'Black, Brown and Beige' and the politics of Signifyin(g)
Towards a critical understanding of Duke Ellington
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v1i1.45Keywords:
Black Brown and Beige, Duke Ellington, jazz criticism, polemics, signifyin(g), signifying monkeyAbstract
Duke Ellington has attracted critical attention from across the whole cultural spectrum and yet he is in many ways a problematic figure who remains misunderstood. This paper draws on Michel Foucault’s consideration of polemics to illuminate critical strategies that have been directed towards Ellington. It explores how we might move beyond polemics and reinterpret Ellington as an artist ‘beyond category’ by considering his most controversial and ambitious work, Black, Brown and Beige, as a Signfyin(g) text. Ellington’s unique working practices, the special sound world of his band, his declared tendency to ‘say things without saying them’ and his view of himself as a black bandleader-composer of ‘Negro folk music’ all help inform a reassessment of the work in light of recent developments in African-American critical thinking and to establish the political legacy of Ellington’s cultural positioning as a trickster figure critiquing polemics by slipping between, about or around musical categories.
References
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——(ed.) (1990) Black Literature and Literary Theory. London: Routledge.
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Lock, G. (1999) Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in the Work of Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton and Duke Ellington. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Middleton, R. (2000) ‘Musical Belongings’. In G. Born and D. Hesmondhalgh, eds, Western Music and its Others. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California, 59–85.
Nicholson, S. (2000) A Portrait of Duke Ellington: Reminiscing in Tempo. London: Pan Books.
Schuller, G. (1989) The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz 1930–1945. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tomlinson, G. (1991) ‘Cultural Dialogics and Jazz: A White Historian Signifies’. Black Music Research Journal 11/2: 229–64. Chicago: Centre for Black Music Research, Columbia University College.
Tucker, M. (1990) ‘The Renaissance Education of Duke Ellington’. In S. A. Floyd, ed., Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Greenwood.
——(1991) Ellington: The Early Years. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
——(1993a) The Duke Ellington Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
——(ed.) (1993b) ‘The Genesis of Black, Brown and Beige’, Black Music Research Journal 13/2: 67–87. Chicago: Centre for Black Music Research, Columbia College.
Van de Leur, W. 2002. Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn. New York: Oxford University Press.
Barthes, R. (1977) Image-Music-Text. London: Routledge.
Collier, J. L. (1987) Duke Ellington. London: Michael Joseph.
DeVeaux, S. (1991) ‘Constructing the Jazz Tradition: Jazz Historiography’, Black American Literature Forum 25/3: 525–60.
——(1993) ‘Black, Brown and Beige and the Critics’, Black Music Research Journal 13/2: 125–46. Chicago: Centre for Black Music Research, Columbia College.
Ellington, D. (n.d.). Boola. [Autograph notebook pages relating to the programme of Black, Brown and Beige]. Smithsonian Institution: Archives Centre of the National Museum of American History. Duke Ellington Collection (#310), Series 4, Box 3, Folder 8.
——(c.1943). Beige. [Autograph short-score sections from Beige movement of Black, Brown and Beige]. Smithsonian Institution: Archives Centre of the National Museum of American History. Duke Ellington Collection (#310), Series 1a, Box 45, Folders 8-9.
——(c.1944a) Black, Brown and Beige by Duke Ellington. [Draft poetic programme]. Smithsonian Institution: Archives Centre of the National Museum of American History. Duke Ellington Collection (#310), Series 4b, Box 3, Folder 6.
——(c.1944b) Black, Brown and Beige. [Presentation short score in copyist Tom Whaley’s hand]. Smithsonian Institution: Archives Centre of the National Museum of American History. Duke Ellington Collection (#301), Series 1a, Box 42, Folder 4.
——(1973) Music is My Mistress. New York: Da Capo Press.
——(1996 [1965, 1966, 1971]) Duke Ellington: The Private Collection Volume Eight. [CD]. Kaz Records: KAZ CD 508.
——(1999 [1958]) Black, Brown and Beige: Duke Ellington and his Orchestra featuring Mahalia Jackson. [CD]. Columbia/Legacy: CK65566.
——(1999 [1977]) The Duke Ellington Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943. [CD]. Prestige: 2PCD-34003-2.
Floyd Jr., S. A. (1995) The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.
Foucault, M. (1990) The History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction. London: Penguin.
——(2000) Michel Foucault, Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, Essential Works of Foucault 1954–1984. Ed. P. Rabinow. London: Penguin.
Gates, H. L. (1989) The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press.
——(ed.) (1990) Black Literature and Literary Theory. London: Routledge.
Hasse, J. E. (1993) Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington. New York: Da Capo Press.
Homzy, A. (1993) ‘Black, Brown and Beige in Duke Ellington’s Repertoire, 1943– 1973’, Black Music Research Journal 13/2: 87–110. Chicago: Centre for Black Music Research, Columbia College.
Hooks, B. (1994) Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations. New York: Routledge.
Kendall, G., and Wickham, G. (1999) Using Foucault’s Methods. London: Sage.
Lambert, C. (1934) Music Ho! London: Faber and Faber.
Lock, G. (1999) Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in the Work of Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton and Duke Ellington. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Middleton, R. (2000) ‘Musical Belongings’. In G. Born and D. Hesmondhalgh, eds, Western Music and its Others. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California, 59–85.
Nicholson, S. (2000) A Portrait of Duke Ellington: Reminiscing in Tempo. London: Pan Books.
Schuller, G. (1989) The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz 1930–1945. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tomlinson, G. (1991) ‘Cultural Dialogics and Jazz: A White Historian Signifies’. Black Music Research Journal 11/2: 229–64. Chicago: Centre for Black Music Research, Columbia University College.
Tucker, M. (1990) ‘The Renaissance Education of Duke Ellington’. In S. A. Floyd, ed., Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Greenwood.
——(1991) Ellington: The Early Years. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
——(1993a) The Duke Ellington Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
——(ed.) (1993b) ‘The Genesis of Black, Brown and Beige’, Black Music Research Journal 13/2: 67–87. Chicago: Centre for Black Music Research, Columbia College.
Van de Leur, W. 2002. Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn. New York: Oxford University Press.
Published
2007-03-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Burrows, G. (2007). ’Black, Brown and Beige’ and the politics of Signifyin(g): Towards a critical understanding of Duke Ellington. Jazz Research Journal, 1(1), 45-71. https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v1i1.45
