The new Bulletin with a lot of good reading was sent out to DESS members a couple of days ago.

Betty Roché is the featured artist this time.

Bo Haufman has written the main article about her. For him she is Duke’s “unforgettable vocalist”. The article is supplemented by a discography of Betty Roché outside the Ellington organization.

The second installment of Nigel Haslewood’s article about Al Sears is also another major read in the new Bulletin.

Two well-known Ellington compositions – Rocks In My Bed and Mood Indigo – are presented in separate articles. From his website “Swing and Beyond” Mike Zirpolo has contributed the article on Rocks In My Bed while the one about Mood Indigo is written by Bo Haufman.

He has also contributed an article about Frank Sebastian’s Cotton Club in Culver City in Los Angeles. In later incarnations it is also known as Casa Mañana and Meadowbrook Gardens Café.

The new Bulletin also reprints (with some changes) Anders Asplund’s article about Duke Ellington’s concert in Storvik on April 23, 1939, which  was published on the DESS website last year.

In addition to all this, readers can find in information about the 2020 Duke Ellington Conference in Washington D.C. and a review of a DVD with one of Ellington’s last concerts in the next to last issue of  DESS Bulletin for 2019.