A New Generation – Leïla Olivesi
Leïla Olivesi is one of the young jazz stars at the Parisian and French firmament but perhaps not known enough outside France except in the international Ellington community.
She is a person with many talents but foremost she is a pianist, a composer and a bandleader. She frequently performs with her different groups at jazz clubs in Paris and jazz festivals in France and most of the time they play her compositions.
She has a Master in musicology and philosophy with a thesis on “The role of the piano in the Duke Ellington orchestra” and she is currently working on her doctorate.
On top of this, Leïla is a music teacher both in schools and conservatories. She has also taken upon herself to bring jazz to young people. Her Sunday afternoons for children at the Sunset jazz club in Paris are quite fascinating.
Leïla got her breakthrough as a composer in 2013 when she won the first prize for her composition “Summer Wings” in the Big Band “Ellington composers” competition in Paris.
This led her to get a commission to write what was to become Suite Andamane for symphonic orchestra, jazz big band and choir.
Until now, she has recorded five albums, mostly with her own compositions.
Her sixth album – Astral – will be released on 18 November.
But already on 28 October, a single will be available to give a first taste of what is in the full album.
Both the CD and the single can be ordered before release dates at https://bfan.link/astral-6
I talked to Leïla some days ago and here is what she had to say.
The new album is in many ways her most ambitious venture. As the previous album Suite Andamane, it is recorded by an octet/nonet formed by her regular group plus some guest artists.
In his liner notes to Suite Andamane, the late Claude Carrière wrote: “Here Leïla appears, best as ever, as architect of her imaginary world … and her ear incessantly tuned to new trends in the music world”.
I am sure he would have said the same thing about Astral but also noted her compositional development during the three years that has passed since Suite Adamane was released and her more Ellingtonian positioning of the piano in the music.
Astral is a tribute to Carrière, who passed away last year. Leïla was very close to him and she remembers and honours him with the Missing CC Suite. It has two movements, Portrait and Missing CC.
Here is Missing CC from a summer concert in 2021.
The Missing CC Suite is of course Leïla’s own composition and so are the other songs in the album except Scorpio (track 5), which is the well-known Mary -Lou Williams composition. Astral and Au feu des rêves are co-compositions with drummer (and partner) Donald Kontomamou.
Astral is an appropriate name for the new album because it has a strong interstellar and cosmic dimension. Possibly, Mary-Lou Williams has inspired this with her Zodiac Suite but it might also reflect personal dimensions. In his review of Suite Adamane Claude Carriére talks about Leïla as an “architect of her imaginary world”.
Is it a coincidence that Astral opens with the song Astral followed by Mary Lou?
She also has a strong literary strain. Already in the quintet album Utopia , she demonstrated this and followed it up in Suite Andamane by including two poems – one by herself (Black Widow) and one by her mother (Les Amants) – to which she had put music.
This time, she includes in the new album two poems by the French poet and writer Lucïe Taïeb – Soustraire à la lumière and Au feu des rêves to which she gives musical interpretations. A instrumental version of Black Widow is also included.
Leîla is very knowledgeable about Duke Ellington as demonstrated in her Master thesis and in her many Maison du Duke presentation. However, she seldom includes Ellington compositions in her records. I have only found two – Prelude to a Kiss in TIY and Satin Doll in Suite Andame. That’s a pity because she is well positioned to give new life to Ellington’s music. Perhaps the international Ellington community could fund a “Olivesi meets Duke” CD?
More about Leïla can be learned from her website http://www.leilaolivesi.com. There one can also listen to many of the compositions in her albums. She is very active in social media.
A New Generation – Laura Jurd
Nearly 50 years after Ellington’s death, Duke’s music still continues to inspire young musicians. One of them is Laura Jurd. For those of you who haven’t heard about her, she is a British award-winning trumpet player, composer and bandleader. Very active on the UK scene, Laura has developed a reputation as one of the most creative young musician in recent years.
There are many similarities between Ellington’s and Jurd’s music. Just as the blues is always a fundamental element in Ellington’s music, Jurd likewise draws on folk music from her heritage. She doesn’t accept boundaries in music either, and her music reaches far beyond so called jazz music.
If you listen through the 8 albums or so she has made so far, and the many recordings available on YouTube, you will find several pieces related to Ellington. One of them is Billy Strayhorn’s composition Absinthe from 1963. She recorded it for the album To the Earth, released in 2020, with her regular quartet Dinosaur, together with 6 of her own compositions.
This new interpretation of this relatively obscure Strayhorn tune, is done with much respect to the original, but at the same time, the four musicians manages to give it a modern touch. It’s also quite remarkable how well Strayhorn’s tune fits in with Jurd’s own compositions.
Like Absinthe, the next track also originates from the Afro Bossa album. It is Ellington’s own composition Purple Gazelle. Jurd recorded a duo version for YouTube in 2020 with drummer Corrie Dick, also af member of the quartet Dinosaur.
There are many similarities between Jurd’s playing and the style of the Ellington trumpets. When you listen, you will notice a lot of growl and plunger work, witch often reminds me of Ray Nance. She also does valve effects, like squeezing the note and making tremolos and trills using alternative fingering, much like Rex Steward did (think of Frantic Fantasy for example).
Like Duke’s musicians, Laura also likes to invent new sounds on the instrument. On Purple Gazelle you will hear a short section (0:43) where she plays with a buzzing sound. This is done by inserting a kazoo into the bell. I have never heard anyone else do that.
In 2021, she made a solo recording of Absinthe for YouTube. Here you can hear her play some pedal notes. Every trumpet player can do that, but it’s rarely used as anything more than a technical exercise. Here she implies these low notes to good effect, with good sound and intonation, and so did Rex Steward occasionally back in the days (think of the cadenza from Boy meets horn for example.)
The last example is Jurd’s own composition Jump Cut Shuffle, written for the Ligeti String Quartet in 2016, and included on the album Stepping Back, Jumping In, released in 2019. The piece is inspired by Ellington and Strayhorn’s The Queen’s Suite from 1959. Here is a short video by Laura explaining the idea behind the piece.
