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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.
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 (35)
The first ”goodie” in December is program 35 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 October 27, 1985 and presented by Jørgen Frigård.
He had decided to focus on selections from 1967.
The program starts with two selections from the stockpile session March 15, 1967. In the recording session they are simply called No. 1 and No. 3. Later they were issued as The Intimacy Of The Blues and Tell Me ‘Bout My Baby. The latter is listed as I Don’t Want Nobody But You in NDESOR
Unfortunately, it is not possible to say if Tell Me ‘Bout My Baby is take 3 or 4 since it is faded out in the broadcast before the end.
Then Frigård lets us hear the first of three selections from The Jaywalker recorded on April 4, 67. Frigård gives the title as WARR but in the discographies and on the Storyville Jaywalker CD it is called The Biggest (WARR).
Later in the program he features Ego and The Little Purple Flower from the same session.
The next stockpile session in the program is the one from June 23, 1967.
First we hear Swamp Goo. According to Benny Åslunds discographical notes on the DR Ellington Broadcasts, it is take 5 but it can also be take 6 issued on the Musicmasters 5041 CD. Then comes Girdle Hurdle and Blood Count. For some reason Frigård has inserted an excerpt of an interview with Harry Carney between the two songs.
The program ends with two more selections from June 23, 1967 – Up Jump (take 4) and Rue Bleu (take 2) – and My Little Brown Book from a RCA recording session on August 30, 1967.