"Black and Tan Fantasy" is a 1927 jazz composition by Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley. The song was recorded several times by Ellington and his Cotton Club band in 1927 for the Brunswick, Victor, and Okeh record labels. The Victor recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The song was featured and performed by Ellington and his orchestra in the 1929 RKO short film of the same name. Copy-written on July 16, 1927, the song entered the public domain on January 1, 2023. The three 1927 recordings will not enter the public domain until 2049.

Composition

Trumpeter Bubber Miley cited a spiritual his mother would sing to him as a child as a major influence on the composition. The piece, titled "Hosanna", is heavily related to a melody from the Stephen Adams piece "The Holy City." The piece begins in B-flat minor, modulating to B-flat major after a twelve-bar blues introduction. Ellington historian Mark Tucker describes it as "immediately [plunging] the listener into a dark, slightly forbidding tonal atmostphere." Following solos, the piece ends with a reference to Frédéric Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 – a funeral march. Sociologist David Grazian remarks that the piece's influences include the Blues music of the Deep South along with elements of Harlem's signature jazz sound, such as muted trumpets and stride piano. Musian and historian Gunther Schuller points out that Miley provided "the main creative thrust" for "Black and Tan Fantasy," along with many of the orchestra's mid-1920s output:

Recordings

The piece has been recorded numerous times by both Ellington as well as other artists. Some notable recordings include:

Duke Ellington (1927–1942)

Sources