Duke Ellington
piano, bandleader, composer
Swing-era pianist, bandleader and composer; for Barry a composer to learn from, one of the bands people danced to when he was young, and the dedicatee of a waltz he wrote.
- mentions
- 14
- recordings
- 11
- Barry speaking
- 2
What Barry says
Barry learned jazz by dancing to it. When he was young you went to a dance hall to hear Ellington, as you did for Basie, Stan Kenton, Bird and Dizzy. Jazz musicians who play music nobody could dance to, he says, have been getting away with murder.
After Barry calls Lincoln Center’s fare dead people’s music, Ted Panken asks whether that covers playing the Ellington or Jelly Roll Morton repertoire. Barry is not against it, but the main thing is to learn from that music, as you learn how to solo from Bird’s solos rather than just playing them.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶503Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶504Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶505Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶507
Taking up the claim that everything in jazz was already in Art Tatum, Barry says that in some way Tatum contained all the others: Erroll Garner, Bud Powell, Monk and Duke Ellington.
In his own words
The same thing with Ellington. What are we supposed to do with Ellington? We’re supposed to learn from Ellington.
Art Tatum was also Erroll Garner, Art Tatum was Bud Powell, and Art Tatum was all of them... Art Tatum was Monk and Art Tatum was Duke Ellington.
Oftentimes when I... play a Monk song it makes me... think of Duke Ellington... I’m gonna play Duke... after we play this piece I wrote for Duke we’re going to play... Prelude to [a] Kiss
That’s the only way I learned about jazz was dancing... [For] Duke [Ellington], you go to a dance hall, [Count Basie] dance hall, Charlie Parker dance hall, [Dizzy] Gillespie dance hall
Every mention
14 moments in the recordings, 2 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Barry Harris Live In Rennes
- 44:04
Playing Monk often makes him think of Duke; plays a waltz he wrote for Duke, then ‘Prelude to a Kiss’.
Feeling the ‘and’
- 1:12
People went to dance halls to hear Ellington, as for Basie, Kenton, Bird and Dizzy, and danced.
Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland
The 2016 workshop, part 3: Monk’s tunes, not his style
- 10:39
Speaker unclear
In a Rome class discussing Monk, someone, probably Barry, likes Duke but says it does not sound like Duke (the old automatic captions have the line; the newer transcript skips it).
The Spirit of Bebop
- 1:38
Speaker unclear
Someone, apparently Barry, says he wrote a piece for Duke Ellington, just as the film cuts away.
Barry Harris Funeral
- 1:40:00
Someone else
The funeral eulogist says following Barry also leads you to Duke, who taught us to go beyond category.
The Great Pianist Barry Harris’ Funeral At Abyssinian Baptist Church In Harlem
- 1:23:36
Someone else
The same eulogy in another recording of the funeral: follow Barry and you reach Duke, beyond category.
Ali Jackson’s ’Bout It, episode 7
- 0:00
Someone else
A narrator lists Ellington with Bud, Tatum, Bird and Monk as influences on Barry’s style.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future
- 24:14
Someone else
A Detroit musician on TV recalls the 1940s big bands, Ellington’s among them, before bebop arrived.
- 28:30
Someone else
A Detroit bandleader says the Ellington band, now led by Mercer Ellington, has lost much of Duke’s flavour.
- 29:06
Someone else
The same bandleader asks who will carry on the black big bands after Duke.
Interview: tap dance and bebop
- 11:08
Someone else
A podcast host names Ellington with Basie and Lunceford as swing bandleaders and plays ‘Take the A Train’.
Justin Robinson Interview: Barry Harris Masterclasses, Roy Hargrove, Jiu-Jitsu & Music, & More
- 29:13
Someone else
In an interview with Justin Robinson, Ellington’s saying that there is only good music and bad comes up.
In the interviews and notes
Barry says the repertoire of the past, Ellington’s included, should be a springboard: the point is not to reproduce it but to learn from it, just as you learn how to solo from Bird’s solos rather than learning to play them note for note.
Barry goes along with the view that all of jazz was in Tatum: in some way Tatum was every pianist, Garner, Bud, Monk and Duke Ellington alike.
JazzTimes says Barry’s album Live in Rennes covers standards, tunes by Bud, Monk, Bird and Ellington, some of his own originals, and a piece he made up on the spot with the audience’s help at the Jazz à l’Ouest festival in November 2009.
unknown (JazzTimes; the byline is missing on the current site), Barry Harris: Teacher Man ¶5
De Lima quotes Barry’s memory of hearing Kenton, Ellington, Basie, Bird and Dizzy in dance halls, where people danced to the music. He files it under his theme of ‘interrelated arts’, the ties between playing jazz, dancing, singing and movement, with dancing as the sub-theme.
Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶791Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶793Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶794
A forum member studying Barry’s line building transcribes his class on the ‘ands’ at length, including the point that Ellington and Basie were heard in dance halls and that jazz was music to dance to.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Quick start guide to Barry Harris line building ¶172
In a study group on the Kingstone/Harris harmonic method for guitar, one member says the moves with diminished chords on the flat second, flat third and sharp fourth, followed by a sixth or minor seventh chord, have a Basie or Ellington flavour to him.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Kingstone/Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar ¶344jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Kingstone/Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar ¶347
Recordings that name them
Barry’s performances and records in the archive that credit or name them.
- Barry Harris Live In Rennes2021, 77 min YouTube
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.