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Then and Now
With Fred Glueckstein |
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Horses, Art and Jazz: Degas's Paintings Inspired Music of Ellington
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As Duke Ellington, the brilliant jazz composer and band leader, wandered through the Wildenstein Gallery on East 64 th Street in New York City in March 1968, he marveled at the superb French Impressionist and Post-
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Impressionist art exhibition titled "Degas's Racing World." On display were one hundred and thirty paintings, drawings, and bronzes of horses, jockeys, and people at the race track. |
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Highlighting the Wildenstein exhibition were ninety art works of the 19th century French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas. Although famous for his paintings of ballet dancers, Degas had a long time interest in horses and horse racing, often visiting the racetrack at Longchamps in Paris. Degas used horses and riders as the subject of at least forty-five paintings, twenty pastels, two hundred and fifty drawings, and seventeen sculptures. |
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The Wildenstein also displayed forty works by eleven other French artists such as Boudin, Géricault, Forain, Toulouse-Latrec, Dufy, and Bonnard. |
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Ellington was at the Wildenstein that day at the behest of Hollywood producer Sam Shaw, who had worked with him on the film Paris Blues (1961). Shaw had previously seen the splendid art show and had decided to film a documentary, which he titled Degas' Racing World , and, alternately, The Impressionists at the Racetrack. |
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Shaw wanted Ellington's music to compliment the artists' portrayal of the color and action of the race horses on the turf.
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Ellington enjoyed viewing the art work.
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"Ellington found Forain's painting of the crowd at Auteuil especially amusing," wrote jazz writer Stanley Dance "It showed a distant horse and rider, and a bearded gentleman in top hat close up who was holding the form sheet, but with his eyes fastened on the bosom of a nearby lady. 'You see,' said Ellington, 'this cat's horse is winning and all mind is on is blowing the loot he wins on the chick.'"
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After viewing Degas's works, Ellington was very enthusiastic about Shaw's project and started work on the soundtrack. The maestro began using just four horns and the piano, but the group grew in size as the work progressed. The recording sessions took place in New York on November 6 and December 3, 1968. By the completion of the sessions, Ellington decided which performances were kept in the soundtrack, as some were not included and others abridged. |
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Ellington titled the music The Degas Suite. |
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The Degas Suite consisted of eleven movements and included the following compositions: Introduction - Opening Titles; Race; Racing; Piano Pastel; Improvisation - Marcia Regina; Piano Pastel; Daily Double; Drawings; Promenade; Sonnet, and Race. Highlighting the work were Duke Ellington's masterful piano playing (Piano Pastel) and saxophonist Johnny Hodges's beautiful lyrical renditions of the stunning main theme (Race) at the opening and closing of the suite. |
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Hollywood actor Anthony Quinn agreed to do the narration for the documentary. Quinn, in turn, became very excited about the film and convinced fellow actors Charles Boyer and Simone Signoret to join him in the narration. Sam Shaw had all the pieces in place, art, music and narration for his documentary, but it was not to be. "Alas," wrote Stanley Dance, "all this came to naught when the project ran out of money. Ellington was given the soundtrack as some recompense for his work."
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Shaw passed away in 1999. His daughter, Edie Shaw Marcus, told this writer that she actually worked on some of the graphics for her dad's documentary and remembered watching it many years ago. She confirmed that it was not released because funding ran out and believed it was never viewed by the public. Ms. Marcus believed the original documentary existed.
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After the documentary project came to an end, The Degas Suite was rarely performed. One notable exception took place many years after Ellington's passing. In May 1996 at Alice Tully Hall, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra conducted by Wynton Marsalis played the piece as part of an exceptional concert called Duke in Hollywood: An Evening of Ellington's Film Music. |
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One day the documentary Degas' Racing World may surface. If that should happen, the admirers of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and the fans of Duke Ellington's music will no doubt see the horse celebrated as never before. |
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Read comments or post your own comments to this article at the bottom of this page. |
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Fred Glueckstein was raised in New York City and attended Queens College of
the City University of New York and New York University. Fred has written
extensively about horses. His work has appeared in The Chronicle of the
Horse, The Backstretch, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred, Horses in Art,
Equestrian, Preakness Souvenir Magazine, ARMY, The Cavalry Journal, Finest
Hour, the official journal of the Churchill Centre and Societies, and other
publications. His most recent non-fiction book, titled "Mickey Mantle:
Rookie in Pinstripes," was published by iUniverse in 2008.
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Fred's other books include "Of Men, Women and Horses" (2006), a collection
of stories, and "The '27 Yankees." Both were published by Xlibris. Fred and
his wife Eileen live in Maryland. They have two children, Brian and Debra. |
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Copyright © 2008 All rights reserved. The above article is the property of the Author and may not be duplicated or redistributed in any way without permission. |
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Reader comments for this article |
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Name: mym Time: 2008-09-15 03:09:56
Comment: Whenever I'm filling out one of those ubiquitous questionnaires that ask my "Interests and Passions," I reply "Art; music, particularly jazz; and horses." You can imagine how thrilling to read this well-written article. Although i have a good collection of Ellington CDs, I lacked the "Degas Suite." Be assured that I fixed that already. I'm enjoying it even more after knowing the story you wrote.
I hope we get more articles from you. This one proves that ENM is the best, most interesting horse magazine out there.
(By the way, I'm a baseball fan, too!)
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