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All Too Soon: The Music of Duke Ellington

Rodney Whitaker

All Too Soon: The Music of Duke Ellington

Format: CD
Label: Origin Records
UPC: 0805558278921
Catnr: ORIGIN 82789
Release date: 06 March 2020
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1 CD
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Label
Origin Records
UPC
0805558278921
Catalogue number
ORIGIN 82789
Release date
06 March 2020
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
DE

About the album

For the second installment of an ambitious five-CD project, undertaken to observe his fiftieth birthday, master bassist Rodney Whitaker convenes a world-class sextet to pay homage to the oeuvre of Duke Ellington. It’s a subject that Whitaker came to know intimately during his 9-year tenure with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, regarding it as his Ph.D in Ellingtonia through performance, deep study, and spirited conversation with Wynton Marsalis and bandmates through those years. With a front line of modern jazz masters - Brian Lynch, Michael Dease and Diego Rivera, the fiery, modern aesthetic of drummer Karriem Riggins, along with pianist Richard Roe and vocals by Rockelle Fortin, Whitaker celebrates the timelessness of Ellington's works by allowing them to live and breathe through the freewheeling, "cutting session" atmosphere he created for the session.
Für die zweite Folge eines ehrgeizigen 5-CD-Projekts, das zu seinem fünfzigsten Geburtstag realisiert wurde, beruft der Meisterbassist Rodney Whitaker ein Weltklasse-Sextett ein, um dem Werk von Duke Ellington zu huldigen. Es ist ein Thema, das Whitaker während seiner neunjährigen Tätigkeit beim Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra sehr gut kennengelernt hat. Mit einer Reihe von modernen Jazzmeistern - Brian Lynch, Michael Dease und Diego Rivera, der feurigen, modernen Ästhetik des Schlagzeugers Karriem Riggins, dem Pianisten Richard Roe und dem Gesang von Rockelle Fortin - feiert Whitaker die Zeitlosigkeit von Ellingtons Werken, indem er ihnen erlaubt, durch die von ihm geschaffene freizügige, "cutting session"-Atmosphäre zu leben und zu atmen.

Artist(s)

Rodney Whitaker (bass)

