Duke Ellington's America (review)

This study of Duke Ellington is nothing short of a monumental achievement, as Harvey G. Cohen takes the reader on a multilayered exploration of Ellington and his relationship to American culture that is both perceptive and intriguing.¹ Drawing upon voluminous archival materials, copious interviews with family, friends, band members, and associates, as well as standard sources on Ellington, jazz history, American music, and American history, Cohen provides deep and thoughtful contextualization throughout in the manner anthropologist Clifford Geertz has called "thick description."² Moreover, this book is unique in its extensive use of business records, U.S. Department of State records, and the inclusion of Ellington's own voice "probably more than in any other work" (2). Indeed, there is such a wealth of information, insight, and interpretation in the text—and the eighty-four pages of reference notes—that an upper-division seminar could easily use this volume as its centerpiece. A bibliography and discography might have been helpful additions to these rich notes as well.³

The overarching theme of the book is that Ellington stands as one of America's most significant cultural heroes, not only transforming its music but also steering its history. While the ever-present issue of race constitutes the stage upon which Ellington's story is played out, the less considered facets of marketing and business strategies serve as scrims through which to view Ellington's career machinations. In this study, Cohen adroitly demonstrates the ways in which racial and business concerns influenced both musical and career pathways. The clearest example of this involves the vexed relationship between Ellington and Irving Mills, his first publisher. It is probable that Mills put his own name on many Ellington compositions to which he contributed little or nothing; he also took larger management fees than may have been justified. However, in the changing music business landscape of the 1920s, Ellington needed Mills, and their arrangement was mostly "mutually beneficial" (51). Cohen points out that the very image of Ellington as a great composer and "genius," the presentation of Ellington and his orchestra with all the trappings of high-class acts, and its conscious appeal to a multiracial audience were all aspects of "business" that strove to establish a distinctive Ellington brand. This marketing strategy was based on the principles of new corporate advertising aesthetics of the time and inculcated the idea that an Ellington show was something altogether different (52, 53), all of which also helped the Mills music business. Given the racial situation of the late 1920s and early 1930s, this was a unique approach that accorded Ellington and his orchestra a level of professional respect enjoyed by few other African American artists and set apart this distinctive composer—"Harlem's Aristocrat of Jazz"—from his contemporaries (60).

Cohen traces Ellington's notion that one should command respect to the Washington, DC, of his youth, in its schools and churches, as well as in the home.⁴ The astute reading of the early twentieth-century black middle-class ethos in the nation's capital makes clear that African Americans were encouraged to "rise above" rather than confront oppressive circumstances, to circumvent rather than to confront racism when encountered (10).⁵ Calling Ellington an "infiltrator," Cohen traces out the myriad ways that the Maestro operated, whether integrating himself into a wide variety of venues over many decades, insisting that his cinematic portrayals be respectful and nonstereotypical characterizations, or establishing his own publishing company.

By the 1950s, however, the climate had changed considerably; one had to demand rather than simply command respect,and even Ellington had to reestablish his bona fides as a "race" man.⁶ Cohen empathizes with the composer of such far-reaching and socially significant large-scale compositions as "Jump for Joy" and "Black, Brown, and Beige," whose own community did not fully understand their importance. Ellington was distressed and probably wounded by this turn of events, as well as by career and business...