Has anyone come across some good information on Jungle Jazz. I’m starting to get a lot of material around 1928 – 35 which is the time of its hay day (I think).
I understand that it was first used in describing Duke Ellington but that’s all I’ve really found about it.
I know that many bands can be described at Jungle, and IMHO big band swing and Swing dances development from Jungle.
I can’t find much on Allmusic.com about Jungle, but I do know that bands like
Ellington, Lunceford, Web, Luis Russell, Cab Calloway and many more bands of the early 30’s were considered Jungle bands well before they were Swing bands.
Does any one have any more information on this period of music development?
Brian
Jungle Jazz
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Bob the Builder
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the following is copyright (c) new grove dictionary.
note that it's called "jungle music" not "jungle jazz."
for the most part, it's a very small category whose only major character is duke ellington.
Jungle music.
A term used to describe a type of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s that incorporated pseudo-African musical effects – especially pounding tom-toms, unusual harmonies, “primitive” scales (usually pentatonic and whole-tone), and muted, growling brass lines. Although elements of the “jungle style” may be discerned in March of the Caboceers (from Will Marion Cook’s In Dahomey, 1902) and in the Original Memphis Five’s recording Africa (1924, Pathé 036117), the genre’s expressive potential was most fully realized by Duke Ellington. During its residency at the Cotton Club (1927–31) Ellington’s orchestra recorded for Brunswick and Melotone as the Jungle Band; for many years it used as its theme East St. Louis Toodle-o (1926, Voc. 1064), in which the keening trumpet playing of Bubber Miley is set against a background of dark, sinister reeds. Other compositions by Ellington that exploit the jungle style are The Mooche (1928, OK 8623), Jungle Nights in Harlem (1930, Vic. 23022), Echoes of the Jungle (1931, Vic. 22743), and Ko-ko (1940, Vic. 26577).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Schuller: “The Ellington Style: its Origins and Early Development,” Early Jazz: its Roots and Musical Development (New York, 1968), 318
D. Ellington: Music is my Mistress (Garden City, NY, 1973)
note that it's called "jungle music" not "jungle jazz."
for the most part, it's a very small category whose only major character is duke ellington.
Jungle music.
A term used to describe a type of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s that incorporated pseudo-African musical effects – especially pounding tom-toms, unusual harmonies, “primitive” scales (usually pentatonic and whole-tone), and muted, growling brass lines. Although elements of the “jungle style” may be discerned in March of the Caboceers (from Will Marion Cook’s In Dahomey, 1902) and in the Original Memphis Five’s recording Africa (1924, Pathé 036117), the genre’s expressive potential was most fully realized by Duke Ellington. During its residency at the Cotton Club (1927–31) Ellington’s orchestra recorded for Brunswick and Melotone as the Jungle Band; for many years it used as its theme East St. Louis Toodle-o (1926, Voc. 1064), in which the keening trumpet playing of Bubber Miley is set against a background of dark, sinister reeds. Other compositions by Ellington that exploit the jungle style are The Mooche (1928, OK 8623), Jungle Nights in Harlem (1930, Vic. 23022), Echoes of the Jungle (1931, Vic. 22743), and Ko-ko (1940, Vic. 26577).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Schuller: “The Ellington Style: its Origins and Early Development,” Early Jazz: its Roots and Musical Development (New York, 1968), 318
D. Ellington: Music is my Mistress (Garden City, NY, 1973)
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AlekseyKosygin
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- Location: Jersey, Home of the Lion, the Lamb and the Brute...
Re: Jungle Jazz
Early 30's Cootie Wiliams with Duke really epitomizes that sound...I think you'd be hard pressed to find a Ellington track that has that sound that doesn't have him or Bubber Miley (another growler who actually predated Cootie in the band) on it...I think the label itself was used more as a promotional thing than as by the musicians themselves...I don't really consider the jungle sound as something that predates swing at all, to me the jungle sound is really defined by the mood it sets based on themes musicians were trying to create at the time...Luis Russell had some songs that you could call "Jungle" music but he had just as many songs if not more from the same sessions that had that unique New Orleans meets New York swinging flavor...Its a great sound but I really don't think it was as defined or independent as you might think it is...This being said I would love to know of other artists that tried to have this sound or artists who at least had a go at it on a batch of songs...If you notice all the musicians you listed were based in NYC, What I would like to know is...were there others based in other parts of the country? Or was the jungle sound something that came distinctly from NYC?Bob the Builder wrote:Has anyone come across some good information on Jungle Jazz. I’m starting to get a lot of material around 1928 – 35 which is the time of its hay day (I think).
I understand that it was first used in describing Duke Ellington but that’s all I’ve really found about it.
I know that many bands can be described at Jungle, and IMHO big band swing and Swing dances development from Jungle.
I can’t find much on Allmusic.com about Jungle, but I do know that bands like
Ellington, Lunceford, Web, Luis Russell, Cab Calloway and many more bands of the early 30’s were considered Jungle bands well before they were Swing bands.
Does any one have any more information on this period of music development?
Brian