As Jurd states in the video, it is not an arrangement of The Queen’s Suite. Instead, she has taken small sections from Ellington and Strayhorn’s work and used them as a starting point for her own composition. Although not an arrangement, there are several easily recognizable bits of Ellingtonia in the piece. The most obvious, is probably Paul Gonsalves’ break heard several times during the Northern Lights movement. It is first presented solo in the viola (1:35), and later as a canon between all four strings (5:41). The beginning of Lightning Bugs and Frogs is also clearly heard as a cannon (1:07), played pizzicato by all four string players. There are several others. Try for yourself and see how many you can find.
And if you haven’t had enough Laura Jurd at this point, i recommend listening to her latest album, released this september, entitled The Big Friendly Album.
Recommended albums by Laura Jurd:
Laura Jurd: The Big Friendly Album (Big Friendly Records, 2022)
Dinosaur: To The Earth (Edition Records, 2020)
Laura Jurd: Human Spirit (Chaos Collective, 2014)
Webpage: https://www.laurajurd.com/
Author: Rasmus Henriksen
When did Bechet play with Duke
It is generally presumed that Sidney Bechet played with Duke Ellington in the mid-20s as a member of The Washingtonians. This presumption is based upon what Bechet and Ellington say in their respective autobiographies
In Treat Me Gentle, Bechet says that he linked up with Ellington in mid 1924; “It was a fine thing to playing with Duke Ellington in 1924.” However, in Music Is My Mistress Ellington says that Sidney Bechet joined his band in 1926.
So was it in mid-1924 or in 1926 that Bechet became a member of The Washingtonians?
It can’t have been in 1926. By that time, Bechet was in Europe with Revue Negre (The Black Revue) and he stayed there until 1930. It is difficult to understand how Ellington made this mistake (or was it Stanley Dance’s error?).
This article will try to find the dates when Bechet played with Ellington as a member of The Washingtonians. The main sources for the article are:
John Chilton’s well researched and detailed biography of Bechet – Sidney Bechet; The Wizard of Jazz. It has some information about what Bechet did in 1924-1925 but for crucial dates, it is rather incomplete.
Guy Demole’s Sidney Bechet – His musical activities from 1907 to 1959. It is a very solid discography and has a lot of good information about his whereabouts.
Ken Steiner’s Wild Throng Dances Madly in Cellar Club. It is the result of an impressive harvesting of contemporary newspapers and journals on Duke Ellington’s whereabouts 1923-1927.
David Palmquist’s invaluable online database The Duke Where and When (TDWAW). It is available at http://tdwaw.ca/. The information in Steiner’s booklet is incorporated in the database together with Palmquist’s own findings and those of others. All references to TDWAW in the article is from TDWAW 1.
Steven Lasker’s also impressive and detailed The Washingtonians, A Miscellany.
Let’s start to look at the information available from these sources for the period May 1924 to May 1925.
By the beginning of 1924, both Ellington and Bechet were firmly established in New York, Ellington as the leader of the house band – The Washingtonians – at Hollywood Cabaret while Bechet primarily worked in (touring) shows, participated in recording sessions and played in bands.
As regards Bechet, at the beginning of 1924 he got involved in the Will Marion Cook / Abbie Mitchell musical Negro Nuances. It was being written at that time and Bechet apparently contributed to it.
Chilton says that the project never got beyond the embryonic stage but the entry on the show in the Musicals in Black and White encyclopedia says that it “apparently went on tour in 1924”.
If there was a tour with the musical, it was most likely a short one, not involving Bechet. According to A Century of Musicals in Black and White, Bechet had signed up with Jimmie Cooper’s Black and White Revue and toured with it in the winter of 1924.
However, Bechet was back in New York at the end of February or early March 1924 and then joined the Noble Sissle-Eubie Blake show In Bamville, which opened in Rochester, New York on 10 March 1924 (Chilton).
It was another short engagement for Bechet and when the show went on a tour that lasted 24 weeks, he remained in New York for short gigs and recording sessions.
Only two recording sessions, materialized. He participated in one circa 16 May 1924 with Clarence Williams and Eva Taylor and one circa 30 May 1924 in which he accompanied the singer Maureen Englin.
Guy Demole is the only one who gives some details about Bechet’s gigs in New York during the spring of 1924. He says that Bechet played clubs around 134th Street in Harlem (Small’s, Leroy’s Fritz’s, Connie’s, Owl’s and others). However, he must also have gigged in clubs in mid-Manhattan. like Hollywood Cabaret and others.
As regards Ellington, in mid-February 1924 he became the leader of The Washingtonians after Elmer Snowden had left the band. By that time, Hollywood Cabaret was running a new and apparently successful show called Mississippi Revue but the club had also started to get into trouble for having served whisky and beer.
In the early morning of 4 April 1924, Hollywood Cabaret, burnt down and The Washingtonians was out of work. It then left New York for a tour in New England from about 12 to 26 April (Steiner page 16 and TDWAW 1924-04-03). There is no indication that Bechet was part of the orchestra at that time.
When Hollywood Caberet reopened on 1 May, 1924, it was with a new show by Leonard Harper called The Virginia Girls (or The Virginian Girl Revue). James P. Johnson wrote the music and also led the band, which included Sidney Bechet and Benny Carter among others (TDWAW 1 1924-05-01).
It did not go well between Johnson and Bechet. Johnson expected the band to play his written arrangements and this was not Bechet’s cup of tea. So he got fired by Johnson. Shortly thereafter, Johnson went the same way.
In Treat Me Gentle, Bechet says “after James P. had got me out then he went and got himself fired. And the band which took his place was Duke and me”.
Possibly, this was what happened but according to TDWAW 1 (1924-05-15), Johnson’s band was replaced by a “French Jazz Orchestra (TDWAW 1924-05-15) but it was also short-lived, and on 10 June The Washingtonians was back at the club (TDWAW 1924-06-10)
It is often presumed that Bechet joined The Washingtonians at this moment but it is contradicted by Chilton, who says that Bechet after having parted his ways with James P. Johnson joined the band at the Rhythm Club in Harlem and become a leader of it after a while. However, Chilton does not give a source for this information so it is impossible to know how accurate it is.
