Ellington’s 1965 European tour lasted from January 25 to February 28. It started in France where Duke and the orchestra performed in Paris, and Lyon. They then went north, first to Copenhagen (Denmark) and then to Sweden for concerts in Lund, Malmö and Stockholm. After stops in Germany and Switzerland, the tour ended with two weeks of concerts (and a telecast) in England from February 13 to February 28

In this article we focus on Ellington’s concerts in Copenhagen and Stockholm but cover also what happened in between.

The concert in Copenhagen took place in COPENHAGEN TO BE ADDED

The Swedish jazz critic and Ellington fan Leif Anderson reviewed the concerts in Copenhagen, Lund and Malmö in the Swedish jazz magazine Orkesterjournalen and he was quite positiv to what he had heard.

Ellington’s concerts in Stockholm took place on February 2 and the venue was Konserthuset (Stockholm Concert Hall).

The Duke is happy – Photo and copyright Roland Sterner

The sax section – Photo and copyright Roland Sterner

Photo and copyright: Roland Sterner

The two concerts – one at 7 pm and one at 9pm – were well attended but the critics were rather negativ.

Orkesterjounalen’s Bertil Sundin seems to have had his opinion formed already before the concerts started. “One can not expect that this group of older gentlemen will sound particularly inspired and in Stockholm on February 2 they didn’t ” he wrote. Sundin only had positiv comments  on Johnny Hodge’s performance of “Come Sunday” and Paul Gonsalves’ of Chelsea Bridge.

The two reviews are available in the Ellington Archive

One of the concerts were broadcasted by Swedish Radio, most likely the second one, and DESS members can listen to it and download it in the Goodies Room. Here is a short excerpt from the broadcast.

The Opener

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