the times | Saturday April 30 2022 33
Comment
Duke of jazz who captivated the Queen
The young Elizabeth developed a deep appreciation for the composer who gave voice to the African-American struggle
responded. “For a long time, social
protest and pride in black culture
and history have been the most
significant themes in what we’ve
done.”
It was all in the music, which gave
voice to the black American
experience, creating a sound that
embodied the moods, inflections and
rhythms of black culture and
religion. He rejected the terms
“swing” and “jazz”, simply describing
his music as African-American.
Black, Brown and Beige was an
extended composition for orchestra,
mixing violins and spirituals, African
rhythms and the blues. It was first
played at Carnegie Hall in 1943 to an
audience that included Eleanor
Roosevelt, Count Basie and Frank
Sinatra. Telling the story of black
Americans from slavery onwards,
Ellington called this, his first
symphony, “a parallel to the history
of the American Negro”. It was also abridge between classical and jazz,
past and present, white and black.
The Queen may not have been
fully aware of Ellington’s role in the
civil rights movement when she
danced to it, but she cannot have
been oblivious to what his music
meant in black America.
In 1972 a group of famous black
jazz musicians gathered at Yale
University to raise money for an
African-American music
department. There was a bomb
threat.
Charles Mingus refused to leave.
“Racism ain’t strong enough to kill
this music,” he told the police. “If I’m
going to die, I’m ready. But I’m going
out playing Sophisticated Lady.”
Ellington stood outside with a
smile on his face, listening to his own
composition played as a civil rights
protest anthem.
It is tempting to imagine that had
Queen Elizabeth been there (then in
the 20th year of her reign) she might
have relished the moment too: the
Duke and the Queen, jazz royalty,
together in the music.ALAMYWashington DC. For five years in the
1920s his orchestra played at the
Cotton Club, a mafia-owned
speakeasy decked out in plantation
style for a wealthy whites-only
clientele. Black musicians entered
through a back door.
Without obvious fanfare, Ellington
stood up for black rights, performing
for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People and
holding concerts to raise money for
the Scottsboro Boys, black
adolescents falsely accused of rape in- Touring Britain in 1933,
Ellington’s band had to find
alternative accommodation in
London when grand hotels turned
them away. “I started my own civil
rights movement in the Thirties,” he
said. “I went down south without
federal troops.”
From 1961, he had a clause in his
contracts ensuring he never played
to another segregated audience. He
was a close friend of Martin Luther
King. At a time of violent protests
and sit-ins, some civil rights
campaigners accused Ellington of
insufficient militancy. “They’ve not
been listening to our music,” he
African-Americans as equals, and
still less as supremely gifted artists.
The Duke ruled over jazz for half a
century, and changed for ever the
cultural landscape of America and
the world.
In his definitive biography, Harvey
G Cohen writes: “Through Ellington,
the black experience, replete with
humanity, history, and artistry,
filtered into millions of American
homes.” Remarkably, it also filtered
into the palaces of the royal family,
and captivated the Queen.
Elizabeth II’s embrace of Duke
Ellington reveals not just discerning
musical taste but at least a hint of
political engagement. For Ellington
was also an important if subtle figure
in the American civil rights
movement, fusing art and political
activism. Even someone as distant
from popular culture as the Queen
cannot have been unaware of the
message in the music: by appreciating
Duke Ellington she was also, by
association, embracing the cause of
racial equality and social justice.
Ellington defied racism all his life.
He was 20 when violent race riots
exploded in his home city ofW
e know little about
the Queen’s cultural
tastes, and even less
about her political
views. She enjoys
musicals and show tunes; she is
thought to read the horseracing crime
novels of Dick Francis; she is not
keen on independence for Scotland
and would not, we can safely assume,
have relished the prospect of Jeremy
Corbyn as prime minister.
Beyond that, her cultural interests
are a blank slate, her politics either
carefully hidden or non-existent. We
have no idea what she really likes to
read or watch, which painters,
playwrights or actors she admires,
what theatre she enjoys and the
music she listens to in private. This is
central to the mystery of majesty:
since she displays no artistic or
political tastes, she cannot be
criticised for them.
But in her 97th year, the Queen has
been revealed to be a lifelong and
hitherto almost wholly secret devotee
of the jazz genius Duke Ellington.
