Eddie Durham (1906-1987)

Biography

Eddie Durham was born in San Marcos, Texas, and grew up in a musical family. He played trombone and guitar, and is credited as one of the first musicians to amplify the guitar electrically in a jazz context. Durham arranged for Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra in the late 1920s before joining Jimmie Lunceford, Willie Bryant, and most significantly, Count Basie’s orchestra. His arrangements for Basie, including “Time Out,” “Out the Window,” and “Topsy,” helped define the Kansas City sound. Durham also arranged for Glenn Miller and led his own groups. Beyond his arranging, he was an important teacher and mentor to many younger musicians including Charlie Christian.

Musical Style

Durham’s arranging style epitomized the Kansas City approach—blues-based, riff-oriented, and supremely swinging. His arrangements were built on simple but infectious melodic ideas that he developed through repetition and variation. Unlike some arrangers who favored complexity, Durham believed in the power of a great riff properly developed. His arrangements featured call-and-response between sections and showcased the rhythm section, particularly important in the Basie context where the rhythm section was the engine driving the band. Durham had a gift for writing arrangements that sounded loose and spontaneous while being carefully structured. His guitar playing influenced his arranging—he understood rhythm from a guitarist’s perspective, which gave his charts a particular rhythmic feel. Durham’s arrangements always left plenty of room for soloists while maintaining clear formal structures.

Orchestration Techniques

Durham’s orchestration epitomized Kansas City minimalism—achieving maximum swing with minimal orchestral density. His voicings were deliberately sparse: saxophone sections often played in unison or two-part harmony rather than full four-part voicings, creating clarity and punch. Brass writing employed similar economy, with trumpets and trombones frequently in unison or octaves rather than close harmony, producing a raw, powerful sound. Durham’s riff construction utilized simple motivic cells—often only three or four notes built on pentatonic or blues scale fragments—developed through repetition with slight rhythmic or melodic variation. His call-and-response patterns were typically asymmetric, with brass playing two-bar phrases answered by saxophone one-bar responses (or vice versa), creating forward momentum through varied phrase lengths. The rhythm section in Durham’s charts received unprecedented prominence: walking bass lines were exposed rather than buried, guitar (often amplified, pioneered by Durham himself) provided rhythmic and harmonic definition, piano played sparse comping rather than continuous stride patterns, and drums emphasized hi-hat on two and four. His background figures under solos were minimal—often just sustained chord tones or single-note riffs—allowing soloists maximum freedom. Durham’s arrangements employed blues form extensively, using I-IV-V harmonic movement with occasional secondary dominants. His tutti voicings were power-based: parallel fourths, open fifths, and octave doublings rather than lush tertian harmony, presaging rock arranging decades later.

Top Albums

Count Basie Orchestra - “The Complete Decca Recordings” (1937-1939)

This collection includes Durham’s most influential arrangements for Basie, particularly “Time Out,” “Out the Window,” and “Topsy.” What makes these arrangements special is their perfect balance between simplicity and sophistication—Durham built entire arrangements from simple riffs, but his development of these motifs was masterful. “Time Out” features one of the first recorded electric guitar solos (played by Durham himself), and the arrangement perfectly frames this innovation. Durham’s charts for Basie emphasized the rhythm section in a new way, making the band swing harder with less orchestration. These arrangements helped define what became known as the “Kansas City style.”

Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra - “Lunceford Special” (1934-1935)

Durham’s arrangements for Lunceford show a different side of his talent—working with Lunceford’s more precise, showmanship-oriented band, Durham created tighter, more elaborately arranged pieces than his later Basie work. “Hitting the Bottle” and “Stratosphere” demonstrate his ability to write complex section passages while maintaining the swing feeling. What’s interesting is seeing how Durham adapted his style to different contexts—the Lunceford arrangements are more vertical and arranged, while the Basie charts are more horizontal and riff-based. Both approaches swing hard but in different ways.

Eddie Durham - “Eddie Durham’s All-Star Jam Sessions” (1974)

Recorded late in life, Durham revisited classic Kansas City style with modern musicians. What makes this album valuable is hearing Durham direct performances of his arrangements and compositions, revealing his musical philosophy. His trombone playing and guitar work demonstrate the bluesy, swinging approach that informed all his arrangements. The sessions capture the spirit of Kansas City jam sessions that inspired Durham’s arranging approach—loose, blues-based, and focused on groove rather than complexity.