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shelterfromthenorm:

“Money Jungle” by Duke Ellington

(Music: Duke Ellington, Album: Money Jungle, Blue Note 1962)

The title track from this 1962 album featuring Duke Ellington on piano, Charles Mingus on bass, and Max Roach on drums marks a departure from the orchestral jazz Ellington is most known for. An intimate trio of jazz legends, the single most recognizable feature of the song is Charles Mingus pounding on his bass creating an unavoidable dissonance that the piano in drums just continue to play over. It kind of reminds me of a child throwing a tantrum in the grocery store and begging for attention while the parents just carrying on. Even though the bass stands out so much on this song, it in some way doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the song, but actually enhances it. (It is certainly more enjoyable to be the musical audience than the audience in the grocery store witnessing the tantrum!) I guess that’s a level of musical knowledge and genius that I just don’t get: how to combine chords and pedal tones and the like so they seem to clash but actually end up creating multi-layered harmonies that people want to listen to over and over again. Overall, the album is a great listen especially if you’re interested in sound experiments like the electric jazz Miles Davis work through to Sonic Youth.

(Note: Money Jungle is currently available from AmazonMP3 for $5 for the month of April.)

 More Duke Ellington: AmazonMP3 – lala – last.fm