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DR Ellington Broadcasts 47
Broadcast 47 took place on 25 June, 1991. As the previous broadcast on 28 May 1991, it was produced and presented by Fleming Sjølund-Jensen.
It is the the first “goodie” in March 2022 and is available in the ”Goodies” section of the website.
This time, the program is a broadcast of a full concert – Ellington’s second concert in Uppsala in the late evening of 9 November 1971.
At the time of the DR broadcast, this concert had not been issued commercially but it had been broadcasted on Swedish Radio so many collectors had it on tape.
Since then, Storyville has issued the concert on CD. It did it in the summer of 2019 and the website published a long article about it on 11 August 2019. We also made the first concert available to DESS members in a follow up article on 20 November 2019.
However, even if the concert is widely available we have decided to publish an article also about broadcast 47 to have have covered all Danish Radio’s Ellington program when the series ends in some monnths.
The program starts with Love You Madly sung by Nell Brooksire. It is not from the Uppsala concert but from a stockpile recording session on 3 February, 1971.
DR Ellington Broadcasts (46)
Program 46 was broadcasted on May 28, 1991. It was produced and presented by Fleming Sjølund-Jensen.
It is the the first “goodie” this month and is available in the ”Goodies” section of the website.
The program starts with Love You Madly sung by Milt Grayson. It is from the March 19, 1962 stockpile session when Grayson recorded four songs.
In addition to Love You Madly, they are Solitude, You Better Know and There’s No One But You. The last song was made popular by Mills Brothers in the mid-1940’s and was apparently composed by Austen Croom-Johnson and Red Evans. Nothing from the session has been issued on vinyl or CD.
Next Sjølund-Jensen turns to the recording session July 18, 1966 when Ellington together with John Lamb and Sam Woodyard recorded six songs, which was later included in the album The Pianist.
However, he does not let the listeners hear any of the songs but focuses on the second part of the session when Ellington recorded Tingling Is A Happiness and Dancers in Love and a congratulatory talk to be included in an exclusive record for the participants in the 50 anniversary conference of Field Enterprises Educational Corporation
Sjølund-Jensen continues the broadcast with six selections from August 27, 1972. They are all issued on the Storyville CD An Intimate Piano Session (1018445)
He starts with a short version of I’m Afraid Of Loving You Too Much followed by what Sjølund-Jensen says is an unnamed improvisation but in discographies said to be The Anticipation from UWIS Suite and after that Le Sucrier Velours from Queen’s Suite.
Next in the broadcast is Come Sunday sung by Tony Watkins – in English and in Hebrew – and two more piano numbers by Ellington – first A Mural From Two Perspectives and then the Strayhorn composition My Little Brown Book, which someone asks him to play. Finally he does it but very reluctantly. “I don’t know it! I don’t remember it!”
After this, Sjølund-Jensen moves to the September 5, 1972 stockpile session, which is for Anita Moore accompanied by a tentet from the full Ellington orchestra.
In the broadcast one hears her sing New York, New York, I Got It Bad, I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart and Misty. In the last one, Moore is accompanied only by Ellington, Joe Benjamin and Rufus Jones. None of the songs have been issued on vinyl or CD.
The broadcast ends with a version of Take The “A” Train (nc) played by Ellington, Jeff Castlemans and Rufus Jones at Ellington’s concert at Stanford University with California Youth Symphony Orchestra on March 9, 1969. This is also unissued.
DR Ellington Broadcasts (45)
Program 45 was broadcasted on April 29, 1991 and was produced and presented by Bjarne Busk.
It is the the first “goodie” this month and is available in the ”Goodies” section of the website.
The program starts with three takes that were not included in the film and LP issues of Goodyear Jazz Concert . They are Goodyear Theme (- 1 and – 2 ) and Good Years Of Jazz (-1). The latter is based on Once More Once.
Then follows two tunes recorded in Cologne during Ellington’s 1970 European tour.
First comes two takes of Wild Bill Davis’ composition Alerado (-1 and -4) and after that one take of a new Ellington composition Afrique (-2), which has a long solo by Paul Gonsalves. Six months later, a version without Gonsalves’ solo was recorded for The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse.
The broadcast continues with three selections from another recording session during the 1970 European tour. This one was done in Milan on July 23 and among the five tunes recorded on that day were Maiera, Thanks For The Beautiful Land and Bourbon Street Jingling Jollies.
