Ortner-Roberts Duo/Cotton Club Sher

The Ortner-Roberts Duo performs at 3rd Street Gallery, Carnegie, PA, August 16th 08.
"The Mooche" (1928) is one of the early masterpieces of Duke Ellington, composed during his residency at the famous Harlem nightspot The Cotton Club. The wailing descending melodic figure has a distinctly cantorial feel. The minor blues section begins as it did on the original recording featuring the Creole clarinet of Barney Bigard, but very easily transforms into a "Jewish blues". Ellington's introduction utilizes a very modern, dissonant chord sequence highlighting the tri-tone or "devil's interval". This serves as the transition point into one of the most diabolical sounding pieces in the entire klezmer repertoire: " Rusische Sher" recorded in 1922 by I.J. Hochman's Jewish orchestra. A sher, (translation: scissors) is a figure dance similar to the American square dance. The same "devil's interval" creates the fiendish quality here in the first section of the piece.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ortner
• Roberts
• Duo
• Klezmer
• Harlem
• Stride
• Piano
• Clarinet
• Jazz
• World
• Music
• Duke
• Ellington
• Mooche
• Russian
• Sher
• Hochmann
• Pittsburgh
• Susanne
• Ortner-Roberts
• Tom

[TrabalRipoll]

Excellent!!! You are a nice duo of players. We want more!!! :o).