In 1958 when the first recording of Black, Brown and Beige was released by Columbia Records, producer Irving Townsend wrote. “It is, unfortunately, much too soon for anyone familiar with the music of Duke Ellington to assess it in terms of what is best or most important. But Black, Brown & Beige must always be near the top of all he writes…” Townsend’s words were indeed prophetic, for B, B & B (as Ellington often referred to the work) is arguably the late composer’s greatest long-form work.
When Black, Brown and Beige world premiered in 1943 at Carnegie Hall, it was performed as a suite in three movements to represent what Ellington called “a tone parallel to the history of the American Negro”: the journey of the enslaved from Africa, slavery and Emancipation, and finally the development and perpetuation of a free, African-American culture. Indeed, Ellington possessed a remarkable ability to tell stories with his music by introducing themes, developing them, and then restating them with new ideas. Not surprisingly then, the three movements of B, B & B easily stand on their own and are profound for their ability to impart meaning without the use of vocal lyrics.
Moreover, Black, Brown and Beige was important historically: it marked Ellington’s first appearance on the illustrious Carnegie Hall stage and his greatest achievement in long form composition (though Ellington, always the innovator, had composed long-form pieces as early as 1935, in spite of protests by jazz critics who felt jazz composition should be confined to shorter pieces). With B, B & B, Ellington proved once and for all that he could successfully assimilate the ideas of improvisation and composition into jazz performance. The recording features a combination of full orchestra performances and brilliant solos by Sam Woodyard on drums, Cat Anderson and Ellington himself on piano, Harry Carney on bass, Shorty Baker on trumpet, Ray Nance on violin and John Sanders on trombone.
Notably, when Ellington went into the studio in 1958 to record B, B & B, he convinced Mahalia Jackson to step ever so slightly outside of the gospel music arena to perform the lyrical version of “Come Sunday” and the “23rd Psalm,” both of which were added to the original instrumental suite at the recording. As Monsignor John Sanders (who played trombone on the recording) writes in the 1999 liner notes, Jackson’s singing “complemented the melody…and [gave] the theme a profound spiritual element.”
It is often remarked that the 1958 version of B, B & B is somehow inferior because the brilliant soloist Johnny Hodges was absent from the recording. However, with the help of Mahalia Jackson, it seems that Ellington was able to overcome this shortcoming. Jackson’s singing is given even greater prominence in the 1999 reissue of B, B &B. Complete with several “alternate takes” and a plethora of “previously unreleased” material by Ellington, the “bonus track” that makes this 1999 reissue of B, B & B worth purchasing again for those who already own the a copy of earlier recording is the a capella version of Jackson singing “Come Sunday.” In contrast, the other bonus tracks seem somewhat unnecessary and out of place, since clearly the original recording of Black, Brown and Beige has stood the test of time and remains one of many recorded testaments to the genius of Duke Ellington.
