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Ellington In Copenhagen and Stockholm 1965
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).
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
En hyllning till Ellington
“Det är svårt att tänka sig vår tids musik utan Duke Ellington. En gigant som för länge sedan växte ur jazzen och intog en plats bland det 20 århundrandets stora musikaliska original. På många sätt var han unik, kanske den mest unika av vår tids musikpersonligheter. Hans arbetssätt och miljö, hans mångsidighet och hans flamboyanta estradmaner ställde honom vid sidan av de flesta konventioner som vanligtvis tillskrivs tonsättare.
I nästan ett halvt århundrande var Duke Ellington i verksamhet i ett nervpåfrestande kaos och skapade mot alla odds en musik som spänner över allt de enklaste småstycken till timslånga kyrkokonserter, allt stämplat med den Dukish touch som han var ensam om.” (more…)