Maiera is a composition by the Canadian trumpeter Fred Stone, who joined the Ellington orchestra for the European tour. It was played at least four times during the tour and later issued on the MusicMasters CD Ellington – Never Before Released Recording.
Thanks For The Beautiful Land and Bourbon Street Jingling Jollies are from New Orleans Suite and had already been recorded in several takes before the European tour. Both were frequently performed during this tour.
The program then turns to the Oct 5, 1972 stockpile session and the UWIS (University of Wisconsin) Suite. Busk gives his listeners three of takes of UWIS (-4 fs, -5 rehl, -6 fs) and one of each KLOP -11 and Loco Mardi (-1)
Togo Brava Suite is next on Busks agenda and he provides two takes from the June 29, 1971 stockpile session – Too Kee (Amour Amour) -12 and BUSS (Right On Togo) -17. Both are issued on Storyville’s CD with the same name.
The program ends with My Mother, My Father from My People. It is sung by Jimmy McPhail and is recorded on Aug. 21, 1963. This take is not issued on LP or CD.
In a comment to the article, Brian Koller says “the singer is Jimmy Grissom” contrary to what is said by Bjarne Busk in the program. “It would make the New Desor wrong … but it sure sounds like Grissom, who was on hand for the prior day’s session (August 20, 1963)”.
Readers are welcome to comment on this and other things in the article.
Theme
DR Ellington Broadcasts (43)
The third of the three programs with Ellington material from the Mercer Ellington donation, which Danish Radio put on the air in July 1960, was broadcasted on July 23, 1990 with Fleming Sjølund-Jensen as presenter.
It is the fourth DESS “goodie” this month and is available in the ”Goodies” section of the website.
The program starts with a segment of another Ellington interview, this one made by Guiana Broadcast Service. “If you had to do it all over again, would you?”, the interviewer asks Ellington. “Yes”, he replies, “but I don’t know if I would be as lucky” and then dwells on this issue.
Sjølund-Jensen dates the interview to October 1969 but it is actually from June 9, 1969. It was most likely done in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, which was included in Ellington’s West Indian June 6-18, 1969.
Ellington and the band spent the first two weeks of October 1969 in Las Vegas. Possibly the interview was done during this engagement?
The broadcast continues with stockpile recordings from the early 1970’s. First comes The Checkered Hat from Feb. 23, 1971 with Norris Turney soloing in his own composition. It has been issued by Storyville on its Togo Brava CD.
Next are two selections from the May 13, 1971 stockpile session – Perdido (-11) and Charpoy (-12). Perdido is a feature for Money Johnson while Wild Bill Davis has the solo role in the Strayhorn composition Charpoy. It is issued on the Musicmaster label (CD) while Perdido can be found on the Togo Brava CD.
I Got It Bad, which follows, is an interesting version in an arrangement of Wild Bill Davis. Harry Carney and particularly Cootie Williams have the solo roles. It was recorded in the stockpile session Dec. 11, 1970 and has been issued by Storyville on the New York, New York CD.
After this, the program continues with Mood Indigo and Don’t You Know I Care from the stockpile session June 12, 1972.
Sjølund-Jensen then gives the listeners the pleasure to hear two full takes of Mood Indigo with a brk take in between them. This is no doubt the highlight of the broadcast. The first one is more than 9 minutes long and has not been issues on LP or CD so far. The second full take is almost 6 minutes long and is also included in Storyville’s New York, New York CD.
Ellington played similar versions of Mood Indigo at dance dates in Pennsylvania on April 14 and 19 but in June 12 Tyree Glenn was back in the band for a short time and that makes a lot of difference!
Don’t You Know I Care is a particular feature for Harold Minerve, who had joined the Ellington band in April 1971 to take over after Johnny Hodges.The take (-1) played in the broadcast has not been issued on LP or CD.
The broadcast ends with two contrasting songs.
First comes the solemn Christman Surprise sung by Lena Horne at the first performance of Concert of Sacred Music in Fifth Avenue Presbytarian Church in NYC on Dec. 26, 1965. The lyrics are by Rev. C. Julian Barlett and the music by Billy Strayhorn.
It is followed by Ray Charles’ I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You, which Ellington recorded on May 19, 1964 for Reprise. The version played in the program (-2) has not been issued so far.