Chilton offers no date as regards when Bechet joined The Washingtonians but he identifies Leo Bernstein – one of the owners of Hollywood Cabaret – as the instigator of Ellington’s recruitment of Bechet, and this points to mid-June as the date.
Another discography information to consider is what Bechet says in Treat Me Gentle: “When I first joined the band, Bubber Miley was in jail over some trouble concerning a girl.”
Unfortunately, it has not been possible to establish when this was the case or how long Miley was in jail.
Was he in jail in June? If so, it must have been only for a few days since Miley did a recording session for the Ajax label in that month (as he also did in May and July).
If it was a longer jail period, then it must have been in the spring and have no connection to Bechet’s linking up with Ellington and The Washingtonians.
In any case, based on what has been found, it seems likely that Bechet joined The Washingtonians sometime between 10 and 15 June 1924.
How long did he stay with the band?
It is not easy to give a clear-cut answer but Chilton and particularly Ken Steiner and David Palmquist give some help. I will use their information (and some other) to trace Bechet’s movements from July 1924 to the spring 1925.
Apparently, Hollywood Cabaret stayed open all the summer of 1924 and “it seems likely that The Washingtonians worked at the Hollywood through the summer” (Steiner page 18). “Another possibility”, Steiner says “is a side trip to New England” for the band and that such a tour could be the summertime tour of New England with Bechet in the band that Ellington writes about in Music Is My Mistress but misdates it to 1926. However, so far there has been no proof of such a trip.
In my view, a third possibility could be that Hollywood Cabaret was closed in August since Otto Hardwick is reported to have played with the White Brothers’ orchestra in Chicago in August.
Anyhow, on 6 September, a new revue by Leonard Harper – Creole Follies – opened at Hollywood Cabaret and “Washingtonian’s Hollywood Jazz Orchestra” was in place to provide music (Steiner page 18, TDWAW 1 1924-09-06). If Becher was still in the band is impossible to say since no ads with listings of the band members have been found yet.
In the early morning of 16 December 1924, there was another burn-down of Hollywood Cabaret and The Washingtonians went on tour again.
There is some evidence that it played the Fox Theatre circuit in upstate New York for the rest of December and most of January 1925 (TDWAW 1 1924-12-16) but also some more firm information that the orchestra played dances and did concerts in New England from 24 January to 7 February (TDWAW 1 1925-01-26 )
Was Bechet in the band the this tour? It is doubtful since there is no mentioning of Bechet in any of the reviews of the New England tour reprinted in Wild Throng Dances Madly in Cellar Club.
Did he appear when Ellington and The Washingtonians went back to New York circa mid-February for the reopening of Hollywood Cabaret (now called Club Kentucky) on 19 February 1925? He is not mentioned in any of the newspaper articles, reviews and listings which were published after the opening but neither were other members of the band except Ellington.
All this indicates that Bechet was out of The Washingtonians in the late summer or early fall of 1924. In his autobiography, Barney Bigard says that Ellington fired Bechet after he had been absent for three days without any trace. “Where the hell have you been? Ellington asked Bechet according to Bigard. And he answered: “I jumped in a car and we got lost and I just now finally found out where I was.”
Did this happen while the band was on tour or in New York?
One possibility is that he was fired in conjuction with “the side trip to New England” that Ken Steiner talks about in his booklet (see above). In Music Is My Mistress, Ellington says that the New England tour with Bechet was quite unruly in terms of band behaviour and that he had enough of Bechet when the band was back in New York.
Another possibility is that Bechet did not appear when Ellington and the band started to rehearse for the Creole Follies Revue or in conjunction with that.
Whether it was one or the other, there is evidence that Bechet may have been out of The Washingtonians by mid- August. An ad in The Post-Star, Glen Falls, N.Y. 12 August 1924, announces a three day appearance by Sidney Bechet and his orchestra of colored dancers and singers at the Empire Theatre on 14-16 August (Thursday, Friday and Saturday).
As can be seen in the ad, It was not a show like In Bamville or Seven-Eleven but rather a kind of vaudeville with different elements. The role of Bechet with his dancers and singers is not clear, neither is it if this was a one time things or something with which Bechet toured.
A show apperance is of course not in itself proof enough that Bechet was fired in mid-August 1924 but together with the other indications above and the fact that he also resumed his recording activities in October 1924 makes it quite obvious that Bechet’s stay with Ellington and The Washingtonians was only three months.
In his Bechet biography, Chilton says that “Bechet casually resumed his work in late-night clubs after he was fired by Ellington and again secured the job as a leader of the Rhythm Clubs’s resident group. But Chilton complicated matters for us when he start to talk about Bechet’s recording activities. He does not say anything about Bechet’s recording sessions during the last three months of 1924 but starts with the ones in 1925. This might indicate that Chilton considers that Bechet was fired by Ellington in late 1924 but he does not say this directly and does not provide a date or a span of dates for when it happened.
In the spring of 1925 Bechet had joined or was preparing to join a tour with with the show Seven-Eleven. In his book, Chilton quotes a news piece in the 9 May, 1925 issue of the Baltimore Afro-American: “Bechet, the clarinet wizard, has been added to the musical unit in Seven-Eleven.” The tour was quite long and Bechet stayed with it until early July when it arrived in New York.
There he collected a big payment of royalties for his compositions and decided to open a club at 145th Street called Club Basha. Johnny Hodges joined the band there and “it was then he used to show me different things on the soprano” (Chilton). More about Club Basha can be read in Chilton’s book and also about Bechet’s departure for Europe with La Revue nègre in September 1925.
Postscript
The short stay in The Washingtonians was not the only time Bechet played with Ellington. It also happened in 1932 when Bechet joined the Ellington orchestra for a week (23-29 April). Ellington was to record The Sheik of Araby and when he heard that Bechet was out of work, he decided to invite him to be part of Ellington Orchestra for a week to help Johnny Hodges to recreate the spectacular chorus that Bechet usually played on the song. So he had and Juan Tizol transcribed what Bechet played. It become Hodges solo when Ellington recorded The Sheik of Araby 16 May 1932.
