1. A Drum Is a Woman
2. Rhythm Pum Te Dum
3. What Else Can You Do With a Drum?
4. New Orleans
5. Hey, Buddy Bolden
6. Carribee Joe
7. Congo Square
8. A Drum Is a Woman (Part 2)
9. You Better Know It
10. Madam Zajj
11. Ballet of the Flying Saucers
12. Zajj's Dream
13. Rhumbop
14. Carribee Joe (Part 2)
15. Finale
16, Pomegranate
Duke Ellington - Piano, narrator
Clark Terry, Willie Cook, Cat Anderson - Trumpets
Ray Nance - Trumpet, violin, vocal
Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, John Sanders
- Trombones
Jimmy Hamilton - Clarinet, tenor sax
Russell Procope - Alto sax, clarinet
Johnny Hodges, Rick Henderson - Alto saxes
Paul Gonsalves - Tenor sax
Harry Carney - Baritone sax, clarinet, bass
clarinet
Betty Glamann - Harp
Jimmy Woode - Bass
Sam Woodyard, Terry Snyder - Drums
Candido Camero - Bongoes
Margaret Tynes, Joya Sherrill, Ozzie Bailey
- Vocals
Duke
Ellington was always an enigma - a very private
perrson who revealed little of himself to
anyone. And A Drum is a Woman is one
of his most enigmatic works: theoretically
an account of the development of jazz but
actually a sprawling, often eccentric, product
of Ellington's stream of consciousness, although
it was actually composed by Ellington with
his faithful collaborator, Billy Strayhorn.
Through
music, vocals and narration, it tells the
story of Madam Zajj and her relationship with
a mysterious man called Carribee Joe. Ellington
called it "a tone parallel to the history
of jazz". It was originally recorded in 1956
for a record album but was then presented
as a television special in May 1957 on the
US Steel Hour. The TV version (an early
experiment with colour) included dances featuring
Carmen de Lavallade. It uses a variety of
musical styles: New Orleans jazz, calypso,
Ellingtonian swing, bebop, etc. - and it takes
the listener from Africa to the Caribbean
via Congo Square and 52nd Street to the moon!
If
this sounds strange, it is. Duke's narration
is often puzzling and may be marred for modern
listeners by the old-fashioned attitude towards
women in the title-track ("It isn't civilised
to beat women, No matter what they do or say,
But will somebody tell me What else can you
do with a drum?"). Despite being a confirmed
devotee of Ellington's music, I find it hard
to regard this as one of his major works.
It's bitty incomprehensibility militates against
its success, and the mysterious words might
have been better replaced by more music from
the wonderful band. At times, Ellington's
words sound more like a private meditation
than a narration (Duke's son, Mercer, says
that "Madam Zajj" became a composite nickname
for many of the women in Duke's later life).
There
are, of course, some moments of superb Ducal
music, such as Clark Terry and Ray Nance's
evocation of Buddy Bolden in track 5, and
some glorious Johnny Hodges saxophone on track
8, backed by a range of remarkably varied
chords. The use of voices anticipates some
of Ellington's later work in his Sacred Concerts,
while the emphasis on percussion prefigures
1959's Malletoba Spank.
The
album has a bonus track called Pomegranate,
which was included in the TV broadcast accompanying
a dance but omitted from some versions of
the album. Ellingtonian completists will want
this CD in their collection, as it marks a
stage in Duke's development, but it is overshadowed
by Such Sweet Thunder which followed
it closely (see my review elsewhere on this
website).
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Jazz
Track JZ 933
