Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington (review)

Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington. By Stuart Nicholson. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999. [xix, 538 p. ISBN 1-55553-380-9 (cloth); 1-55553-466-X (pbk.). $42.50 (cloth); $17.95 (pbk.).]

The centennial of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington's birth in 1899 brought forth hearty tributes, exceptional concerts, and enthusiastic conferences, all celebrating Ellington's life and work. As often happens on such commemorative occasions, testimonials about Ellington's heroic genius prevailed, and at times participants lost sight of his more human qualities. In his innovative biography Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington, Stuart Nicholson considers Ellington's foibles alongside his triumphs in order to engage with "Ellington as a man" (p. xiii). The resulting portrait of Ellington reveals him to be not only the gifted composer, bandleader, and musician we have come to know, but also an earthy person with basic desires, weaknesses, and eccentricities. Unlike Nicholson's more traditional biographies of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, Reminiscing in Tempo takes a new approach to capturing its subject's life. Reading like an oral history, it consists of quotations from Ellington himself, fellow musicians, business associates, relatives, and friends. The quotations, culled from documentaries, interviews, reviews, books, magazines, and other sources, are arranged mostly in chronological order, following the course of Ellington's life from his childhood in Washington, D.C., to his triumphs in New York City and his years spent touring the United States and the world.

The voices are rich, and Ellington and the musicians in his circle display sides of themselves that add to our understanding of their lives and music, from Sonny Greer's vivid tales of performances in the Cotton Club days, to the pranks played by Juan Tizol to break up the monotony of touring, to Paul Gonsalves's reflections on performing "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue." Alongside joyful memories, Nicholson does not shy away from documenting the frustration of band members who expressed concerns about receiving composing credit, or Mercer Ellington's frank comments about his relationship with his absentee father. Through it all--the upheavals of musicians coming and going, the careful negotiation of gangster-run clubs, the tricky situations arising from racial prejudice, and the constant touring that came to define his life--Ellington comes across as a calm, focused leader and true showman, able to pull together a recording session or quickly pen a tune with his righthand man, Billy Strayhorn. Extended musical commentary is rare; music-related quotations focus on memorable performances or the origins of specific songs. But the arc of Ellington's career and the development of his image become clear, aided by dozens of reproductions of Ellington posters and advertisements as well as a fascinating "how-to" advertising manual written by manager Irving Mills. At times, Reminiscing in Tempo compels its readers to become active biographers themselves, balancing different perspectives on issues given by multiple participants; for example, the controversial role played by Mills is addressed by Ellington, his band members, and Mills himself. Such passages allow us to better appreciate the difficult choices a traditional biographer must make, especially for a project requiring extensive research, while the presentation of open debate provides added insight into the dynamics of Ellington's environment.

Some readers may take offense at Nicholson's decision to include sensationalistic anecdotes about Ellington's sex life and the use of alcohol and drugs by some members of his orchestra. Confident as a performer and at ease with the media, Ellington adopted a dignified persona that gracefully bypassed the messier details of life; such reserve characterized his memoir Music is My Mistress (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973). Considering his stately manner and the veneration he has received in the literature, the frank comments Nicholson unearths may arrive as a shock, especially because most of the lurid details and off-color language come from Ellington himself. Nevertheless, Ellington specialists will appreciate Nicholson's quotations from a...