Those who would like to know more about this is recommended to read the article about it in the DEMS Bulletin 2002-2.
Author Ulf Lundin with the support of David Palmquist
DR Ellington Broadcasts 48
Broadcast 48 took place on 4 April 1992. This time it was produced and presented by Bjarne Busk
It is the the first “goodie” in September 2022 and is available in the ”Goodies” section of the website.
Once again, the program is a broadcast of an (almost) full concert. This time, it is the appearance of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra together with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra (aka Cleveland Summer Orchestra at the Summer Pop Concerts in Cleveland, Ohio on 25 July 1956.
However, Busk starts with an excerpt from an interview of Ellington by Ted Cassidy in Januari 1958 about his symphonic works
As Busk will confirm in the broadcast, the program had three parts: First, the combined Cleveland Pops Orchestra and the Duke Ellington Orchestra played New World A-Comin’ in an arrangement by Luther Henderson. They were conducted by Louis Lane, the musical director of the Pops Orchestra and Ellington was of course the piano soloist.
Then the combined orchestras performed Night Creature, also in an arrangement by Luther Henderson. This time, Ellington was the conducter.
After a refreshing break, Ellington and His Orchestra took over the stage for a short concert, which begun with Skin Deep, followed by a full Medley and ending with Jam With Sam and V.I.P. Boogie. In the broadcast, only I Got It Bad/It Don’t Mean A Thing (nc) from the Medley and VIP Boogie followed by Jam With Sam is played.
As an extra goodie, we give our readers Skin Deep and the full Medley here.
DESScafé 12 September 2022
DESScafé is back after having been closed for renovation since May.
This time, the meeting was in English and the topic The Young Ben Webster 1932-1939. The music to enjoy and discuss had been selected by Thomas Erikson and myself. It had been chosen to demonstrate Webster’s stylistic development during these formative years.
During this early period, he played in Blanche Calloways’ Her Joy Boys in the spring of 1931 Then joined Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra in the winter 1931/1932 and stayed with it until Christmas time in 1932.
In January 1933, Webster was engaged by Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds, where he met Mary Lou Williams. who meant a lot for his early development.
In March 1934, Lester Young moved from Count Basie band to join Fletcher Henderson’s. However, it was a short stay for Young. A few months later Henderson made a deal with Andy Kirk to exchange Young for Webster and in mid-July Webster started with Henderson. But it was a short stay. In early November the Henderson orchestra disbanded.
Webster was then recruited by Benny Carter but the band had a short life. However, several members of the band, Webster included, was recruited by the singer and entertainer Willie Bryant in January 1935 and Webster stayed with him until August 1935.
During the period with Bryant, Webster recorded not only with him but also with small groups under Bob Howard’s and Teddy Wilson’s name.
After he left Bryant, Webster played two-three weeks with Duke Ellington substituting for Barney Bigard. He participated in a recording session on this occasion and then joined Cab Calloway in September 1935. Webster stayed with Calloway for almost two years.
During the period with Calloway, Webster participate in many small group recordings under Teddy Wilson’s, Mildred Bailey’s and Billie Holiday’s name.
He moved back to Fletcher Henderson in July 1937, where he took over after Chu Berry. In Maj 1938 he abruptly leaves Henderson. Next Webster works for a short period with Stuff Smith’s small group at the Onyx Club on 52nd Street in New York and then with Roy Eldrige’s small band.
In the spring of 1939, Teddy Wilson left Benny Goodman to start a big band and he recruited Webster for the sax section. He spent ten months with the Wilson orchestra before he was invited on 21 January, 1940 to join Duke Ellington.
This is the framework for the 12 September DESScafé.
The Spotify playlist have three songs which were not played played during the meeting. They are: Without That Gal (Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys), Rug Cutter’s Swing (Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra) and Truckin’ (Duke Ellington and His Orchestra). I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm and The Man I Love with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra are unfortunately not available on Spotify. and are not included in the playlist.
A Swedish text version of this article together with the video is available at https://ellington.se/desscafe/desscafe-12-september-2022/
Author: Ulf Lundin
Ellington News-Nyheter 2022-3 (more)
DESScafé
DESScafé is a virtual meeting place for DESS members andf others to meet and discuss Duke Ellington’s music and musicians.
It takes place on ZOOM. Each meeting has a theme and two-three presenters/animators select and introduce the music linked to it. The meetings last about one hour and a half.
Desscafé opened the first time in October 2020 and since then the café visitors have discussed and listened to interpretations of Ellington music by many Ellingtonians.
So far this year, the themes in the DESScafé has been Ellingtonians in small groups play Ellington in the 1960’s (January), Shorty Baker (February), Essentially Ellington Competion (March), Perdido (April) and Ellington’s last English tours (May).
The next DESScafé will take place on 12 september and will for the first time be in English. The theme is The Young Ben Webster 1932-1939 and the idea is to discuss his stylistic development. Thomas Erikson and myself will be the presenters/animators.
The Zoom link for the meeting is available at https://ellington.se/desscafe/.
Uptown Lockdown
As reported in Ellington News 2022-2, at the end of May, DESUK’s Uptown Lockdown got a new and interesting format with Brian Priestley interviewing a guest. He does it once a month and the interviews are uploaded to the Uptown Lockdown channel on YouTube.
The first one was with the musician, jazz historian and author of many books on jazz, Alyn Shipton. Brian Priestley’s Ellington-oriented conversation with him is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LJ5zYBFAUQ
The next one was with bassist Dave Green, who “enthused about Ellington, Jimmie Blanton and playing frequently with Ben Webster. The interview can be seen and heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbRBTGcNnoc
The third interview was with the saxophonist, clarinettist and Ellington aficionado Alan Barnes. It can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70efqBYML34
Priestley’s latest interview was with trumpeter and arranger Guy Barker. “Learn all about his early interest in Rex Stewart and Cootie Williams and about his mentoring by Clark Terry as well as hearing some great Ellington/Strayhorn music, says Brian. Here is the link to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fuaHwEKBdA&t=3s
The Ellington Effect
Last week, I learned from David Bergerthe the first volume in this ambitious and amazing project is still a couple of years away. Pity but we have to respect that it is a complicated project for which it is not easy to find a publisher.
Until we have the books, there are the monthly Ellington Effect workshops.
They are monthly ZOOM meetings where David “dives into a single composition each time analyzing it musically line by line and answering questionsfrom the attendees”. They last for more than two hours and sometimes they are hard to follow for a “non-expert”. But since one has to have a subscription to attend the works, one can listen to them over again and discover more aspect each time.
So far there have been 18 workshops. The most recent one was about Blasck Beauty and David gave a fascinating presentation. The next one, which will be about Harlem Speaks, takes place on 25 September.
The full list of workshops are at https://courses.suchsweetthundermusic.com/products/home.
Canada Lee broadcast
Thank you to Brian Koller and Charlie Dyson for telling us that the full half-hour version of the Canada Lee from 9 June, 1941 is available on the Internet.
There is one on YouTube as part of a 3 hours and 42 minutes of a collage of radio programs from 9 June 1941 in the World War Two Old Time Radio channel. The Canada Lee broadcast is towards the end of the program. The full program is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_4_Z0YDfU.
Another one is available on Past Daily and the article there has both the radio program and an extensive article about Canada Lee and the background to the program. It was apparently a celebration of the Broadway opening for the Charles Wright play Native Son, in which Canada Lee had the “starring role”.
The Ellington aspects of the broadcast is that “Duke, Jeffries and Ivie Anderson are mentioned at the start of it. Ellington has a scripted dialogue with Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, then accompanies Jeffries on “Brown-Skin Gal”. It seems that Ellington intended to accompany Ivie Anderson on “Chocolate Shake” but she is a no-show, which obligates Ellington to turn the number into a piano solo” (quote from Brian Koller).
Recently, a video version of the interview was put on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZC4Xn9VMT4
Radio Jazz Copenhagen
The website has written about this radio station a couple of times. It is an amazing one, which broadcasts 24/24 hours a day and have many thematic interesting broadcasts.
One of them is Lördagskonserten (the Saturday Concert) which often features our friend and DESS member Bjarne Busk.
For the moment, the theme is recordings from jazz clubs in New York and the program on 17 September had recordings by Count Basie at Café Society in 1941.
Radio Jazz has also a special program about Ellington. It is called The Wonderful World of Duke Ellington and brings together the Ellington expert Henrik Wolsgaard-Iversen and two of his friends to play and talk about Ellington music. The latest episode was n:o 151 in the series and others will soon follow.
Like Lördagskonserten, the most recent The Wonderful World of Duke Ellington programs are available in the blog on the website.
But there is much more in the blog like some episodes of series on Ben Webster and the four program about the Swedish singer Nannie Porres.
Unfortunately, everything on Radio Jazz is broadcasted in Danish so it can be enjoyed only by those who understand this language.
Hot Jazz Saturday Night
In his program on 13 August, Rob Bamberger gave the listeners two hours of music from the period when he had left Ellington. He gave us a good and varied selection and often came back to Con Chapman’s book on Hodges, Rabbit’s Blues.
For a limited period, the program will be available to DESS member in the restricted Rob Bamberger area on the website https://ellington.se/ellington-arkivet/radioprogram/rob-bamberger/. The password is the same as for other restricted areas.
Ellington News-Nyheter 2022-3
DESS Bulletin 2022-3
DESS members got the third issue of the Bulletin by postal mail or email in the beginning of August but because of the summer break, the website has not been able to report about it until now.
It is another issue with a lot of good and informative reading.
Bo Haufman really deserves to be thanked for all his work on the Bulletins. He has to come up with ideas to articles, finding writers for them or write them himself, work with the layout guy and finally put address labels and stamps on the envelops that will carry the new Bulletin to the DESS members.
This time, the lead article is about Jimmy Woode, Ellington’s bass player from 1955 to 1960 and important factor in the resurrection of the Ellington band in the mid 1950’s.
It is an interesting and well researched article. It starts with Woode’s father Jimmy Woode Sr, who spent most of his life in Sweden. He was a pianist and came to Sweden in 1947 with a band called The Harlem Madcaps for a short tour. When it ended, he and his wife decided to remain in Sweden and Woode Sr did so for the rest of his life. Woode was particularly active in the Swedish jazz life during the 1950s and was participating in many recordings both then and later.
Bo also tells us that Jimmy Woode Jr aimed to be a pianist as his father but switched to bass as a late teenager. He practiced hard and was apparently so good that George Wein in c. 1953 recruited him as bass chair in the house band at Storyville in Boston and Woode also played “occasionally” at the Hi-Hat there.
One can hear Woode in many recordings from the two clubs but his first recording was made in Panama and on 9 August, 1951, he participated in a quintet recording in Los Angeles for Clef. The group also included Bill Harris, Flip Phiips and Lou Levy so Woode must have been well connected.
On 2 January, 1955, Woode joined the Duke Ellington band as a replacement for Wendell Marshall. He was to stay for “five years, four months, two weeks and two days.
Bo writes extensively about Woode’s time with Ellington and the music he discusses can be heard in a playlist on Spotify.
Woode left the Ellington orchestra in April 1960. Shortly thereafter. he moved to Sweden where he stayed for about 3 years participating in many record sessions and playing at dance restaurants with his father.
Woode must also have stayed in contact with American jazz musicians like Kenny Clarke living in Paris and other places in Europe. On 22 April 1961, he played at l’Olympia with a small group led by George Wein.
However, more important was that he participated in a recording by a Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland group for Blue Note in Cologne on 18-19 May, 1961. The recording was issued as The Golden Eight and was much acclaimed when it was issued. It was the beginning of what was to become the Kenny Clark/Francy Boland Big Band but this name was used the first time in 1963 and by that time is was a real big band.
Woode moved to continental Europe in 1963 and remained there until his return to the U.S.A. in 2001. The core of his work in Europe was the touring and recording with the Clark/Boland band until it was disbanded in 1973. But he continued to be in demand and appeared at jazz festivals and clubs in different configuration. It seems that he in 1973-1974 also was a member of the ORF big band in Vienna.
Woode made his last recording in February 2005, It took place in Hannover even if he by that time lived in the U.S.A. He died two months later.
His discography of the years in Europe is impressive and has much good listening to offer. Explore it!
Personally, I am a big fan of the Kenny Clark/Francy Boland Big Band, in which Woode was an inportant component and also of the recordings by smaller groups from the band like the trio albums Out of the Background and Francy Boland Trio.
Bo’s full article gives more details on what I have said here and covers also other subjects. Read it!
The usual mini portrait of an Ellington artist is this time about the singer Dolores Parker – The Wildest Gal in Town as Bo headline the article about here. She was with the Ellington band for only six months from 27 August 1947 to February 1948. During this period, she took part in seven recording sessions and in them she revealed herself “as a lady who could sing” according to Eddie Lambert.
She started her jazz vocalist career in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra in November 1941. She stayed with Henderson until 1945 and then joined Earl Hines’ orchestra together with her husband in 1946 after having given birth to a daughter.
She got her job with the Ellington orchestra through an audition. Billy Strayhorn was the judge of the panel and proposed her to Ellington after having heard her sing Lush Life.
The article in Bo’s long series about Ellington compositions is about Lady of the Lavender Mist. He gives a poetic description of the song. “When he composed the song, Duke Ellington probably thought of a beautiful woman who can be seen in a blue-violet lavender mist.” Lady of the Lavender Mist was originally meant to be the first movement in a longer work to be called The French Suite.
It was recorded 14 August 1947 for Columbia with Jimmy Hamilton and Lawrence Brown as main soloist. It stayed in the repertoire in 1948 and was included in the program of the concert at Carnegie Hall on 13 November 1948. It was also played in the concert at Cornell University on 10 December 1948. Thereafter, the only entry of it in NDESOR is a dance date in March 1952.
The new Bulletin also have some other articles.
Bo Haufman has written a very good summary of the Duke Ellington Meeting 2022. It really tells what happened during the four days of this virtual conference.
There are also a reprint of an article that pianist Bobby Short wroye about his memories of Duke Ellington, reviews of recent new Ellington CDs and a remembrance of the Swedish pianist Nils Lindberg.
New CD
During the summer, Storyville Records issued a CD with Clark Terry and His Big Bad Band in Holland in 1979.
It is a studio recording from 6 September 1979 made for later radio broadcast. It is not known if the recording was broadcasted and if so when.
The songs on the CD are: A Toi; Rabdi; On the Trail; Don’t Speak Now; Blues All Day, Blues All Night; Carney; Rock Skippin’ at the Blue Note; Just Squeeze Me; Jeep’s Blues; Shell Game; Mumbles; Una Mas and Take the “A” Train.
In this version of the Big Bad Band, the only Ellingtonians besides Terry are Chuck Connors and Buster Cooper. The rest of the band is a talented group of younger musicians.
Here is Carney from the CD.
Almost two month before or 15 July to be exact, Terry and his Big Bad Band performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival. It played the same songs as in the studio recording but in a slightly different order.
Here is Jimmy Heath’s arrangement of Una Mas from this occasion.
It is quite likely that the band appeared at other jazz festivals in July and August but no details are known. If someone has information about this, please contact the web editor.
Duke Ellington Society
I end this article with the letter that the Board of the Duke Ellington Society of Southern California (DES) has sent to its members and other Ellington fans recently. “It is good news that it is still among us”, the Chairman of DESS, Bo Haufman, said in a mail to DESS’ members and we all hope that it will stay that way!
Ellington at Basin Street East 1964
Basin Street East was for some years in the 1960s one of the famous jazz clubs in New York. It was located in midtown Manhattan in the Shelton Towers Hotel at 525 Lexington Avenue.
It was quite a singers place. Peggy Lee, Billy Eckstine and Barbra Streisand appeared and recorded there.
Ellington’s first gig at Basin Street East was from 4 to 20 December 1961. It was his first night club residency in 5 years (TDWAW – http://tdwaw.ca).
After this he appeared regularly at the club until the mid-1960s.
In 1964, Ellington had an engagement there from 9 to 18 December (possibly longer) and on 14 January WNEW broadcasted from there with William B Williams as host.
Williams was with WNEW for more than four decades and was in the 50’s one of the DJs at the station in the 50’s who “helped define the “Middle of the Road” (MOR) musical character of WNEW.
During Ellington’s visit to England later in the year, the program was rebroadcasted by BBC in the famous Jazz Club program. By that time, Humphrey Lyttleton was the presenter.
Here is his introduction.
Even if the broadcast from Basin Street East is strictly not a goodie since it is available on CD (Music & Arts 908), we offer it in the Goodies Room to DESS members to enjoy during the last month of the summer. It is digitised from a 50 years old tape in the Benny Åslund (aka Benny Aaslund) so the sound is not hifi but quite acceptable. The concluding East St Louis Toodle-oo
As usual, we appreciate comments and corrections.
Author: Ulf Lundin
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.
There were some changes in the orchestra compared to the one that toured Europe in 1964. Ernie Shepard and Rolf Ericson were not longer with the band. John Lamb became the bass player in August 1964, Ray Nance returned to the band for 6 months in January 1965 and Mercer Ellington also joined the trumpet section at about the same time.
Contrary to what was said by many reviewers, the concert program was quite different from the 1964 one. HARLEM was replaced by BLACK and Ad Lip on Nippon was selected from Far East Suite instead of Amad, Agra, Blue Bird of Delhi, Depk and Isfahan.
