Edward K. ("Duke") Ellington

Born: April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C.
Died: May 24, 1974, New York, New York

Black, Brown and Beige 

• Composed: 1943
  
• Premiere: Original version, 1943 at New York's Carnegie Hall, by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra; symphonic suite arranged by Maurice Peress premiered in 1970 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, Peress conducting
• CSO Notable Performances: 
  • First & Most Recent: March 2020 at a Classical Roots concert, Damon Gupton conducting
• Instrumentation: 3 flutes (incl. alto flute and piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons (incl. contrabassoon), 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, bells, chimes, crash cymbals, marimba, ratchet, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tams, wind chimes, harp, strings
• Duration: approx. 18 minutes

Black, Brown and Beige is considered one of the seminal works in Duke Ellington’s extensive musical catalog. The musical and cultural narrative presented through the work is emblematic of Ellington’s rejection of the commercialized jazz idiom, his embracing of the ideology of the New Negro that underscored the activity of the Harlem Renaissance and his efforts to advance racial pride. Decades before James Brown sang the words “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud," Duke Ellington promoted this idea.

The debut of Black, Brown and Beige at Ellington’s historic 1943 Carnegie Hall concert marked the unmasking of what had been a more latent aspect of Ellington’s compositional voice. The bandleader’s popularity prior to this point had largely been framed through the idiom of conventional jazz arrangements like “Mood Indigo,” “In a Sentimental Mood,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing).” However, a closer listen to compositions like Creole Rhapsody, Reminiscing in Tempo and Symphony in Black, all of which date from the 1930s, reveals evidence of Ellington’s symphonic aspirations. This is not surprising, given the music and representations of a Black intellectual tradition that characterized the sound worlds the pianist engaged in during his formative years in Washington, D.C., and later in New York. These musical aspirations paralleled the sounds and activity that surrounded the Harlem Renaissance. More directly, they linked Ellington’s large-scale works with an advancing Black symphonic aesthetic that was first framed in the 1930s through the orchestral works of William Grant Still, Florence Price and William Dawson.

Rather than write for the conventional symphonic orchestra, Ellington re-imagined the tonal possibilities of the jazz orchestra. Even when reflecting conventional forms, Ellington’s arrangements displayed an understanding of possibilities that lie in the individual sound identities of his musicians. Those elements became emblems of the Ellington sound and contributed much to the harmonic color of his large-scale works.

Ellington characterized Black, Brown and Beige as “a parallel to the history of the Negro in America.” The extensive work consisted of three sections and nine movements. Each section—Black, Brown and Beige—portrayed a different epoch in the transmutation of the enslaved African to the American Negro. Much like Still, Price and Dawson, Ellington used references to Black folk practices and cultural sites as a means of conveying contexts of Black identity.

Initial reviews of Black, Brown and Beige were mixed, with some critics, while acknowledging the originality of the work, criticizing its length. Others questioned if Ellington was abandoning jazz. All seemed to have informed the composer’s thoughts about the work and it was never performed again in its entirety. Instead, Ellington reworked portions of Black, Brown and Beige into shorter segments that were presented as a suite. He further revised the work to be sung by Mahalia Jackson, a version preserved on the singer's acclaimed 1958 recording with Ellington and his orchestra.

When interest in the composition heightened in the 1960s, Ellington published a set of seven full scores with Tempo Music. Also around this time, conductor Maurice Peress began discussing with the composer reorchestrating the work for symphony orchestra. The result was a symphonic suite, a reimagining of Black into three movements titled “Work Song,” “Come Sunday” and “Light.” The Peress arrangement, which is featured in this weekend's concerts, was first performed in 1970 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, under Peress' direction.

Both the original and re-orchestrated versions of Black, Brown and Beige follow a narrative based on a poem written by Ellington. The poem traces the life of a mythical African named Boola from the point of his enslavement in Africa through emancipation and, finally, World War II-era Harlem. The poem covers a time and cultural chronology of almost three centuries. Originally, this narrative was spread across the larger sections of “Black,” “Brown” and “Beige.” However, the suite version condenses this larger story into the framework of the three movements.

“Work Song,” the first movement, chronicles the torture and displacement of enslavement. It is anchored by a seven-note theme that is introduced first by the brass and woodwinds and represents the first form of vocal music among the enslaved—the work song. The work song reflected not only the function of music within the lives of enslaved Africans but also resistance against the erasure of their cultural practices and a means of facilitating and transcending the brutality of the labor performed. Ellington’s motive displays how enslaved Africans invoked the rhythms of their past lives and traditions through the rhythm of the work. The articulation of this rhythm at various points throughout the movement was, according Peress, Ellington’s way of reminding the listener that labor is “the root shared by all African Americans, black, brown or beige.”

Out of this deep dream of freedom evolved the only possible escape: freedom of expression in song.

Out of this great need for freedom the work song was born. Not a song of triumph. Not a song of burden.

A song punctuated by the grunt of a heaving pick or axe. A song punctuated by the swish and thud of a sledgehammer.

The transcendent nature of Black song is also invoked in this movement, through Ellington’s use of the plunger trombone: the “cries” of the instrument are analogous to the voices of the enslaved. The melancholy nature of this movement is momentarily disrupted by a short statement of the “Come Sunday” motive.         

The second movement, “Come Sunday,” references Black spirituality and how it represented the rejection of religious indoctrination that emphasized the non-human status of the enslaved. In this movement, Ellington portrays the spiritual intelligence of the enslaved, who subverted the doctrine of their masters and created a theology of transcendence that centered on the reclamation of their humanity. This doctrinal perspective underlines the lyrics of the sacred songs of the enslaved (Negro spiritual) and their progeny (gospel).

Come Sunday, Boola was irresistibly drawn to that pretty white house with the steeple. So tall, shining there in the sun.

Everyone who entered there was scrubbed and polished and all dressed up. How happy they seemed!

When the white voices inside rang out in triumph…the blacks outside would grunt subdued approval.

When the white voices inside were raised in joyous song, the blacks outside hummed along, adding their own touches.

Weaving gorgeous melodic, harmonic, rhythmic patterns. Thus the spiritual was born. Highly emotional worshipping of God in song.

Most will be familiar with the melody heard throughout this movement, due to the popularity of Mahalia Jackson’s performance of the song on the 1958 recording. Ellington originally conceived this as an instrumental song and added the lyrics much later. He treats the orchestra as a choir, focusing on chordal sections characterized by rich harmonies. These passages are disrupted occasionally by the solo violin or alto sax playing a soaring variation of the melody.

The reverent tone of the “Come Sunday” movement suddenly gives way to exuberance and joy as the trumpets transition into the last movement, “Light.” This movement is defined by Ellington’s return to the work song motive. Unlike the first movement, “Light” embodies the energy and rhythmic drive of a conventional jazz arrangement. The primary motive is re-imagined through passages of call and response between the orchestra’s sections. Varied and sudden tempo changes invoke moments of historical reflection, while simultaneously marking the progressive push forward to social change.

The slave song broadened, covering all things. Sometimes soft…sometimes loud.

A rainbow of dolor, complete with pot of gold. Paradise to come.

On their way to heaven in tempo. The pulse, the beat was ever present.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

In the 80-plus years that have passed since the debut of Black, Brown and Beige, this work continues to frame Ellington’s legacy as a composer and illuminate the ways in which he challenged the intellectual and cultural conventions that excluded jazz from conversations that surrounded the advancement of American musical nationalism.

—Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle