[citation needed] Trumpeter Bubber Miley cited a spiritual his mother would sing to him as a child as a major influence on the composition.
[5][8] Ellington historian Mark Tucker describes it as "immediately [plunging] the listener into a dark, slightly forbidding tonal atmostphere.
[10] Sociologist David Grazian remarks that the piece's influences include the Blues music of the Deep South along with elements of Harlem's signature jazz sound, such as muted trumpets and stride piano.
[11] Musian and historian Gunther Schuller points out that Miley provided "the main creative thrust" for "Black and Tan Fantasy," along with many of the orchestra's mid-1920s output: Miley is in fact officially listed as co-composer of many of Ellington's early works.
In many of these pieces, the best, the most original, the most striking material comes from Miley, while the more ordinary sections, hailing more from a kind of Broadway show-tune world, come from Ellington.