C Jam Blues
{{Short description|1942 jazz standard by Duke Ellington}}
{{use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{more sources|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| composer = Duke Ellington
| name = C Jam Blues
| image = Jam Session (1942).webm
| alt =
| caption = "C Jam Blues" performed by Ellington in the 1942 short film Jam Session
| key = C major
| catalogue =
| genre = Jazz
| form = Twelve-bar blues
| text =
| language =
| melody =
| composed = {{Start date|1941|df=y}}
| performed =
| published =
| movements =
| scoring =
| misc =
}}
"C Jam Blues" is a jazz standard composed in 1942 by Duke Ellington. One of his most famous pieces,{{sfn|Schuller|1992|p=47}} it has been performed by countless other musicians, such as Dave Grusin, Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson, and Charles Mingus.
Background
As the title suggests, the piece follows a twelve-bar blues form in the key of C major. The tune is well known{{whom|date=January 2025}} for being extremely easy to play, with the entire melody featuring only two notes: G and C.
A performance typically features several improvised solos. The melody likely originated from the clarinetist Barney Bigard in 1941, but its origin is not perfectly clear.{{Cite web |title=C Jam Blues (1942) |url=http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-1/cjamblues.htm |access-date=3 April 2010 |website=JazzStandards.com}}
It was also known as "Duke's Place",{{Cite web |title=C-Jam Blues by Duke Ellington/arr. Rick Stitzel |url=https://www.jwpepper.com/C-Jam-Blues/2470818.item |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=J.W. Pepper Sheet Music}} with lyrics added by Bill Katts, Bob Thiele and Ruth Roberts.
Notable performances
- The song is performed in the "soundie" Jam Session, produced in 1942. The video depicts a jam session where Ellington begins playing with a double bass before gradually being joined by other members of his band, among them drummer Sonny Greer and trumpeter Rex Stewart.{{Cite web |last=Mashon |first=Mike |date=2015-12-01 |title=Duke Ellington on the National Film Registry: Jam Session (1942) |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2015/12/duke-ellington-on-the-national-film-registry-jam-session-1942/ |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=Now See Hear! |publisher=The Library of Congress |type=Blog}}
- Western Swing band leader Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys recorded the song sometime between 1945 and 1947 as part of The Tiffany Transcriptions.San Antonio Rose. Tiffany Transcriptions page 351.{{better source|date=January 2025}}
- Bill Doggett recorded a version on his 1958 tribute album Salute to Duke Ellington (King).
- "C Jam Blues" was used by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band as the basis of their song "The Intro and the Outro".{{Cite web |last=Tracey |first=Ed |date=18 September 2016 |title=Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll) |url=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/9/18/1569520/-Odds-Ends-News-Humor-with-a-Who-Lost-the-Week-poll |access-date=11 November 2016 |website=Daily Kos}}
- Mulgrew Miller and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen included the song in their 1999 album The Duets.{{Cite web |title=Mulgrew Miller Discography |url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/mulgrew-miller/discography/ |access-date=7 March 2017 |publisher=jazzdisco.org}}
- The Dave Brubeck Quartet performed this live at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival; the recording appears in their album Newport 1958.{{Cite web |title=Newport 1958 |url=http://www.davebrubeckjazz.com/Recordings/Detail/Newport-1958/0027 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806163013/http://www.davebrubeckjazz.com/Recordings/Detail/Newport-1958/0027 |archive-date=2021-08-06 |access-date=2020-03-29 |website=Dave Brubeck Jazz |publisher=Rovi Corporation}}{{Cite web |last=Dryden |first=Ken |title=Newport 1958: Brubeck Plays Ellington Review |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/newport-1958-brubeck-plays-ellington-mw0000898412#review |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=AllMusic |language=en}}
- Tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet performed the song with former President Bill Clinton at his 1993 inagural ball.{{Cite news |title=Legendary saxophonist dies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5JVAAAAIBAJ&q=%2522C%2520Jam%2520Bl-ues%2522&pg=PA5&article_id=6663,1950980#v=onepage |date=2004-07-23|access-date=2025-01-11 |work=The Robesonian |department=Deaths |page=8A |language=en |agency=The Associated Press}}
References
=Citations=
{{reflist}}
=Sources=
- {{cite journal |last=Schuller |first=Gunther |title=Jazz and Composition: The Many Sides of Duke Ellington, the Music's Greatest Composer |journal=Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |publisher=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |volume=46 |issue=1 |year=1992 |issn=0002-712X |jstor=3824163 |pages=36–51 |doi=10.2307/3824163 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3824163 |access-date=2025-01-11|url-access=subscription }}
{{Duke Ellington}}
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Category:Compositions by Duke Ellington
Category:Songs written by Ruth Roberts
Category:Jazz compositions in C major
{{1940s-jazz-composition-stub}}