion, not to say that Youtube didn't support high quality videos at that time.

[Sjalistra Belmont]

Conductors are usually playing on keyboards

[MoonShade35]

oh god i feel stupid I TOTALLY DIDNT SAY ANYTHING STUPID>

[MoonShade35]

wait hes singing though

[legofilms23456]

Really?... REALLY?

[Adele Cox]

I love Duke...im having to do a harlem project and hes my main focus point.

[Cocoa4334]

AMAZING <3

[kingsrd1]

tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu­uuuuuuuuuuune.................­....