A great jazz musician's composing process
Video: On the road with Duke Ellington
Mason Curry found a video of Duke Ellington talking about his composing process in an hourlong documentary recorded in 1967. Duke's description of how he comes up with musical ideas (often right before falling asleep) sent Curry "searching for more on Ellington’s composing habits—and I stumbled on a trove of terrific quotes in Harvey G. Cohen’s 2010 book Duke Ellington’s America." In this article he plucks a few of these beautiful observations.
"My band is my instrument even more than the piano. Tell you about me and music—I’m something like a farmer. A farmer that grows things. He plants his seed and I plant mine. He has to wait until spring to see his come up, but I can see mine right after I plant it. That night. I don’t have to wait. That’s the payoff for me."
"It’s this thing you keep chasing. This melody. You are always looking for it. Then a bit of it comes to you, you bite a piece, and it tastes sweet. Then you go back and reach for a bit more. It’s still 'this melody,' but it’s a different one now. If you’re lucky you get it again—a new one. This tree has got a lot of different fruit on it . . . A composition may make some money for me, but I don’t care about that. I just want to hear it."
Article: Duke Ellington's Hungry Ear