This week Gary Crosby, a double-
bass player who became the first jazz
musician awarded the Queen’s Medal
for Music in 2018, told Radio 2 that
he was left “floored” by the Queen’s
knowledge and appreciation of
Ellington’s music.
She met Ellington in 1958 at an
arts festival in Yorkshire, where he
“politely flirted with Her Majesty”.
She treasured her father’s collection
of Ellington’s records. As newlyweds,
Princess Elizabeth and her husband,
Prince Philip, danced to Ellington’s
Take the A Train.
Ellington, who died in 1974, has a
good claim to be the most influential
musician-performer of the 20th
century. An indefatigable creative
force, a composer, pianist and band
leader, as well as poet, playwright
and painter, he produced more than
2,000 works.
Before “the Duke”, serious music
was regarded as the preserve of
white Europeans; he opened the way
for African-American culture, and
above all jazz, to be seen as lasting
and important. His music was always
far more than an accompaniment to
dance; like a classical symphony, it is
high art demanding the audience’s
full attention.
Ellington composed at a time
when white American society, in
both the north and south, did not seeDuke Ellington’s music had a role in the civil rights movement and got the Queen and Prince Philip, below, on to the dancefloorEllington was a bridge
between classical and
jazz, black and white
Ben
Macintyre@benmacintyre1
millions on their summer holidays
this year, as backlogs at the Passport
Office mean they won’t be able to go
abroad. The government is, though,
offering free flights to Rwanda.
Hot stuff Stay warm without
turning on the heating thanks to a
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Pity the fuel After Oliver
Dowden, the Tory party
chairman, boasted that Boris
Johnson would remain PM
and still has “plenty of fuel in
the tank”, maybe he could
share some of it with people
who can’t afford to fill up.
Dr No GPs’ surgeries to
cut all doctors and instead
ensure receptionists have
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Anti-Auntie The BBC tostart showing more repeats. Instead
of broadcasting every new attack on
the BBC by Nadine Dorries, they can
just rerun one of her old ones.
Postcode lottery Find that nice
woman who has given away half her
Euromillions win to help people
worse off. Failing that, send a
begging letter to Rishi Sunak’s wife.
Office politics Save millions on
stationery by stopping Jacob Rees-
Mogg from leaving “sorry I missed
you” notes on desks like he’s
Whitehall’s Avon lady. This week he
warned civil servants that if they
didn’t come back to their offices he
would sell off the offices they don’t
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Hard times Crack the productivity
puzzle and get MPs working in
overdrive by removing all
distractions, including alcohol, legs
and superfast broadband.No idea for
saving money
is a bad one.
Unless it’s one
of Nadine’s,
obviously
Y
ou know the government
has run out of ideas, as well
as steam and scruples, when
the prime minister turns a
cabinet meeting into a radio
phone-in. “We’ve got Thérèse next,
long-time listener, first-time speaker
... how do you think we can save
money without spending money?”
As the cost-of-living crisis bites,
especially for those really struggling
after giving up their green card and
non-dom status, no idea is a bad
idea. Unless it’s one of Nadine’s, obvs.
So here are the collective thoughts of
the cabinet’s tiny brainstorm:
Really motoring This government
will get the country moving —
mainly by getting DVLA staff off
their sofas and into their office to
start opening two years’ worth of
post. MoT’s will become biennial
instead of annual. This will help to
bring down food bills because the
drivers of some of the most unsafe
cars will be dead, so won’t need to eat.
Child’s play Boris Johnson wants
to do something about the cost of
childcare, with a particular emphasis
on those with an indeterminate
number of children and who are
unable to supplement their income
by writing Telegraph columns. At
least for the next couple of months.
No laughing matter Earn some
money on the side by writing jokes
for Keir Starmer, so he can throw
away his Big Book Of Topical
Political Jokes 2003 edition, which
this week at PMQs brought us such
rib-ticklers as “he’s the Comical Ali
of the cost-of-living crisis”, “he’s an
ostrich” and “his big idea makes the
cones hotline sound visionary and
inspirational”. That 30-year-old
cones hotline material will no doubt
bang on the TikToks.
Vacant vacations Families will saveMatt Chorley
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