Dawn of the jazz age: Sir Duke Ellington's adventures in Britain

Seventy-five years ago, Duke Ellington and his orchestra's first tour of England transformed how Ellington, American music and African American music were viewed on both sides of the Atlantic. It changed how Ellington viewed his own artistry, encouraging him to experiment further beyond the danceable sounds audiences typically expected of black artists in the jazz world. And in the US, Ellington's 1933 British tour significantly pushed forward the idea of Americans finally accepting their own music as a serious art form.

The band were shocked by their reception. British audiences bestowed the kind of respect usually only accorded classical artists, five- to 10-minute ovations before the band played a note. Over a quarter of a century later, Ellington still seemed amazed by the reaction to the band's opening number at their first show. He remembered that the band were initially uncertain of how British audiences felt, "because their idea of applause was hand-clapping, foot-stomping, whistling, cheering, and booing – everything but the Bronx cheer. And if you have never experienced it, let me tell you that this can be very confusing. After it was all over, we realised it was applause. It was too late because everybody on stage was terrified."

British fans peppered the Ellington orchestra with technical and artistic questions that they had almost never received before. Cootie Williams, the band's long-serving trumpeter, laughed when recalling: "everybody knew you... they knew you better than the people did in America. And they would invite you to their home, and they had all your records." In an interview during the tour, Ellington remarked: "It has been positively embarrassing at times to be asked the most analytical questions about work I have nearly forgotten by now." Fans "clung to [Ellington's] limo as he drove away from the venue" in a precursor to Beatlemania. The BBC paid the Ellington orchestra the highest fee they had yet paid a band for a broadcast, and, according to a news account, "when BBC officials found that Ellington was using 'Mood Indigo' only as a closeout fading signature, they extended the [programme] five minutes, cutting into the next programme to permit him to play the number in its entirety."

An aura of anticipation arose in England well before Ellington's arrival, inspired by Ellington's recordings, and an editorial volte-face by Melody Maker. According to the music journalist Max Jones, when Melody Maker was founded in 1926, its writers argued for the supremacy of white musicians, usually referring to blacks as "wogs" and "blackies". By about 1930, writers such as Spike Hughes led a change in policy that not only praised, but exalted African American jazz musicians.

Underscoring this artistic respect, British audiences and critics took Ellington to task in his initial series of shows for playing too many hit songs, and not enough of the works they deemed more serious such as the nine-minute "Creole Rhapsody", Ellington's most accomplished extended composition at that point. In America, it did not sell particularly well; in England, audiences clamoured for such material. One Melody Maker reader suggested raising admission prices to keep out the supposedly lower-class audience that preferred Ellington's less challenging, more commercial material.

Ellington satisfied more discerning fans by scheduling two extra Melody Maker-organised concerts at the vast but now-demolished Trocadero cinema at the Elephant and Castle in south London. Jones called the shows "a tremendous innovation", because no popular or black act had played a concert in England without support acts in such a large venue. Ellington played mostly his own compositions, including "Creole Rhapsody" and an eight-minute version of "Sophisticated Lady".

A sense that Ellington and jazz represented turning points in music history pervades press clippings. An essay entitled "The Art of Duke Ellington" compared Ellington's innovations to Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone system, which was controversial when premiered, yet eventually "applauded by the musical dilettanti". The Huddersfield News compared Ellington's "hot jazz" to Elizabethan madrigals of the 1600s, which, according to the author, also presented somewhat primitive, discordant, and rule-breaking material that eventually was recognised to have important and lasting value, especially in terms of rhythm. Unlike their American brethren, European critics and audiences possessed a tradition of viewing even popular music as an art form, and exhibited avid curiosity as to how Ellington fitted into their system.

Intellectuals and critics were not alone in assessing Ellington's significance; his music and manner also affected English musicians. Greer recalled that, among the Trocadero audience, "half... were musicians". Spike Hughes, nearly four weeks after Ellington left England, presented a four-part Melody Maker series concerning "The Technical Lesson of Ellington", summarising "the free education to all dance musicians recently offered by Duke", and featuring musical notation and examples, a level of detail not seen in America until the 1940s.

