Query: Ellington's voicing

Thanks to Rob Deemer and Bill Kirchner for their response to my question. In response to Bill's second comment, yes, the Hasse and Shipton quotes refer to the original October 17, 1930 recording of Mood Indigo. I don't know how many voicing changes Ellington made to Indigo over the years, but that's what makes listening to him so fascinating.

Earlier today, I didn't listen to the link Peter Luce provided, because I've known the original October 17, 1930 recording of "Mood Indigo" (aka "Dreamy Blues") very well for years. That one is a septet version with Arthur Whetsol on trumpet, Tricky Sam Nanton on trombone, and Barney Bigard on clarinet. Duke's unique voicings fall within the comfortable ranges of those three horns, with Bigard on the bottom. It's that recording that Alyn Shipton accurately refers to.

I still haven't listened to the link Mr. Luce provided, because the linked website has a User Licensing Agreement that's far too baroque for my comfort. But the Ellington CD cover provided on the site is of a recent Verve reissue compilation, and Ellington didn't record for Verve until the mid-1960s. By that time, Duke had changed the three-horn instrumentation of "MI" repeatedly, including often using Harry Carney on bass clarinet as the bottom voice, as Mr. Deemer mentions.

Shipton's description of Ellington's "Mood Indigo" voicing is correct.

Wonderful question...I think Duke head-fakes us on the instrumentation with his solos. The second voice is definitely trombone with a pixie mute & plunger (pixie mute is a small straight mute that went all the way in the bell so it could be used in conjunction with a plunger). The bottom voice...I'm going to guess it's not the same clarinetist who's soloing (Bigard? Is this pre-Procope?), in fact I think it's Harry Carney on bass clarinet. I've seen films of him play the ensemble part on Indigo before and it doesn't have the same timbre as the soloist. The top voice is a killer - it's definitely not the trumpet soloist. The timbre, articulation and vibrato are different - it's really high (double F) for a bone and it doesn't sound that forced, so I'm going to vote either for another trumpeter with his own pixie mute/plunger OR...an alto player playing really straight (the vibrato and articulation in the first statement makes me say that's an option). Ellington used to switch the instrumentation of each voice around a lot through the years, so it's a killer to figure it out without a scorecard!