Moving into 1929 with Duke Ellington, we find Cotton
Club Stomp, a tune obviously named after the famed nightclub that was home to
Duke and his band at the time.
The Victor Original
Let’s listen to the initial 1929 version on Victor
Records:
By this time, the band had parted ways with original
trumpet star Bubber Miley, who was apparently as unreliable as he was talented.
But Duke came up with a great replacement in Cootie Williams, who was able to
carry on the growling plunger-mute style of Bubber while also developing his
own distinct, powerful voice.
The Name Game
The name game continued when the Ellington band recorded
a version of Cotton Club Stomp for Brunswick in 1930, this time under the Jungle
Band moniker.
Let's give that one a spin:
The flipside of that Brunswick record was another stomper with the then-topical title of Wall Street Wail:
I sometimes see these two identified as the same song with different titles to get around contract exclusivity, but I don't think they’re the same song at all. And Brunswick wouldn’t put the same song on two sides of the same record, right? Listening to them side-by-side, you can hear that while they share that "Jungle" DNA, they are distinct arrangements.
The 1939 Remake
Duke and the boys revisited “Cotton Club Stomp” in 1939, also for Brunswick, with an updated arrangement—this time credited to Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra:
I don't think any other band covered "Cotton Club Stomp" at the time, and no one seems to have remade it since, except as modern recreations. Some songs are just uniquely Ellingtonian!
Stomping or wailing, no one did it better!
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