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Much has been written about Miley's plunger and growl technique. This is understandable, but it has tended to obscure the fact that Miley's solos are often great from the point of view of the actual notes played - Gunther Schuller
Enter Irving Mills
There are several accounts of when and where Ellington and Irving Mills first met and these accounts are difficult to reconcile. It is however obvious that it was from the autumn 1926 that Mills began to assert his influence on the Ellington organization, at that time still performing nightly at the Kentucky Club on West 49th Street in New York City.
Irving Mills was one of the first, if not the first white man who became a successful entrepreneur in the field of jazz music as the tenu was perceived in the 1920s and he operated within white as well as black music. Mills was an early pioneer in the practice that today is called 360 degrees contracts. He not only dipped or double-dipped; he multi-dipped taking income from management, publishing, record production, composition and even as vocalist with the bands he had under contract.
Writers and musicians have often commented unfavorably on the Irving Mills-Duke Ellington relationship and possibly it continued for longer than was strictly necessary, but in the 1920s Ellington needed someone who was capable of breaking down the barriers of a segregated society and Mills was perfectly suited for that position. Moreover it is worth noting that when Mills incorporated their partnership, his 45% share meant that he got his cut from the bottom-line instead of the usual management fee which is calculated on the gross income. So indirectly Mills paid 45% of the expenses that were necessary to keep the Ellington band going and if the band operated at a loss neither Mills nor Ellington got anything.
Until this point Ellington's band had recorded only for small companies with limited distribution and they had only recorded a repertory of the popular songs of the day. Irving Mills went to work from the autumn of 1926 and secured the Ellington band a string of recording dates for Vocalion. Vocalion had recently been taken over by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company who initiated a series of recordings by black bands...