“The Mooche”

Composed and arranged by Duke Ellington.

Recorded by Duke Ellington and His Cotton Club Orchestra for Brunswick on October 17, 1928 in New York.

Edward K. “Duke” Ellington, piano, directing: Arthur Whetsel and James “Bubber” Miley, trumpets; Joseph “Tricky Sam” Nanton, trombone; Johnny Hodges, alto saxophone and clarinet; Barney Bigard and Harry Carney, clarinet; Fred Guy, banjo; Wellman Braud, bass; William “Sonny” Greer, drums.

The story:

Duke Ellington composed “The Mooche” sometime in the late summer of 1928. The music for it was published on October 1, 1928. His first recording of it, as Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, was also on October 1, 1928, on Okeh disk 8623. This recording contained a wordless vocal by Gertrude “Baby” Cox. Duke recorded it again (but with no vocal) on October 17, 1928 for Brunswick (disk 4122), as by Duke Ellington and His Cotton Club Orchestra. He recorded it a third time for Pathe’ (disk 36899), on October 19, 1928 as by The Whoopee Makers. He recorded it a fourth time within the month of October 1928 on the 30th, on the Victor label as by Duke Ellington. This recording has singing by three vocalists: Baby Cox, Ozie Ware, and Irving Mills. Are you confused yet?

In the early days of the commercial recording industry, it was not uncommon for the same artist to record the same song (more or less), for multiple recording companies. Unless you were Enrico Caruso or Paul Whiteman, whose records sold in the hundreds of thousands, the companies were not too concerned about securing exclusive contracts with most artists. Only if a musician made a recording that did in fact sell more than the normal couple of thousand disks, would the recording companies then try to sign him of her to an exclusive contract.

Duke Ellington continued recording for both Brunswick and Victor (mostly for Brunswick however), until he finally was signed by Victor to an exclusive recording contract in September of 1933.

At the time Ellington made the Brunswick recording of “The Mooche” presented with this post, he was enjoying his first success leading a band whose repertoire consisted of either his arrangements of his original tunes, of which there were many, and his arrangements of the pop tunes of the day, of which there were many more. The amount of work Ellington himself did in creating music for his band was staggering. Although he worked out various ways and means of collaborating with the musicians in his band in doing this, the overriding musical intelligence that shaped the music of the Ellington band in the 1920s and 1930s was Duke’s.

The personnel of his band had been carefully assembled over the previous few years. Already in place were such Ellington stalwarts as: Sonny Greer, Fred Guy, Harry Carney, Joseph Nanton, Barney Bigard, and the man who would be Duke’s premier soloist for decades, Johnny Hodges. Also in place was James “Bubber” Miley, a marvelous trumpeter who had mastered the use of the plunger mute. Unfortunately, Miley had a drinking problem that became more destructive during his years as a soloist with with Ellington.(1) Miley first performed with Duke in 1923, when the band that would soon become Duke Ellington’s was still being billed as being led by banjoist Elmer Snowden. He made his first recording with Duke in a small group led by Ellington in November of 1924. He finally joined the Ellington band full-time in June of 1926, and remained into early 1929. (Above left: Bubber Miley and Duke Ellington – late 1920s.)

The jazz historian Ted Gioia has written this about Bubber Miley: “Duke Ellington once described Bubber Miley as ‘the epitome of soul and a master of the plunger mute.’ In time, Miley’s alcohol abuse and unreliability would lead to his departure from the Ellington band, and he was dead from tuberculosis before his thirtieth birthday. But no one, apart from Duke himself, did more than Miley to shape the early Ellington sound. His incomparable mute work helped transform “The Mooche,” “East St. Louis Toodle-oo,” and “Black and Tan Fantasy” into quintessential Ellington music and classic statements of the jazz idiom. In an era in which jazz was increasingly focusing on virtuoso soloists, Miley remained true to King Oliver’s philosophy that emphasized the quality of sound rather than the multiplicity of notes. With his arsenal of bends, moans, whimpers and growls, Miley could turn even the simplest melody into a deeply personal statement. (The same could be said for the trombone playing of Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton.) Ellington, who always knew how to write to his band members’ strengths, contributes one of his finest compositions …“(2)

The music:

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra opened at the Cotton Club, which was located at 146th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, on December 4, 1927. They would remain there as a virtual house band until June 30, 1931. It was at the Cotton Club that Duke Ellington went from being a marginally successful bandleader to being a star bandleader who fronted a virtuoso band.

Duke Ellington, his band, and some of the famous Cotton Club dancers, as they appeared in the RKO film short Black and Tan in August of 1929.(3)

Duke composed “The Mooche” “for a high clarinet trio, playing one of the most eerie and haunting themes he had created up to that time. The theme, a sixteen-bar blues with interjections by Bubber Miley,” which are excellent examples of his mastery playing his trumpet with a pixie straight mute in its bell, and a rubber plunger being manipulated outside the bell. His solo is followed by a piano solo by Ellington that still reflects Duke’s early stride style approach. There follows a soulful, woody sounding clarinet solo by Barney Bigard in the chalumeau (lowest) register that is redolent of the woodwind tradition of his hometown, New Orleans. Then Miley plays an expressive trumpet solo, followed by a bluesy instrumental dialog between Miley and the 21 year-old saxophonist Johnny Hodges, who had joined the Ellington band on May 18, 1928. (4) Hodges then has his say, playing a singing and soulful chorus of blues on his own. The clarinet trio then reappears with Miley growling away at this classic performance winds down. (5)

“The Mooche” is in the “jungle style” which was developed by Ellington to enhance the experience patrons had at the Cotton Club. It is in the key of C minor.

