"In A Sentimental Mood"

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

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"In A Sentimental Mood" By Duke Ellington, as recorded on "Duke Ellington and John Coltrane" "In a Sentimental Mood", written by Duke Ellington is performed on this recording by John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Aaron Bell, and Elvin Jones on the twenty-sixth of September in the year 1962. This is a very important collaboration between two distinctly different men on the forefront of jazz at the time. Coltrane approaches the recording with his regular drummer at the time, Elvin Jones, while Duke brings bassist Aaron Bell to provide the pulse for the recording. This meeting shows the versatility of Ellington's music. The two distinctively different musical personalities combined wonderfully to create a very historic album.

The structure of this lovely ballad is a thirty-two bar form in the common AABA shape. The recording starts out with a four bar introduction in which Duke introduces a riff on the piano which will be quite familiar by the conclusion of the tune.

The first A section comes about beginning with a three beat ascending pickup in the melody bringing us to the down beat of the first bar. Throughout this first section, the linear melody is very angular, ascending and descending in a way that builds tension only to be resolved usually within the next bar. For example, the pickup ascending to the downbeat gains momentum landing on the F a perfect eleventh above middle C. The melody then descends releasing tension in the second bar until it once again flirts with the higher D on the second beat of the third bar. The melody then travels higher once again, this time very briefly until it heads downward towards resolution, incorporating the blue note A flat leaving the listener with a bluesy, down and dirty feeling that is...