The first issue of the DESS Bulletin for 2017 has just been published and is on its way to the subscribers.

The cover story of the issue is about Otto Hardwick.

In his usual detailed way Bo Haufman – the editor of the Bulletin – portraits Ellington’s C melody and alto sax player for many  years and tells the story of  of his sometimes turbulent times inside and outside the Ellington orchestra. Among other things, it is interesting to learn more about Hardwick’s time away from Ellington in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The article is accompanied by a discography on Hardwick’s recordings outside the Ellington band.

In the article, Haufman mentions the 1932 Vidaphone movie “Smash Your Baggage” featuring Elmer Snowden and his Small’s Paradise Orchestra, which at the time included Hardwick. Roy Eldridge, Dicky Wells and Al Sears were other band members at the time.

The new issue of the Bulletin also has more of the interviews that former DESS’ Chair Göran Wallén did with Willie Cook in 1997 is also included in the new issue.

This time they cover Cook’s time with Dizzy Gillespie 1948-1950 and Billie Holiday 1950-1951. Like the previous one on Cook’s time with Earl Hines, these are invaluable articles with the insights give they on jazz scene at a critical juncture.

Bo Haufman also contributes to the new issue with an interesting article on Bert Williams and the Ellington song “A Portait of Bert Williams” and another one about Adelaide Hall.

Fred Glueckstein’s contribution this time is an article about Ellington’s European tour in 1933 as reported in the weekly newspaper “The Afro-American”.

It gives a vivid picture of the tour. We should really be grateful to those who like Glueckstein take time to research this kind of newspapers and share the result with the rest of us.

In addition to the articles mentioned, there is of course a lot of other things to read like Milt Hinton’s memories of Ellington, the FBI file on Ellington, record reviews etc. As usual, it is a very full issue.