A member of Detroit's rich jazz tradition, bassist Rodney Whitaker has emerged as a member of the world jazz community. Solo recording artist and sideman, Whitaker has made a name within the new vanguard of young jazzmen dedicated to furthering the traditions of earlier acoustic stylists. While other musicians have made their home in the coastal scenes of New York and Los Angeles, Whitaker continues to reside in Detroit, where he seeks musical inspiration and the comfort of family life. 'The world has gotten to be a very small place,' he admitted in Detroit Jazz Monthly. 'You can live anywhere and still be in touch with the world.' Recording with an array of top talent and touring with such musicians...
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A member of Detroit's rich jazz tradition, bassist Rodney Whitaker has emerged as a member of the world jazz community. Solo recording artist and sideman, Whitaker has made a name within the new vanguard of young jazzmen dedicated to furthering the traditions of earlier acoustic stylists. While other musicians have made their home in the coastal scenes of New York and Los Angeles, Whitaker continues to reside in Detroit, where he seeks musical inspiration and the comfort of family life. "The world has gotten to be a very small place," he admitted in Detroit Jazz Monthly. "You can live anywhere and still be in touch with the world." Recording with an array of top talent and touring with such musicians as Terence Blanchard, Bradford Marsalis, and Wynton Marsalis, Whitaker is contributing to the deep-rooted jazz world. Devoted to creative personal statement rather than preservation, his music points to a future yielding new voices from the works of the great jazz founders. Rodney Thomas Whitaker was born the son of James Lee Whitaker in Detroit, Michigan, on February 22, 1968. Whitaker first studied violin at age eight and later, at age thirteen, took up the acoustic bass. He studied the instrument with little interest until a neighbor introduced him to John Coltrane's 1958 album Soultrane, featuring the bass talent of former Detroiter Paul Chambers. In the liner notes to his album, Children of the Light, Whitaker recounted, "When I heard Paul Chambers, that was It! I wanted to play the bass." In the Detroit school system Whitaker received musical training under such instructors as Ed Quick and Jerome Stasson. While attending Martin Luther King High School, Whitaker fell under the tutelage of an influential music instructor, Herbie Williams. "Herbie was a very important person in my life," related Whitaker in the Metro Times, "because at that time I knew that I wanted to play jazz.... He started to teach me harmony, chord progressions on the piano, everything. I would spend four and five hours at a time after school with him." While a teenager, Whitaker met saxophonist Donald Washington, leader and founder of the ensemble Bird/Trane/Sco/Now! As a member of Washington's group, Whitaker played along side such musicians as alto saxophonist and flutist Cassius Richmond and Monzola (Whitaker's future wife). Under Washington's leadership, the group performed the work of traditional swing stylists as well as music by saxophonists Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Albert Ayler. During his high school years, Whitaker also took part in jazz workshops held by trumpeter Marcus Belgrave (a former sideman with Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and Ray Charles). "Rodney is the most energetic bass player I've encountered," expressed Belgrave in the Metro Times. "When he was in school, I knew he was going to be a great player. He would get on a city bus, carrying his bass without a case to get to a workshop session." Whitaker's experiences with the ensembles of Belgrave and Washington were balanced with a formal study of symphonic music with the Detroit Civic Orchestra. He also received private instruction with Stephen Molina, a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Whitaker's reputation in the Detroit jazz community soon landed him a job with drummer/percussionist Francisco Mora, a group that also included veteran Detroit pianist Kenny Cox. Through Cox he met other musicians like saxophonist Donald Waldon (recipient of the Arts Midwest Jazz Master award) who brought Whitaker into his Detroit Jazz Orchestra. Cox's connections also helped Whitaker meet other jazzmen such as Lawrence Williams, Phil Lasley, and saxophonist Christopher Pitts. Whitaker's reputation soon traveled outside his hometown. When former Detroit bassist Robert Hurst left the band of Terence Blanchard-Donald Harrison Quintet, he recommended Whitaker as his replacement. After a year with the quintet, he joined a unit headed by Blanchard, in which he remained for two years. In 1991 he performed in the band of trumpeter Roy Hargrove. As Whitaker told Pat Smith in the Metro Times, "Working with Roy was pivotal. We were on the road eight months out of the year. We were the young, cutting-edge band. From that gig everybody got to know who and what I was about musically." During this stint he cut several albums with Hargrove, The Vibe (1991), Of Kindered Souls (1992), Roy Hargrove and Friends (1995), and Family (1995). After a three and-a-half year run with Hargrove's group, Whitaker spent 1995 performing on the road with the bands of saxophonist Kenny Garret, pianist Junko Onishi, and keyboardist Bob James. The following year, saw the release of his first solo effort, Children of the Light. Joined in the studio by such talents as sax player James Carter and trumpeter Wallace Roney, the album showcases compositions by Detroit musicians Kenny Cox, Francisco Mora, and Monzola Whitaker. The LP also includes two standards: "Broadway," a number made popular by Lester Young in 1940, and "On Green Dolphin Street," a piece most associated with Miles Davis's classic 1958 Columbia recording. Like his mentor Paul Chambers, Whitaker is an adept performer in the arco (bowed) style. Though he provides fine support throughout the recording, Whitaker reveals a sensitive and somber side in the last selection, "Cultural Warrior," a modal dark lament written by Francisco Mora which showcases his bowed and finger-style techniques. From his home base in Detroit, Whitaker is reaches an ever- expanding audience. In September 1996, Whitaker performed at Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival. Around this time, he led the house band at Detroit's legendary Blue Bird Inn--the former home of post World War II war be-bop which had, during the early 1950s, employed musicians such as Whitaker's mentor Paul Chambers. Whitaker's house band includes Cassius Richmond (who also appeared on his LP Children of the Light). Whitaker's Blue Bird job also included a show featuring one of the club's original performers, pianist Tommy Flanagan, for a three-day performance in June of 1996. As Whitaker stated in the Detroit Free Press, "The attraction of playing the Blue Bird is that all the cats did come out of here. It's humbling, but it's also like being passed the torch." Determined to carry on tradition while searching for new creative horizons, Whitaker exemplifies the continuing legacy of jazz as an ever-changing and personal art form.

