Things Ain't What They Used to Be

A brief reflection on Duke Ellington + his hometown in the present hour.

Jason Moran at the piano, against a backdrop of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn, as photographed by Gordon Parks. (Jati Lindsay)

The riff-based standard that lends this post its title

goes back to 1941. We know it as a band staple for Duke Ellington, who recorded it a handful of times, even played it on film. The fact that “Things Ain’t What They Used t…