As Sjølund-Jensen says is his sign-off “We Can’t Stop Lovin’ You, Duke!”
DR Ellington Broadcasts (42)
The second of the three programs with Ellington material from the Mercer Ellington donation, which Danish Radio put on the air in July 1960, was broadcasted on July 16, 1960 with Fleming Sjølund-Jensen as presenter.
It is the second DESS “goodie” this month and is available in the ”Goodies” section of the website.
The program starts with another three selections from the stockpile session March 16, 1962. The Blues Ain’t sung by Milt Grayson ended broadcast 41. This time Sjølund-Jensen plays three more numbers with Grayson – Do Nothin Till You Hear From Me (-7) which also has a long solo by Lawrence Brown, Where In The World (-11, -12-13- 15) and One More Twist aka One More Once (-15, -16), in which Paul Gonsalves also solo.
None of the selection have been issued on records so far.
Next comes two selections from the stockpile session Aug. 30, 1965 – Trombone Buster (-7) with Buster Cooper and Louie Bellson in leading roles and When I Am Feeling Kinda Blue aka Imagine My Frustration (-6) featuring Johnny Hodges. Trombone Buster is issued in the Private Collection series (vol 8) while the take of When I Am Feeling Kinda Blue is not issued so far.
The two following numbers are not easily found in discographies.
They are from a small group recording session with Cat Anderson as leader. Nothing from the session has been issued so far and Ellington participate only as a coach from the control room.This is why it is absent from the most common discographies.
In the broadcast, the session is said to be from August 18, 1962 but this is rather unlikely since Ellington recorded with Coleman Hawkins for Impulse that day.
In a article in the DEMS Bulletin 1990-3, Benny Åslund claims that the correct date is Sep. 18, 1962. It is a possible date. Ellington was in New York at the time and busy in recording studios. On Sep 17 he recorded the Money Jungle album.
Sjølund-Jensen lets the listeners first hear what he says Cat Anderson calls De De Dada Dum but also gives the title as Organ Grinder’s Swing. Anderson takes the opportuni to demonstrate his growl style.
The second tune is called On Flight and Anderson is certainly flying high in it. Paul Gonsalves also has a solo spot.
Next in the broadcast come two selections from the Jan 7, 1967 stockpile session. Ellington sits once again in the control room and this time it is Melba Liston, who has taken over the piano chair. She is also responsible for all the arrangements.
The selections are Jump For Joy (-7, -9 brk, -10) and I Like The Sunrise (-2, -3, -4, -5 and -9). Both are sung by Tony Watkins.
The broadcast ends with Together and Jeep’s Blues (nc) from a concert in November 1958. It is most likely the second concert at Theatre De L’Alhambra in Paris on Oct. 29, 1958.
Ellington DR Broadcasts (41)
After a break of almost four and a half years, Danish Radio resumed its broadcasting of Ellington material from the Mercer Ellington donation by putting on the air three programs in July, 1990. They had been put together by Fleming Sjølund-Jensen, who was also the presenter in the programs.
The program broadcasted on July 9, 1990 is the third DESS “goodie” this month. It is available in the ”Goodies” section of the website.
The program starts with two selections from an stockpile session, Love You Madly and Satin Doll . Both of them are mainly showcases for Paul Gonsalves.
Sjølund-Jensen gives the date for this session as January 29, 1957 and in the first volume of the Private Collection (LMR 83000), where they are included, it is Dec 16, 1956.
However, in NDESOR the reciording date for the two songs is revised to February 1957.
Between the two songs, there is an excerpt of an interview of Ellington in March 1962, in which he talks about from where he got the name Duke and the origin of the “Love You Madly” phrase.
Next, the broadcast turns to the April 14, 1965 stockpile session April 14, 1965 and Sjølund-Jensen lets the listerners hear Blues take 2 and Limbo take 1 and 2.
The session produced six songs, which were later included in the Concert in the Virgin Islands album but the two in the broadcast – Blues (aka Big Fat Alice’s Blues) take 2 and Limbo take 1 and 2 are not among them.
The broadcast continues with three songs from a concert broadcast by the King-FM radio station from the DJ’s at 2214 4th Avenue in Seattle –The Shepherd, Drag and Take The A Train (theme) The first is of course a feature for Cootie Williams and the second for Johnny Hodges. The first documented performance of Drag is actually the first concert in Stockholm on January 24, 1967.