The title, sometimes spelled “mooch,” refers to “someone who constantly borrows but does not pay back.”

Duke Ellington’s Brunswick recording of “The Mooche” was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.

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Here is a great recent performance of “The Mooche” by the best band now playing this type of music, Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks. It demonstrates that great music inhabits its own present tense.

“The Mooche”

Composed and arranged by Duke Ellington. Ellington arrangement transcribed by Vince Giordano.

Recorded in performance by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks on November 25, 2025 at Birdland – 315 West 44th Street, New York City.

Vince Giordano, tuba, directing: Joe Boga and Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpets; Sam Chess, trombone; Will Anderson, first alto saxophone and B-flat clarinet; Andy Stein and Dan Levinson, B-flat clarinets; Mark Lopeman, B-flat clarinet; ……………piano; ……………banjo; Paul Wells, drums. Solos by: Joe Boga, trumpet; Andy Stein, B-flat clarinet; Will Anderson, alto saxophone.

A personal note:

I have known Vince Giordano since the early 1990s. I met him at one of the many musical events organized and produced by the late Joe Boughton in and around Meadville, Pennsylvania. Since then, I have seen and heard him and his excellent band perform many times in many different venues in New York City. Vince is a first-rate musician and bandleader. In addition to playing the bass saxophone, tuba and string bass, he is a fine arranger and light-hearted singer. He is also a historian who has taken the time to investigate the facts surrounding the music he and his band play so well. He shares those facts, in a not-too-serious way, with his audiences. (Above right: Mike Zirpolo and Vince Giordano – 2019.)

Vince is also a delightful stage personality who makes sure his audiences are entertained.  He understands that all music, no matter how good it is, is a little bit better if those in his audiences feel happy when they are hearing and seeing it being made. (See endnote 6 for much more about Vince Giordano.)

Notes and links:

(1) James Wesley Miley (April 3, 1903 – May 20, 1932), was born in Aiken, South Carolina, into a musical family. At the age six, he and his family moved to New York City, where as a child he occasionally sang for money on the streets.  At age 14,  he began to study trombone and cornet performance.

In 1920, after having served in the U.S. Navy for 18 months, he joined a group called the Carolina Five, and remained a member for the next three years, playing small clubs and on pleasure boats around New York City. After leaving that band at the age of 19, Miley briefly toured the Southern States with a show titled The Sunny South, and then joined Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds, replacing trumpeter Johnny Dunn. They regularly performed in clubs around New York City and Chicago. While working in Chicago, he heard King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band playing, and was captivated by Oliver’s use of mutes in and around the bell of his trumpet. Soon Miley found his own voice by combining a straight mute, lodged in the bell of his trumpet, with a plunger mute, which he manipulated over and around the bell of his trumpet, often adding a throat growl to create an eerie, guttural sound.

Miley was quite active as a free-lance musician in New York in the years 1923 to 1926, working as a sideman on records and in person with many vocalists. Some were well-known, like Mamie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Monette Moore and Bessie Smith. Others were less well-known, like Mary Jackson, Helen Gross, Hazel Myers, Rosa Henderson, Josie Miles and Viola McCoy, among many others.

Miley’s collaboration with Ellington has secured his place in jazz history. Early Ellington hits, such as “Black and Tan Fantasy,” “Doin’ the Voom Voom,” “East St. Louis Toolde-Oo,” “The Mooche”, and “Creole Love Call” prominently featured Miley’s solo work and were thematically inspired by his melodic ideas, which he, in turn, often borrowed from Baptist hymns sung in his church. With fellow Ellingtonian, trombonist Joseph Nanton, Miley developed the “wah-wah” plunger mute sound that often characterized Ellington’s early “jungle music” style. Many jazz critics consider Miley’s musical contributions to be integral to Ellington’s early success during the time they performed in the Kentucky Club and Cotton Club in Manhattan.

After leaving Ellington’s orchestra in 1929, Miley joined Noble Sissle’s Orchestra for a one-month tour to Paris, France. After returning to New York, he recorded with groups led by King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Hoagy Carmichael, Zutty Singleton, and with Leo Reisman’s society dance band. Miley also performed live with Reisman, albeit being the only African American in Reisman’s all-white band, either dressed in an usher’s uniform and off the bandstand, or hidden from view by a screen. In 1930, he recorded six songs for Victor records under the name Bubber Miley and his Mileage Makers, a band of thirteen musicians including clarinetist Buster Bailey.

Miley’s alcoholism terminally affected his life. On May 20, 1932, at the age of 29, he died of tuberculosis on Welfare Island, now Roosevelt Island, in New York City. Miley lived just a little longer than his contemporary, jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, whose life was also cut short due to alcohol abuse.(7)

(2) http://www.jazz.com/music/2007/11/26/duke-ellington-featuring-bubber-miley-the-mooche

(3) Interestingly, both the filming and the soundtrack recording for the film Black and Tan were done at Victor’s East 24th Street studio in Manhattan, August 12-16, 1929.

(4) Rabbit’s Blues …The Life and Music of Johnny Hodges (2019), by Con Chapman, 53.

(5) The description of the performance of Duke Ellington’s “The Mooche” presented in this post is based on the description that appears in the Wikipedia post on it.

(6) Here is the pdf of the profile of Vince Giordano that I wrote in 2012: Get Rhythm in Your Feet

(7) This biographical summary of Bubber Miley’s life was extracted from the Wikipedia post on him.