Duke even wrote ‘Buddy Bolden’, that exists in A Drum is a Woman before Wells had a falling out with Paramount and the project fell through.
The idea stayed in Duke's mind until he finished it in 1956 with another equally brilliant collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. It is significant that this is the first time Duke gave Sweet Pea full equal credit, soothing what was sometimes a source of friction between the two men. It is also significant that the piece was given theatrical treatment ( dancing, costumes, sets etc.) for the United States Steel Hour. This is one of the first times an African-American company had an hour of prime time TV. After the appearance on TV Drum had one performance at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. After that, Duke never again presented the piece as a whole, although he did perform excerpts until his death.
In 1988 Christopher Cherney approached Mercer Ellington about resurrecting the piece and creating a definitive score. Mercer reacted with great enthusiasm and was the narrator in the first concert performance of "A Drum is a Woman" in 31 years. For Duke's 90th Birthday Mr. Cherney conducted the Duke Ellington Orchestra's performance of A Drum is a Woman at the Beacon Theater in New York, again with Mercer as narrator.
We now look to bring A Drum is a Woman to new audiences. What could be a better time or occasion that Duke's 110th birthday? Everyone should hear the exploits of Madame Zajj and Carabae Joe, the lilt of the baritone sax in Calyph and the pulsating rhythms of Congo Square in Matumbe. The narration contains "much of Ellington's sense of humor and many of his personal opinions, properly attired in a confounding array of fiction and musicianship." 1
At the time Duke Ellington said of A Drum is a Woman, "It will be the most ambitious thing we ever attempted artistically. A Drum is a Woman is a tone parallel to the history of jazz, and the heroine is called Madame Zajj, which is a funny way of spelling jazz backward. And she is the spirit of jazz, which comes about as a result of this tremendous romance that goes on between a musician and his instrument and his music - and this is a big thing, and this is how we arrive at the statement that a drum is a woman." 2
Notes:
1. Irving Townsend, "When Duke Records,"
Just Jazz 4, eds, Sinclair Traill and the Hon. Gerald Lascelles (London Souvenir Press, 1960), 16-21.
2. David Hajdu, Lush Life, a biography of Billy Strayhorn, Farrar Straus Giroux, New York 1996.