Black, Brown and Beige
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Black, Brown and Beige is a jazz suite written by Duke Ellington for a concert at the Carnegie Hall in 1943. Ellington introduced it at Carnegie Hall as "a parallel to the story of the American Negro." It was Ellington's longest and most ambitious composition to date. Known by Ellington as "B, B, & B" according to Irving Townsend in his 1958 liner notes to a recording of a later version of the suite (Black, Brown and Beige, Columbia records). It received its first performance at Rye High School in Westchester County, New York, on 23 January 1943 (the evening before its Carnegie Hall debut). "Black," the first movement, is divided into two parts, the Work Song and the Spiritual. "Brown" has three parts, the West Indian influence; the celebration over Emancipation, and the Blues. "Beige" depicts "the Afro-American of the 1920's, 30's and World War II," wrote Leonard Feather in the liner notes of the 1977 release of the original 1943 performance.
[edit] External links
- "Black, Brown, and Beige" — Will Friedwald
- "Black, Brown, & Beige" — Richard Wang
