Duke Elegant
EMI Records Ltd.
"I only met Duke one time, on a flight to New Orleans. There was no doubt why we called him Duke Elegant, no doubt at all about the vibe. The man was a mystic, chanting enchantments and charming to the max. Later I was very impressed to see his band get off their bus lookin' like bankers. Ani't nobody else could have pulled that off, let alone do it up right.
He was an individual, in that he wrote specifically for the players in his band, not just for any band. In that way he changed the course of jazz. It probably made everyone else want to do his tunes even more. Today they'd call him a marketing genius, but it was straight from the heart with Duke. So much of his stuff is way better than the best of the greats.
I tried to choose songs of his that nobody does, since he wrote so much it would be easy. But I only came up on 3 of his rarely heard ones, so I am including them. About the rest, well, how can you pay tribute to Duke without a Satin Doll, Mood Indigo, Don't get Around Much anymore?
Doesn't sound like these tunes were written by a hundrd year-old cat, but they were. You want to know the ticket to immortality, write a bunch of tunes that people keep on singin' and playin'."
~ DR. JOHN 2000 |
