The 12th Ellington program broadcasted by the Danish Radio in the mid-1980s based on the Mercer Ellington donation is the first “Goodie” for the month of February.
As usual, it is available in the “Goodies of the Month” section of the DESS Lobby (DESS-rummet).
The program was broadcasted on February 15, 1985 and the program presenter was Bent Schjarff.
It starts with two tracks – Jam With Sam and Caravan – from the stockpile recording session on May 1, 1962. On both of them, Paul Gonsalves has a central role. The presenter says that it is recordings made in Karachi in Pakistan in 1963 but this is not correct. They were made in New York on May 1, 1962.
More of stockpile recordings follows next. First comes a complete version of “The Blues” sung by Tony Watkins from May 6, 1971, which was cut short in the previous broadcast. It is followed by “Rocks In My Bed” sung by Nell Brookshire (aka Bobbie Gordon). Quite a different version from Ivie Anderson’s.
The program then continues with “Mood Indigo”. First Ellington tells his Japanese interviewer the story depicted in the song. “I didn’t know that”, the interviewer says. Neither did I. Then follows a quite unusual version of “Mood Indigo”. Mercer Ellington had told Schjarff that he had not heard it before until it was found on one of the tapes of the donation. It is from May 18, 1965 with Johnny Hodges, Cat Anderson and Paul Gonsalves having central roles.
The final part of the program is the four tunes recorded for Verve by an Hodges-led group from the orchestra on September 3, 1957. Surprisingly Mercer Ellington had told Schjarff that they were from circa 1961.
An updated discography of the Danish Radio Ellington broadcasts published so far on the website is available in the Ellington Archive/Radioprogram/DR broadcasts