Prelude to a Kiss

Marion Brown (alto sax), Archie Shepp (tenor sax), Ted Curson (trumpet), Joseph Orange (trombone), Reggie Johnson (bass) and Joe Chamber (drums). From the album Fire Music (1965).

At the end of the 1930s, the musical preferences of the American public finally embraced Duke Ellington. The Swing Era was in full bloom and the music industry and its clients showed an irresistible craving for riff-based songs to accompany drinks and dance. Ellington was well prepared to give the fans what they wanted, but at the time  he was doing just the contrary. He used his popularity and greater artistic freedom to be more daring and experimental, and less subject to the recipes of swing music. Between the late 1930s and early 1940s he recorded a number of tunes that challenged the norms of the music business and even the jazz tradition. However, he continued to have a tremendous commercial success and broaden his audience.

For example, in “Prelude to a Kiss” from 1938, the descending chromatic melodic line of the opening theme is more appropriate for classical music than for jazz. It’s harmonies are very suitable for playing the piano, but they don’t make an impression on the dance floor. Although Otto Hardwick helped to compose the melody, the final result carries Ellington’s distinctive signature. Latin jazz musician Tito Puente did one version and Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña did another in which she gives vigorous twists and turns that could serve as a prelude to other things more audacious than a kiss.

The group exposes the theme slightly distorted from the original, but it’s perfectly recognizable. Shepp plays the melody with harmonious phrases despite the hoarse sound coming out of his saxophone. Then he is left alone with Johnson and Chambers to make his solo, whose mood doesn’t differ much from the theme itself, although he introduces more complicated phrases from time to time. At a certain point the wind section joins him for a while and then the band finish the piece of music all of a sudden.