After this, we hear part of a recording session in Chicago on March 16, 1962 with Milt Grayson in the central role. On this occasion he recorded five Ellington songs with a small Ellington group . One of them being The Blues Ain’t and the six takes of it ends the broadcast. Ellington is coaching in this part of the stock pile session and Strayhorn is at the piano.
Ellington DR Broadcasts (40)
The fifth ”goodie” in April is program 40 in the Duke Ellington series of broadcast by the Danish Radio in the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The broadcast is available in the “Goodies” section of the website.
The program was broadcasted on Jan 5, 1986. The presenter is once again Erik V Krustrup
It starts with a segment from an interview of Ellington in Toronto in March 1973.
The interview is followed by the Louie Bellson composition Ortseam (=Maestro). It was recorded in the stockpile session on March 3, 1968 with Rufus Jones as the main soloist.
The next selection in the program is Soso (aka Woods) from Togo Brava Suite. It is take 22, which is included in Storyville’s Togo Brava Suite CD.
After another segment of the March 1973 interview, Krustrup moves on to the stockpile session on April 4, 1969.
It features singer Shirley Witherspoon, who was with the band for five months in the beginning of 1969. She recorded three songs in this session and one of them was I Love My Lovin’ Lover. Krustrup chose take 5 of the song. For this take (and a couple of others), Jimmie Jones had taken over the piano chair from Ellington.
However, in the two other selections from the April 4, 1969 session – Happy Birthday (for Buster Cooper) and Rockin’ In Rhythm, (nc) – Ellington is back at the piano.
The next stockpile session featured in the program is the one from June 15, 1970. First comes two takes of All Too Soon – take 27 (nc) and take 28 – and a little bit later in the broadcast Some Summer Fun (take 38).
Between All Too Soon and Some Summer Fun, Krustrup lets the listeners hear more from the group that played Riddle (take 21) in broadcast 39 – Ellington, Wild Bill Davis, Joe Benjamin and Rufus Jones. Benny Aaslund lists what is played this time as Riddle take 22. However, in NDESOR it is listed as Blues No. 18 and this seems more correct since the song played has a different structure than Riddle in broadcast 39.
Blues No. 18 is followed by what Benny Aaslund in his DR listings simply calls an unidentified title with no recording date. However, it is what NDESOR lists as No Title recorded in the same session as Blues No. 18. Its NDESOR number is DE7106am.
Krustrup mistakingly announces Some Summer Fun which follows (see above), as Orgasm, which is a different song composed by Don Byas.
The last stockpile sessions in the program are April 27 and April 28, 1971. From the first one, Krustrup plays Fanfare from the Goutelas Suite (take 27 brkd and take 28) and Hick – a rocked-up version of New York, New York – from the second.
The broadcast ends with two unissued takes from The Third Sacred Concert in Westminister Abbey on Oct. 24, 1973 – Praise God And Dance and In The Beginning God. Before them Ellington talks about The Sacred Concerts in an interview from New Zealand on Feb. 9, 1970.
Broadcast 40 was the last in the originally scheduled series of programs with material from the Mercer Ellington donation. However, in July 1990 three more programs were broadcasted and they were followed by more programs in1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994.
The part of the file with No Title had problems and we have replaced it with a copy from another file.
Ellington DR Broadcasts (39)
The fourth ”goodie” in April is program 39 in the Duke Ellington series of broadcast by the Danish Radio in the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The broadcast is available in the “Goodies” section of the website.
The program was broadcasted on Dec. 22, 1985. The presenter is Erik V Krustrup
It starts with a short segment of an Ellington interview in which he is asked what his upcoming concert in Montego Bay on Feb. 8, 1973 will be about
“Well”, he says, “a concert is pretty fexible and I expect that we will play things with which we are identified like one of the songs that has been popular like Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, Satin Doll, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore to get the feel right and of course we have interesting soloists who no matter what they play they are interesting and followed by acrobatic something.”
This proclamation leads seamlessly to three stockpile recordings – R.T.M. from Dec. 9, 1970 and Naidni Remus (Indian Summer) together with Hard (aka The Hard Way) from Dec. 11, 1970. Only Hard is unissued so far. It is based on In A Blue Summar Garden, whose second theme was used for Blues To Be There in Newport Suite.
