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Jump for Joy was a
revue, subtitled 'A Sun-Tanned Revu-sical', that opened at the Mayan Theatre
in Los Angeles at 9:10 on the evening of Thursday 10 July 1941. Duke Ellington
and Hal Borne wrote the music and Paul Webster and Sid Kuller were the
lyricists.
The show was an all
black musical with a social message, written, according to Ellington,
"to take Uncle Tom out of the theatre, eliminate the stereotyped image
that had been exploited by Hollywood and Broadway, and say things that
would make the audience think."
The orchestra for
Jump for Joy was Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra, the line-up
of the time is usually known as the Blanton-Webster band after bassist
Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. This incarnation of Duke's
band is considered by many people to be his finest. Despite competition
at the Biltmore Theatre, six blocks away, where Ethel Waters and the original
Broadway cast were filling the seats with Cabin in the Sky, Jump for Joy
did well but closed on 27 September 1941. The curtain finally came down
as many of the young show-stoppers became part of the strengthening of
America's military establishment and were soon to become part of the big
show of the time: World War II. The revue has never been revived since.
Jimmy Blanton left
the band through illness in November 1941 and died of tuberculosis on
30 July 1942 aged 23. Duke and his Orchestra made several studio recordings
whilst they were resident in Los Angeles during the summer of 1941 whilst
participating in Jump for Joy and appearing at the Trianon Ballroom, the
Casa Maņana and at other dates in southern California. Six songs from
the revue were recorded that summer but it was on the first day of a two
day session starting on 2 July 1941 in a studio in Hollywood that the
band cut two versions of the revue's title song, Jump for Joy. The first
take featured Herb Jeffries on vocals and on the second take the singer
was Ivie Anderson. That first version of the song is one of the most beautiful
pieces that I have ever heard, and certainly my favourite version of my
favourite Ellington composition. The eight bar intro seems to have Ellington's
piano, Blanton's bass and the brass section at odds over the key, but
when Harry Carney's sonorous baritone sax kicks in the arrangement falls
smack into place. Jeffries rich voice takes up the cause, hinting at a
spiritual, whilst the rest of the band swing along in an outstanding fashion.
The whole track is an absolute joy!
Jump for Joy can be
found on the superb compact disc re-issue set:
Duke Ellington: The
Blanton-Webster Band Bluebird 74321 13181 2
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