In the category that critics call “we have heard it before”, new for the 1965 tour was among others Midriff, Chelsea Bridge, Jump for Joy, Passion Flower and Afro Bossa. Jungle Kitty (aka Meow) was brand new composition for Cat Anderson by Ellington and Strayhorn.
So all in all, it was an interesting repertoire. However, the problem was that it was not always well performed. The scandals in this respect in the beginning of the tour marred the overall impression.
This article we focus on Ellington’s concerts in Copenhagen and Stockholm but also cover what happened in between them.
The concert in Copenhagen took place on 31 January. There was only one concert and it started at 19:30 (7:30 PM) local time.
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- Concert ad
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- Concert poster
The concert took place in concert hall of Falkoner Centret in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, which was inaugerated in 1958.
The whole concert was filmed by Danish Radio Television and almost all of it was telecasted on 21 June 1965 as Hertugen og hans mænd (The Duke and his Men). It is one of the few recording with a (almost) complete concert from the tour.
The telecast has also been issued on DVD by the American Quantum Leap company and the DVD is most likely the source of the two videos with the concert available on YouTube.
Missing from the telecast (and video) are Solitude, Jam with Sam, Take the “A” Train (theme) and Dancers in Love. They came after Ray Nance’s encore He Huffed ‘n’ Puffed.
Solitude was sung by Bea Benjamin accompanied by her husband Dollar Brand (aka Abdullah Ibrihim), Cootie Williams, Russell Procope, John Lamb and Sam Woodyard. Brand and Benjamin had an engagement at Montmartre – the famous jazz club in Copenhagen – at the time of the concert and they were friends with Ellington since he recorded them for Reprise in Paris in February 1963.
After this, the orchestra was back to end the concert with Jam with Sam and Take the “A” Train.
NDESOR and Ellingtonia (ellingtonia.com) also lists Dancers in Love played by Ellington accompanied by John Lamb. Possibly this was an encore but it is a little bit of a mystery. It is not mentioned in any reviews of the concert and was not played at any other concert during the tour.
Part of the concert was also broadcast by Danish Radio in a two parts series – Duke Ellington in Copenhagen. The first was aired on 22 February 1965. DESOR (volume 1963-1965) lists eight songs from the concert and Erik Wiedeman says they were what was broadcast by Danish Radio.
Click on the photos to get them larger.
Danish newspapers covered the concert well and quickly but it is sad that the concert could be labelled The Sleepy Gonsalves concert.
Several reviews gave quite some attention to the fact that Paul Gonsalves went into deep sleep at the beginning of the concert and several other times during it as can be seen in the video. But as Berlingske Tidenes reported, after the concert Gonsalves was fit to go to the Montmarte jazz club to listen to and play with Ben Webster.
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- Berlingske Tidene 7 Feb 65
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- Fyens Tidende 1 Feb 1965
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- Frederiksborg Amts Avis 1 Feb 65
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- Roskilde Dagblad 1 Feb 65
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- Information 1 Feb 65
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- Aarhuu Stifts-Tidende 1 Feb 1965
The Swedish jazz critic and Ellington fan Leif Anderson also attended the concert and commented on it in an review of the concerts in Copenhagen, Lund and Malmö in the March issue in the Swedish jazz magazine Orkesterjournalen.
Here is his full review together with one by Bertil Sundin for the Stockholm concert.
Leif Andersson – Bertil Sundin
From Copenhagen, Ellington and his band went to Malmö for concerts in Lund and Malmö. They were organised by the young promoter Bo Jonsson, 24 years old at the time, who was to organise many other Ellington concerts in Malmö.
Ellington stayed at the elegant Kramer Hotel right in the centre of Malmö. There he run int Arthur Fiedler, who stayed at the same hotel and was in town to conduct the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. (Leif Andersson)
The concert venue in Lund was the Main Hall in Akademiska Föreningen. It was scheduled to start at 19:30 (7:30 PM) but was seriously delayed since Sam Woodyard never appeared and Johnny Hodges Jr. had to step in and take over the drummer’s tasks. It must have been a total disaster for the arrangers and for Ellington but reviewers were rather calm about it and also about the fact that Gonsalves slept during most of the concert in Lund.
According to Lars Weck – Dagens Nyheter’s jazz critic – Ellington performed Ad Lib on Nippon, Paul Gonsalves woke up to solo in Chelsea Bridge and Johnny Hodges played Passion Flower, Things Ain’t What They Used To Be and Jeep’s Blues.
From Lund, the band went back to Malmö for a late night concert at Stadsteatern (Malmö City Theatre). It seems that it became a rather improvised concert again since Sam Woodyard was late. While waiting for him, Ellington recited Pretty and the Wolf. Once Woodyard was in place, some of the program from Copenhagen must have been performed but which parts? In his review, Leif Andersson says that Lawrence Brown played Serenade to Sweden as an encore, that Russell Procope did a solo on his alto sax in Jump for Joy and that Buster Cooper had a solo in C Jam Blues.
From Malmö, Ellington and the orchestra went to Stockholm. Norman Granz and his Swedish representatives Karusell Konsertbyrå had advertised the two concerts well in advance in newspapers and with posters but surprisingly not in Orkesterjournalen.
The first concert started at 19:00 local time (7 PM) and the second at 21:00 (9 PM). The concert venue was Konserthuset (Stockholm Concert Hall) in the centre of Stockholm. Both concerts were well attended, one reviewer even says they were sold out.
The length of the concerts is not known but it seems likely that they lasted around 1hour and 30 minutes. Readers who knows more about this, please contact the web editor.
NDESOR lists nine tunes except the opening and ending Take the “A” Train theme (DE6510 b-j) but this is only what was included in a broadcast by Swedish Radio, and not a full concert. Most likely it is edited from the second concert.
Here is a teaser from the broadcast.
The Opener
DESS members can listen to and download the broadcast in the Goodies Room.
The broadcast starts with the station announcement in Swedish followed by an introduction by the presenter Olle Helander. He was responsible for jazz programs on Swedish Radio since the early 1950’s and a well-known voice presenting them.
