(In My) Solitude

1934 composition by Duke Ellington the song by Duke Ellington the album by Willis Jackson In My Solitude (Willis Jackson album) the 1994 album by Terence Blanchard and Jeanie Bryson In My Solitude: The Billie Holiday Songbook (In My) Solitude composition Duke Ellington January 10, 1934 Jazz popThe idea of playing like Duke, though, for me was just to be able to play, 'In My Solitude.' That was a pop tune. It was a very popular piece of music. Everybody loved it. It was a gorgeous piece of music and so things like that were on the charts of those days, if you will. There were no top 40 or anything like that but everybody had the sheet music to that, 'In My Solitude', and 'Mood Indigo' and 'Sophisticated Lady' and other songs that Ellington had recorded and that we heard on the radio all the time.Taylor 2000 ballad Duke Ellington Eddie DeLange Irving Mills "(In My) Solitude" is a 1934 composition by Duke Ellington, with lyrics by Eddie DeLange and Irving Mills. It is considered a jazz standard and has been recorded numerous times by artists such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.Radcliffe 1974 3 Ellington reportedly composed it in a recording studio in 20 minutes, as his orchestra had arrived with only three pieces to record and required another. It is in Dflat major and follows an AABA form (although "the IV chord in measure 3 is replaced by a II7 the second time").Solitude (1934) http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-1/solitude.htm April 4, 2021 jazzstandards.com Music and Lyrics Analysis According to Ellington, the title was suggested by trumpeter Arthur Whetsel. Reception and analysis An AllMusic writer describes the composition as "at once optimistic in its tone but somber in its pace, conflicted with the emotions of bitter loneliness and fond remembrance". The mood of the song is set "in the very first phrase of the melody, with its ascent to the leading tone of the scale falling just short of the tonic, and in the seemingly unremarkable chord progressions that nevertheless manage to transform harmonic resolution into wistful resignation."Grimshaw Jeremy Duke Ellington: Solitude https://www.allmusic.com/composition/solitude-mc0002373229 April 4, 2021 AllMusic Recordings The first recording of the song was by Ellington on January 10, 1934.1931–1940 http://ellingtonia.com/discography/1931-1940.html dead https://web.archive.org/web/20220117043216/http://www.ellingtonia.com/discography/1931-1940.html 2022-01-17 April 4, 2021 ellingtonia.com His second version, from September of the same year, reached No. 2 on the charts in 1935. The Mills Blue Rhythm Band's rendition reached No. 8 that year. "Solitude" was recorded at least 28 times between 1934 and 1942.Crawford Magee 1992 xi Vocalist Billie Holiday recorded the song several times in the 1940s and 1950s, "with the world-weariness of the words matching to an almost disturbing degree her late-career persona".Gioia 2012 379 One of her renditions was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2021.2020-12-21 Grammy Hall of Fame Welcomes 2021 Inductions: A Tribe Called Quest, Billie Holiday, Journey, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen and More https://www.grammy.com/news/grammy-hall-fame-2021-inductions-welcomes-recordings-tribe-called-quest-billie-holiday-journey-linda live https://web.archive.org/web/20211112094259/https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/grammy-hall-fame-2021-inductions-welcomes-recordings-tribe-called-quest-billie-holiday-journey-linda 2021-11-12 2024-11-24 Grammys Writing in 2012, Ted Gioia commented that "for the most part, 'Solitude' serves as a tribute piece nowadays, often played in an overly respectful manner that captures more the sound than the spirit of [Ellington]".Gioia 2012 379 Notes Sources Collier James Lincoln James Lincoln Collier https://archive.org/details/dukeellington0000coll_k5k2 Duke Ellington 1991 Macmillan 978-0-02-722985-1 New York Crawford Richard Richard Crawford (music historian) https://books.google.com/books?id=EnArfgT2vXUC Jazz Standards on Record, 1900–1942: A Core Repertory Magee Jeffrey Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago Chicago 1992 978-0-929911-03-8 Google Books Gioia Ted Ted Gioia The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire https://books.google.com/books?id=dVwGAQAAQBAJ Oxford University Press 2012 978-0-19-993739-4 Oxford Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=Mq30BQAAQBAJ The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington 2015-01-08 Cambridge University Press 978-1-316-19413-3 Green Edward en House Roger https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.12735924 South End Shout: Boston's Forgotten Music Scene in the Jazz Age Fox James 2022 Lever Press 978-1-64315-047-5 173–187 The Triumph of the South End Shout 10.3998/mpub.12735924 10.3998/mpub.12735924 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.12735924.13 Kapchan Deborah Deborah Kapchan https://books.google.com/books?id=0sggDgAAQBAJ Theorizing Sound Writing 2017-04-04 Wesleyan University Press 978-0-8195-7666-8 Kapchan Deborah A. Music/culture Middletown, CT Memoir & Metaphor as Method https://books.google.com/books?id=0sggDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 Radcliffe Joe 1974-06-08 Thank You DukeThousands Say Farewell to Ellington, A Prince Who Loved People Madly https://books.google.com/books?id=ZgkEAAAAMBAJ Billboard Nielsen Business Media, Inc. New York 3 en New York 86 23 Billy Taylor Billy Taylor (jazz bassist) PBS Duke Ellington's Washington Documentary https://www.pbs.org/ellingtonsdc/interviewTaylor.htm 2024-11-24 https://web.archive.org/web/20211028154554/https://www.pbs.org/ellingtonsdc/interviewTaylor.htm 2021-10-28 live PBS 2000-02-07 Tucker Mark Mark Tucker (musician) 1993 The Genesis of "Black, Brown and Beige" https://www.jstor.org/stable/779513 Black Music Research Journal Center for Black Music Research Columbia College Chicago 13 2 67–86 10.2307/779513 779513 0276-3605 registration 2024-11-24 References Solitude (1934) http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-1/solitude.htm April 4, 2021 jazzstandards.com Origin and Chart Information Further reading LaCour Darren The Long-Playing Ellington: Analyzing Composition and Collaboration in the Duke Ellington Orchestra 2016-05-15 2024-11-24 Doctor of Philosophy Washington University https://core.ac.uk/download/233213749.pdf See also List of 1930s jazz standards collapsed Category:1930s jazz standards Category:1934 songs Category:Jazz songs Category:Compositions in the Real Book Category:Songs with lyrics by Eddie DeLange Category:Songs with lyrics by Irving Mills Category:Songs with music by Duke Ellington