From the recording of Money Jungle, combining then greying eminence Duke Ellington, 60-ish, with Charlie Mingus, bass, and Max Roach, drums, both a generation younger, 40-ish. According to Roach, they met the day before the recording and Ellington told them to "Think of me as the poor man's Bud Powell." Perfect image. Sometimes I think this specific version of "Solitude" is the most beautiful, loneliest, and still somehow resolutely proud piece of American music I know. Duke composed it in 1934; "(In My) Solitude." I like Billie Holiday singing it too but there are hundreds, thousands of versions of this jazz standard, and none I've heard holding a candle to Duke's grand instrumental statement. No words. They'd only trivialize it. Mingus and Roach don't do much but, to their credit, don't get in the way either. Chromatic and block chording are musical terms I think related to this version's grand Americana charm; it's both downhome and epic, playful and sadly historical. Like elegant music massively popular in saloons its rough beauty feels immediately old and familiar. Ellington has played his song so many times, inside and out, now in a reflective mood, and in a "poor man's" style, he plays "Solitude" as a wrenchingly sentimental medley of popular blues and jazz piano styles. An American master in an intimate moment and in all his regal glory.
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