On March 9, 1969, Ellington, Jeff Castleman and Rufus Jones appeared with The California Youth Symphony Orchestra at Stanford University in Palo Alto CA. Two selections from this concert are included in the program – The Mooche and Alcibiades (from Timon of Athens). Nothing from the concert have been issued on LP or CD.
To end the broadcast,, Krustrup had chosen six unissued selections from the second concert in Eastbourne on Dec. 1, 1973. He starts with Blem sung by Anita Moore. It is followed by Chinoiserie and I Can’t Get Started with Harold Ashby as solist, Basin Street Blues and Hello Dolly (nc) played and sung by Money Johnson. The finale is a segment of C Jam Blues from the start of the concert.
Ellington DR Broadcasts (38)
The third ”goodie” in April is program 38 in the Duke Ellington series of broadcast by the Danish Radio in the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The broadcast is available in the “Goodies” section of the website.
The program was broadcasted on Dec. 8, 1985
It starts with a short rehearsal excerpt of Don Juan recorded in New York on July 18, 1966. Then follows what the presenter says is “an earlier but shorter take of Sam Woodyard’s Blues” from the same stockpile session. He says it is is called 6:40 Blues.
Possibly, this is written on the tape box but what he plays is The Shepheard. Benny Aaslund pointed out this already in his listing of the Danish Radio broadcasts in the DEMS Bulletin 1986/2 and it is listed like this in NDESOR. Despite what Aaslund says in his listing, it is take -2 which is included in The Pianist album.
The broadcast continues with five Ellington selections from another stockpile session – the one in New York on March 17, 1965.
This part starts with what the presenter calls Counter. However, it is better known as Banquet from Ellingtonton’s “incidental music” for Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens. In NDESOR it has the alternative title Counter Theme.
Next comes the unissued take 4 of Pass Out Blues (based on St. Louis Blues) and Skillipop take 3 before the section ends with * Amad from Far East Suite och Monologue (aka Pretty And The Wolf). Both are unissued takes.
The presenter then moves on to the stockpile session of March 4, 1965. First he plays Tutti For Cootie (aka Fade Up) and The Opener – both recordings used in the Concert in Virgin Islands album.
They end Ellington’s part of the recording session but Billy Strayhorn stayed behind and improvised two melodies together with John Lamb and Sam Woodyard. At the time of the broadcast, they were a mystery and in a comment Benny Aaslund and Sjef Hoefsmit said “this kind of cocktail piano playing is hardly executed Duke Ellington.
The broadcast ends with three selections from different stockpile sessions. First comes Tang from Afro-Eurasian Eclipse followed recorded on Feb. 17, 1971. It is followed by Take The “A” Train recorded on May 24, 1962 and I‘m Gonna Go Fishin’ from Anatomy Of A Murder recorded the following day.
Ellington DR Broadcasts (37)
The fourth ”goodie” in February is program 37 in the Duke Ellington series of broadcast by the Danish Radio in the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The broadcast is available in the “Goodies” section of the website.
The program was broadcasted on 24 November 1985 and provide materials from three stockpile sessions in 1962 and from one in 1967.
It starts with four selections from the 25 May, 1962 session – Black And Tan Fantasy (take -3), Boo-Dah (take -2), One More Twist (listed as Once More Once in NDESOR) and The Feeling Of Jazz (take -3) sung by Milt Grayson with Ellington at the piano. Black And Tan was issued in the Famous 5 LP box (M.F.D. G4RS-2536) while the other three are unissued.
Then the broadcast picks songs from the 3 July 1962 session – again The Feeling Of Jazz but this time in a small band version and the rather odd Drinking Again (nc) sung by the specialist in romantic ballads Jimmy Vale. The full version of The Feeling Of Jazz is take -4, which has been issued on Bob Thiele‘s Doctor Jazz label.
The next three selections are from 24 May 1962 – Flirtibird (take -4), Smada (take -1) and What am I Here For? (take -2). They are all in the “Famous 5 LP” box.
The broadcast ends with The Shepherd Who Watches Over The Night Flock (take -2) and Salome (take -1) both recorded at a stockpile session on 23 June 1967 in Los Angels, not New York as the presenter says. Both of them are included in Storyville’s The Jaywalker CD.