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Composer(s)

Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington influenced millions of people both around the world and at home. He gave American music its own sound for the first time. In his fifty year career, he played over 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia. Simply put, Ellington transcends boundaries and fills the world with a treasure trove of music that renews itself through every generation of fans and music-lovers. His legacy continues to live onand will endure for generations to come. Winton Marsalis said it best when he said 'His music sounds like America.' Because of the unmatched artistic heights to which he soared, no one deserved the phrase “beyond category” more than Ellington, for it aptly describes his life as well. He was...
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Duke Ellington influenced millions of people both around the world and at home. He gave American music its own sound for the first time. In his fifty year career, he played over 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia.

Simply put, Ellington transcends boundaries and fills the world with a treasure trove of music that renews itself through every generation of fans and music-lovers. His legacy continues to live onand will endure for generations to come. Winton Marsalis said it best when he said "His music sounds like America." Because of the unmatched artistic heights to which he soared, no one deserved the phrase “beyond category” more than Ellington, for it aptly describes his life as well. He was most certainly one of a kind that maintained a llifestyle with universal appeal which transcended countless boundaries.

Duke Ellington is best remembered for the over 3000 songs that he composed during his lifetime. His best known titles include; "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing", "Sophisticated Lady", "Mood Indigo", “Solitude", "In a Mellotone",and "Satin Doll". The most amazing part about Ellington was the most creative while he was on the road. It was during this time when he wrote his most famous piece, "Mood Indigo"which brought him world wide fame.

When asked what inspired him to write, Ellington replied, "My men and my race are the inspiration of my work. I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people".

Duke Ellington's popular compositions set the bar for generations of brilliant jazz, pop, theatre and soundtrack composers to come. While these compositions guarantee his greatness, whatmakes Duke an iconoclastic genius, and an unparalleled visionary, what has granted him immortality are his extended suites. From 1943's Black, Brown and Beige to 1972's The Uwis Suite, Duke used the suite format to give his jazz songs a far more empowering meaning, resonance and purpose: to exalt, mythologize and re-contextualize the African-American experience on a grand scale.

Duke Ellington was partial to giving brief verbal accounts of the moods his songs captured. Reading those accounts is like looking deep into the background of an old photo of New York and noticing the lost and almost unaccountable details that gave the city its character during Ellington's heyday, which began in 1927 when his band made the Cotton Club its home.''The memory of things gone,'' Ellington once said, ''is important to a jazz musician,'' and the stories he sometimes told about his songs are the record of those things gone. But what is gone returns, its pulse kicking, when Ellington's music plays, and never mind what past it is, for the music itself still carries us forward today.

Duke Ellington was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. He was later awarded several other prizes, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, and the Legion of Honor by France in 1973, the highest civilian honors in each country. He died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday, and is buried in theBronx, in New York City. At his funeral attendedby over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, "It's a very sad day...A genius has passed."


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Press

Play album Play album
01.
Cotton Tail
04:17
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
02.
All Too Soon
03:41
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
03.
Take the A Train
05:28
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
04.
Just Squeeze Me
07:01
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
05.
Mood Indigo
06:12
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
06.
It Don't Mean a Thing
04:37
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
07.
Harlem Air Shaft
04:22
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
08.
Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me
04:30
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
09.
Perdido
07:00
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
10.
Azure
04:51
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
11.
Come Sunday
06:14
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
12.
Caravan
05:08
(Duke Ellington) Rodney Whitaker, Brian Lynch, Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Richard Roe, Karriem Riggins, Rockelle Whitaker
show all tracks

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