Harlem Air Shaft - Duke Ellington, Jimmie Blanton, and Ben Webster - This Day in.Jazz July 22nd

"Harlem Air Shaft" is a piece of music composed by American jazz composer and musician Duke Ellington, first recorded for RCA Victor and released in 1940. Featured in 38 recordings since, it was a popular piece in both Ellington's repertoire and among jazz trumpeters such as Clark Terry. It is generally considered programmatic by some composers and scholars, acting as a narration of everyday noises heard in 1930s New York City.Show more

Ellington recounted his inspiration in a 1944 interview published in The New Yorker:

So much goes on in a Harlem air shaft. You get the full essence of Harlem in an air shaft. You hear fights, you smell dinner, you hear people making love. You hear intimate gossip floating down. You hear the radio. An air shaft is one great big loudspeaker. You see your neighbor’s laundry. You hear the janitor’s dogs. The man upstairs’ aerial falls down and breaks your window. You smell coffee. A wonderful thing is that smell. An air shaft has got every contrast. One guy is cooking dried fish with rice and another guy’s got a great big turkey. Guy-with-fish’s wife is a terrific cooker but the guy’s wife with the turkey is doing a sad job. You hear people praying, fighting, snoring. Jitterbugs are jumping up and down always over you, never below you. That’s a funny thing about jitterbugs. They’re always over you. I tried to put all that in "Harlem Air Shaft."

Harlem Air Shaft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJYU_zNkbmQ

Ellington/Blanton duo, J.B. Blues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JlyMlZS9IA

Body and Soul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeD7hkJPzpU

Jack the Bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTbXap_H22E

Stardust with Jimmie Blanton and Ben Webster - must listen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDtBsBX7KoY

Great blog by Mike Zirpolo: https://swingandbeyond.com/2018/04/11/harlem-air-shaft-1940-duke-ellington-live-version/