Ellington’s “Harlem Air Shaft”

Overview

In the evolution of jazz, the New Orleans and Chicago styles of the 1920s gave way to the emerging swing style of the 1930s. In this, and the next several sections, we will learn about some of the most influential jazz musicians of this era and how their musical contributions helped shape the jazz style known as swing.

Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to do the following:

Identify selected swing musicians and their contributions to jazz
Define charts
Identify the significance of call-and-response in Fletcher Henderson's compositions, as well as in others‘
Define antiphonal counterpoint

Harlem Air Shaft

Through the 1930s and into the 1940s, swing was the thing in jazz. New York City was at the center of it, and its heart was located in the neighborhood known as Harlem.

Duke Ellington, the greatest composer of the swing era, wrote one of his most marvelous, swinging, and popular pieces as a celebration of the heart of jazz: Harlem Air Shaft ♫. About it, he said:

"So much goes on in a Harlem air shaft. You get the full essence of Harlem in an air shaft. You hear fights, you smell dinner, you hear people making love. You hear intimate gossip floating down. You hear the radio. An air shaft is one great big loudspeaker... An air shaft has got every contrast... You hear people praying, fighting, snoring... I tried to put all that in Harlem Air Shaft ♫.

Within three-minutes' time, Ellington has woven a master tapestry of suggested sights and sounds. He starts with a 12-bar introduction that consists of three different four-bar phrases. Then comes the first chorus of the piece's main 32-bar song form (0:16-0:55). The second chorus begins with a surprise, as all the instruments but the saxophones drop out for three bars at the beginning of each of the A sections (0:55, 1:06, 1:26). The sensation for the listener is almost one of freefall — exhilarating and breathtaking. The assortment of Ellington soloists — Nanton on trombone, Williams on trumpet, and Bigard on clarinet — and the arrangement of accompanying sections are vintage Ellington. Harlem Air Shaft ♫ is bright and upbeat, and it builds masterfully to one of the most perfect endings of any jazz recording. Let's listen.

Duke Ellington Orchestra, Harlem Air Shaft ♫ (Duke Ellington), New York, July 22, 1940. Wallace Jones and Cootie Williams, trumpets (t); Rex Stewart, cornet (c); Joe Nanton and Lawrence Brown, trombones (tb); Juan Tizol, valve trombone (val tb); Barney Bigard, clarinet/tenor saxophone (cl/ts); Johnny Hodges and Otto Hardwick, alto saxophones (as); Ben Webster, tenor saxophone (ts); Harry Carney, baritone saxophone (bs); Duke Ellington, piano (p); Fred Guy, guitar (g); Jimmy Blanton, bass (b) Sonny Greer, drums (d.)

"Swing is so much more than a dance, it's a way of life. The music gets stuck in your mind and the dance is in your heart and the whole scene is engraved on your soul. You can fly."

-Nicholas Hope

"In music, as you develop a theme or musical idea, there are many points at which directions must be decided, and at any time I was in the throes of debate with myself, harmonically or melodically, I would turn to Billy Strayhorn. We would talk, and then the whole world would come into focus. The steady hand of his good judgment pointed to the clear way that was fitting for us. He was not, as he was often referred to by many, my alter ego. Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine."

-Duke Ellington

Billy Strayhorn's last composition was "Blood Count" (originally titled "Blue Cloud"), written during his battle with cancer. Duke Ellington debuted it at a concert in Carnegie Hall in March 1967 and never played it publicly again.

Songfacts