Try again. Duke: an American original.
No matter what Ellington’s orchestra plays it comes across as goombah gangster music. Him and Basie. It’s just that the big band jazz sound for the most part evolved during a particular period in our history and resonated with it. It’s still fascinating stuff. High living by lowlifes, gun molls and strong arm tactics and deals where if you didn’t come through you didn’t get to stick around to see the rest of the ballgame and you ended up leaving under pretty horrific circumstances.