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Duke Ellington was a musician who defined the Harlem Renaissance. Jazz composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis tells Donald Macleod how Ellington’s music inspires him.

The northern Manhattan neighbourhood of Harlem was meant to be an upper-class white neighbourhood, but rapid overdevelopment led to empty buildings and desperate landlords seeking to fill them. In the early 1900s, in what became known as the Great Migration, African Americans from the south moved north to New York in droves, searching for work after the war, and hoping to escape the racial violence tearing through America. Harlem became a centre for Black culture, drawing in poets like Langston Hughes, thinkers like W. E. B. Du Bois and musicians. These musicians pioneered new forms of jazz and blues, subverted the expectations of Black performers and broke through into the mainstream. This week, Donald Macleod is joined by jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, as he traces the rise and fall of the Harlem Renaissance, transporting us from rent parties to nightclubs to Broadway, as we hear a joyful, soulful explosion of sound.

In the 1920s, African American musicians made their names in the segregated nightclubs of Harlem. Duke Ellington arrived in Harlem a total unknown, but his residency at the infamous Cotton Club gave him national recognition as an originator of big band jazz. But he didn’t want to play to white-only audiences forever. His composition Symphony in Black featured in one of the first films with an entirely Black cast to be widely distributed, launching the career of Billie Holiday and becoming a new landmark in the Harlem Renaissance.

Swing Session (Soda Fountain Rag)
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano

Black Beauty
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano

The Mooche
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano
Lonnie Johnson, Guitar
Fred Guy, Banjo
Sonny Greer, Drums
Wellman Braud, Bass
Bubber Miley and Arthur Whetsol, Trumpet
Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Trombone

East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano
Bubber Miley and Louis Metcalf, Trumpet
Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Trombone
Rudy Jackson, Alto saxophone and clarinet
Otto Hardwick, Clarinet and tenor saxophone
Harry Carney, Clarinet)
Fred Guy, Banjo
Bass Edwards, Tuba
Sonny Greer, Drums

Black and Tan Fantasy
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano
Bubber Miley and Louis Metcalf, Trumpet
Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Trombone
Rudy Jackson, Alto saxophone and clarinet
Otto Hardwick, Clarinet and tenor saxophone
Harry Carney, Clarinet)
Fred Guy, Banjo
Bass Edwards, Tuba
Sonny Greer, Drums

It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano
Louis Armstrong, Trumpet
Mort Herbert, Bass
Trummy Young, Trombone and Sackbut
Ray Hall, Recorder
Barney Bigard, Clarinet
Danny Barcelona, Drums

Creole Rhapsody
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano
Arthur Whetsol, Cootie Williams and Freddie Jenkins, Trumpet
Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol and Joe Nanton, Trombone
Harry Carnet, Clarinet and baritone saxophone
Fred Guy and Sonny Greer, Banjo
Johnny Hodges, Alto saxophone
Wellman Braud, Bass
Barney Bigard, Tenor saxophone

Reminiscing in Tempo
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano
Arthur Whetsol, Cootie Williams and Freddie Jenkins, Trumpet
Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol and Joe Nanton, Trombone
Harry Carnet, Clarinet and baritone saxophone
Fred Guy and Sonny Greer, Banjo
Johnny Hodges, Alto saxophone
Wellman Braud, Bass
Barney Bigard, Tenor saxophone

Symphony in Black
Duke Ellington, Composer and Piano
Billie Holiday, Vocals
Otto Hardwick, Alto saxophone
Johnny Hodges, Alto saxophone
Harry Carney, Baritone Saxophone
Wellman Braud, Bass
Barney Bigard, Clarinet
Sonny Greer, Drums
Fred Guy, Guitar
Joe Nanton, Juan Tizol and Lawrence Brown, Trombone
Freddie Jenkins, Arthur Whetsol and Cootie Williams, Trumpet

Produced in Cardiff by Alice McKee