Concerto for Cootie

The Life and Times of Cootie Williams

Steven C. Bowie (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

456 Seiten

2025
University Press of Mississippi (Verlag)
978-1-4968-5943-3 (ISBN)

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Jazz legend Cootie Williams left home to start his career as a professional musician at the age of fifteen. In 1940, after eleven years as one of the major soloists with the Duke Ellington orchestra, Williams was lured away to the band of Benny Goodman, one of the most popular bands in the country. At the time, it was a controversial move—it was still taboo for African Americans to share the bandstand with white people. Current references to the move usually reduce it to a song written by Raymond Scott, "When Cootie Left the Duke." In reality, it was a seismic event. The Black press predicted Black bands would collapse from raids on their ranks. White musicians were afraid they would be put out of work. And the white press stirred up visions of Black musicians mixing with white women in the new landscape of integrated orchestras.

The twenty years trumpeter Williams spent as a band leader (1942-1962) have been covered in only the barest of details. His involvement in politics and the civil rights movement have not been detailed before. An astute talent scout, Williams and his band launched the careers of Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Earl "Bud" Powell, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and Pearl Bailey. He also was the first to record the music of a young Thelonious Monk, using two of Monk's compositions ("Epistrophy" and "‘Round Midnight") as theme songs for his band.

Steven C. Bowie respectfully tells Williams’s story, from his Alabama ancestry onward, including many new details rediscovered from the historical archives of the African American press and those gleaned from the author’s interviews with his friends and colleagues.

Steven C. Bowie curates and hosts the Duke Ellington-themed podcast Ellington Reflections. He has presented papers on Cootie Williams and Kenny Burrell for conferences held by the Duke Ellington Society of Sweden and written articles for DownBeat and Jazz Improv magazines.

Introduction
Part I—Alabama
1.Mobile Blues
2.Boy Meets Horn
3. A "Young" Professional
4.Florida
5.New York
Part II—Duke Ellington (1929)
6.Cotton Club Stomp
7.Catherine
8.Bugle Call Rag
9. The First European Tour
10.Williams, Whetsel, and Stewart
11.Echoes of Harlem
12.Carnegie Hall
13. The Second European Tour
Part III—Benny Goodman (1940)
14.When Cootie Left the Duke
15.Benny Rides Again
16.Building a Band
Part IV—Cootie Williams, Big Band Leader (1942)
17.Fly Right
18.Back to New York
19. The Impact of War
20.Moe Gale and the Savoy Ballroom
21.Trumpet Student
22.Closing at the Savoy
23.Film Vodvil
24. A Return to the Studio
25.’Round Midnight
26.Personnel Changes
27.Capitol Records
28.Mainstream Press Attention
29. A Change in Management
30. A Year of Change
31.End of an Era
Part V—Cootie Williams, Combo Leader (1947)
32.Things Ain’t What They Used to Be
33.Gator
34.Savoy Ballroom Champion
35. The House Band
36.Back to the Studios
37. The Holy City
38.European Triumph
39.Back Home
Part VI—Duke Ellington (1962)
40.Drifting Right Back
41. The Road
42. The State Department Tour
43. The Bookends
44. The Road Manager
45.Mortality
46.We Love You Madly
Part VII—Mercer Ellington (1974)
47.Now More Than Ever
48.Continuum
49.Unretirement
50. The Last Tenure
51. The Last Tour
52.Passing the Torch
Notes
Cootie Williams Discography
The Compositions of Cootie Williams
Awards and Honors
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	18.09.2025
Reihe/Serie	American Made Music Series
Zusatzinfo	79 b&w illustrations
Verlagsort	Jackson
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Jazz / Blues
ISBN-10	1-4968-5943-X / 149685943X
ISBN-13	978-1-4968-5943-3 / 9781496859433
Zustand	Neuware