"Duke has made us [musicians] all think", commented "The Rambler" in Tune Times. He provided a picturesque description of Ellington's after-effect among musicians: "In small variety halls they sing 'Mood Indigo' with blue lights and blue notes; arrangers sigh for six brass every time they make an arrangement for a society gig."

The formation of numerous record clubs in the wake of the tour demonstrated how Ellington inspired fans and musicians to take jazz and popular music more seriously. These were not fan clubs, but organisations lavishing serious amateur attention on the music of Ellington and other jazz bands. Jazz lectures were presented, along with "recitals" of recordings, followed by discussion and sometimes musical instruction. Six weeks following Ellington's exit from England, a Mr Crabtree of the "Hot Record Circle" in Colne in Lancashire, previewed "an All-Ellington Record Recital, which is to be held in Bracewell Hall, Yorks". Weekly meetings of the 40-strong Liverpool Ellington Society were previewed in Melody Maker. Only in the late 1950s, with the creation of the Duke Ellington societies, would similar serious music appreciation organisations on behalf of a popular music artist develop in America. ......... 

Not everyone waxed rapturously about Ellington. Resistance arose in small amounts in the British press, some racially inspired. Pearson's Weekly, in an article subtitled, "Negroes Invade Our Theaters", seemed threatened by positive interpretations of black musicians. Citing recent tours by Ellington and Louis Armstrong, the writer wondered whether "negroes will eventually capture the [British] theatre", and seemed disappointed with white audiences' unbridled enthusiasm in demanding encores of black musicians. He reminded "coloured stars" that "a hundred years ago they would have been working in the cotton plantations with a white man cracking the whip over them".

A few articles expressed pride that British audiences recognised Ellington's artistry before Americans generally did. Racism certainly played a part in this American reticence, as did record executives' notions that black music could only serve entertainment and dance. But it was more than that. Ellington faced not only prejudice against blacks and popular music, but also long-term prejudice against the worth of American art. Since the first American universities were founded, American culture and music was deemed unworthy of study. Classic works by Europeans dominated curricula, a trend continuing, for the most part, until the Second World War.

Ellington's fabled 1933 tour helped to break down this prejudice – if European critics and audiences viewed Ellington as an artist worthy of highbrow attention, the point was more likely to be accepted stateside.

Ellington and his orchestra enjoyed the most concentrated American news coverage they had yet received upon their return. Newspapers triumphantly parroted the praise British critics showered on Ellington. They changed their tone in writing about him, employing rarefied language not usually lavished on popular or jazz musicians. The Youngstown [Ohio] Vindicator offered a headline of "Ellington to Show Piano Art". A Columbus [Ohio] paper referred to Ellington as a "versatile" artist "just back from European triumphs" who could play both a concert and a dance in the same evening, utilising his "many manuscripts" of original music. The Memphis Scimitar wrote that Ellington's "unorthodox, frenzied jazz" earned him the sobriquet of "this negro Stravinsky".

Ellington himself never emphasised such platitudes. He had little use for fawning classical comparisons, outside of the promotional opportunities they presented. His music illustrated the feelings and impressions of his own existence and identity. In "words bearing a slight London accent", Ellington told The Hollywood News in 1934 that "I want to be independent. I want to do what I want. I want to break away from European traditions." Despite international inclination to classical comparisons by various critics, this is what his music had done all along.

Before Aaron Copland and Charles Ives rose to international prominence in the 1940s, Ellington offered convincing evidence that American music could offer something original and lasting, even if earlier works by Scott Joplin, among others, should have tipped off critics decades before. Following the Second World War, American music, along with American literature and art, would be more frequently and seriously studied and reviewed both in the United States and abroad. Ellington's work in the 1930s, and the British recognition of it, proved significant in presaging and inspiring this cultural shift.

Harvey G Cohen is a lecturer at the Centre for Cultural, Media and Creative Industries Research at King's College London. His book, 'Duke Ellington's America', will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2009. He will be appearing on a panel about Ellington at the London Jazz Festival, 6pm, 17 November, Southbank Centre, London SE1, free