After the theme and intro (Take the “A” Train), Ellington announces Afro-Bossa (aka Boola). This is a carry-over from 1963 and was often played during the 1963-66 period but disappeared after that from the band’s repertoire.
The Opener follows with the familiar line-up of soloists: Paul Gonsalves, Buster Cooper and Cat Anderson, then Paul Gonsalves is featured in the beautiful Chelsea Bridge.
On the 1965 European tour, Ellington re-introduced Worksong, Come Sunday and Light (Montage) from the 1st movement of Black, Brown & Beige.
In Paris and Copenhagen, he had also presented Ad Lib On Nippon from Far East Suite. It is not included in this broadcast but was most likely featured in the two Stockholm concerts.
Passion Flower and Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, which are solo numbers for Johnny Hodges, are played next before Cootie Williams gets into the lime-light with Tutti For Cootie.
Based on what is in the radio program and input from people who attended the concert like DESS’ former president Leif Jönsson, it is rather likely that the following music was played during the concerts.
Take The “A” Train (theme), Midriff, Afro-Bossa, The Opener, Chelsea Bridge, A Lib On Nippon – Fugi, Iggo, Nagoya, Tokyo, Black – Worksong, Come Sunday, Light (Montage), Passion Flower, Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, Jump for Joy, Tutti For Cootie and Take the “A” Train (theme).
Songs in italics have to be confirmed. Please send comments to the web editor.
Review of the concerts appeared in daily newspapers and in Orkesterjounalen (OJ). There were distinctly different. One view was represented by Leif Andersson (OJ), Hans Friedlund (Aftonbladet) and Lars Weck (Dagens Nyheter). They were the positiv ones.
The other group with Ludwig Rasmussen (Svenska Dagbladet) and Bertil Sundin (OJ) was the negative one.
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- Lars Weck – Review in Dagens Nyheter of concert in Lund
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- Ludvig Rasmussen – Review in Svenska Dagbladet
Hans Friedlund Aftonbladet 65-02-03
Lars Weck – New Ellington records Dagens Nyheter 65-02-02
The Swedish cinematographer and cinema teacher, Roland Sterner, attended one of the concerts and took many interesting photos, which have been made available to the website. He was trained by the famous Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm, was film photographer for many years, teacher at Dramatiska Institutet etc.
Click on the photos to have them shown in a larger format.
This kind of article is always a work in progress. Therefore, comments, corrections and additions to the article are most welcome.
Authors: Ulf Lundin and Anders Asplund. Press research: Sven-Erik Baun Christensen, Ulf Lundin, Göran Axelsson, Leif Jönsson.
Duke Ellington at UWIS July 1972
In 1971, University of Wisconsin (UWIS) awarded Duke Ellington an Honorary Doctorate in Music
This started a process that brought him and his orchestra to Madison, WI and the university for a full week-long festival in July 1972. The festival started exactly 50 years ago today and the Govenor of Wisconsin had declared it Duke Ellington Week in the whole state.
In a panel interview in April this year, James Latimer, Professor of Jazz in the Music Department at the time and the man who conceived and organized the week, told what happened after Ellington had received his Honorary Doctorate in Music.
Stanley Dance called the week-long festival (July 18-23) “the most rewarding festival we have ever attended”.
The program had two parts. One was a series of clinic‐workshops and master classes for students and teachers with Ellington and leading members of the Ellington orchestra and the students could earn credits by participating. And the other was Ellington concerts with a large attendance almost every night.
Duke Ellington 1972 Festival Program
There were four afternoon clinic-workshops with members of the Ellington band – one for brass, one for reeds and one for rhythm. Mercer Ellington, Johnny Coles and Vince Prudente were among the professors in the brass clinics, Paul Gonsalves, Harry Carney, Russell Procope and Harold Ashby handled the reed clinics and Rufus Jones and Joe Benjamin the rhythm ones.
In their articles about the Festival (see below), both Patricia Willard and Stanley Dance gave full and lively accounts of what went on in the clinics. Very worthwhile accounts to read!
The “Maestro” himself offered two masterclasses. The second of them were filmed and later broadcasted. The participants in the Ellington Meeting 2022 had the opportunity to watch most of the video and see a very relaxed Ellington, who obviously enjoyed himself very much under a disguise of some reluctancy. It is available for viewing at https://ellington.se/ellington-meetings/ellington-2022/presentations/ellington-at-uwis-july-1972/.
The concert program was as full as the educational workshops program. In Stanley Dance’s words: “The programmes presented perhaps the broadest spectrum of Ellington’s music ever performed within the space of five days.”
On the first night, there was an Ellington Favorites concert with great hits of Ellington’s career. The next night was a Family Concert with “music for people of all ages from eight to eighty”.
The third night offered a Sacred Concert performed by the Ellington orchestra, an Ellington Festival Chorus with more than 100 singers and Tony Watkins together with invited soloist.
The concert the following night – The Duke at Milwaukee – was meant to “reflect the classic Elliington, different periods of time, all, shaped by the leader’s love for dramatic contrast”.
The last concert was Night of Suites. It had Ellington’s last performance of The Goutelas Suite and premièred the newly written The UWIS Suite. Between them, Ellington and the orchestra played, among others, music from The Queen’s Suite and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse.
Here is the UWIS Suite with Ellington’s introduction.
A 90 minutes excerpt of the concert is available for DESS members in the Goodies Room.
The music file does not include the final part of the concert with Perdido, The Kiss, the Medley, Hello Dolly, One More Time for the People and Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.
The NDESOR entry for the concert is DE7237 (a-x) and the same information can be found at ellington.com entry 21 July 1972.
Patricia Willard was very present and involved in Ellington’s visit to UWIS. Afterwards, she wrote an article for Downbeat, which was published in July issue. It is rich account of what went on during the week with many observations.
UWIS article in Down Beat Patricia Willard
Stanley Dance was also in attendence in Wisconsin as Festival Consultant and he summarised the Festival in an article to the English Jazz Journal. Also this article is full of perspectives and details.
UWIS article in Jazz Journal Stanley Dance
This article with be updated as more information is found.