DEMS BULLETIN
DUKE ELLINGTON MUSIC SOCIETY
08/2 August-November 2008
Our 30th Year of Publication
FOUNDER: BENNY AASLAND
HONORARY MEMBER: FATHER JOHN GARCIA GENSEL
EDITOR: SJEF HOEFSMIT
ASSISTED BY: ROGER BOYES
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THE INTERNATIONAL DEMS BULLETIN DUKE ELLINGTON MUSIC SOCIETY 08/2 August-November 2008 Our 30th Year of Publication FOUNDER: BENNY AASLAND |
Voort 18b, 2328 Meerle, Belgium
Telephone: +32 3 315 75 83
Email: dems1@telenet.be
London
2008
DEMS 08/2-6
1. 25 Years and 17 days after the start of the first International Duke
Ellington Conference in Washington and 4 years after the last Conference in
Stockholm, the initiator of the 20th Conference, Ellington 2008, Antony
Pepper, opened the proceedings with the traditional Eddie Lambert gavel,
brought to him from Sweden by Jan Falk.
Antony conveyed to us the good wishes of Alice Babs, who is actually
retired nowadays.
Brian Priestley gave apologies for the three speakers who were
not able to attend.
Steven Lasker would present Ken Steiner’s contribution,
Ted Hudson would present John Fass Morton’s contribution and
George Avakian excused himself. Brian read George’s address to the
conference attendees. It had been his intention to present at the conference a
fresh re-release of the 1956 Newport concert as Duke agreed upon it, with
correct and truthful liner-notes. But it apparently could not be made ready in
time for May 2008. He had recently made contact with a brand new record label
in NYC, which had shown interest in this project and George hoped that the
re-release would hit the market next year. He promised a discount for members
of Duke Ellington Societies.
2. The first speaker was Michael Pointon, who delivered the keynote
address: “Ellington Tours in the UK: 1933, 1948 and 1958.” Michael is a
free-lance writer and broadcaster and he also plays trombone. His talk was
casual and pleasant. He cited many publications from the European press about
Ellington’s concerts. They were not all favourable. He played many of the
selections which were played during Duke’s concerts. One of the selections he
was planning to play was Trees, but Antony couldn’t help him by supplying
a recording. This surprised me, since Antony e-mailed DEMS on 9May to
acknowledge the receipt of a CD with all three recordings of Trees that
have survived.
3. The other presentation of the morning was the one by Ken Steiner,
delivered in Ken’s absence by Steven Lasker. Steven started his talk by
referring back to the previous speaker who very much relied on Ken Vail’s
two-volume “Duke’s Diary”. Steven pointed out that Ken Vail had benefitted
enormously from the earlier work of Klaus Stratemann. What he did not
mention is the fact that Klaus himself benefitted enormously from the work,
started by the late Joe Igo, and continued after Joe’s death by the late
Gordon Ewing and the late Art Pilkington. Roger Boyes
pointed out that Ken Vail had had Klaus’ permission to base his diaries on
Klaus’s research. I further add that Klaus too had had permission from Gordon
to use Joe Igo’s Duke Ellington Itinerary. Actually what Gordon and Klaus did
was to exchange their research results.
Ken Steiner’s research covered the period of “The Washingtonians”, not included
in Klaus Stratemann’s book, which opens after a short introduction with Duke’s
first film, made in around Aug29. Klaus’s first and foremost object was to be
complete about Duke’s films in his book. Later he added a lot of Itinerary
facts to his manuscript, which as he stated were not complete. That’s why I
have been irritated by remarks in the past about the Stratemann Itinerary being
incomplete.
As a great surprise we all received a 38 page booklet, titled: “Wild Throng
Dances Madly in Cellar Club. Duke Ellington and the Washingtonians, 1923-27. A
compilation from the Contemporary Press and Duke Ellington Itinerary by Ken
Steiner”. While most of us were reading Ken’s brilliant work, Steven played for
us the following 11 recordings from the period, by Duke and also by Duke’s
contemporaries.
1. The Washingtonians (Miley, Irvis, Hardwick, Ellington, Guy, Greer): Choo
Choo (Ellington, Ringle and Schafer), NY, Nov24, Blu-Disc T1002.
2. Van and Schenck, Comedians—Orch. Accomp.: Choo Choo
(Ringle, Ellington and Schaffer), NY, 8Aug24, Co 197-D.
3. Fred Weaver Assisted by Leroy Tibbs (piano): I'll Take Her Back
(If She Wants to Come Back) (Leslie and Monaco), NY, Dec24,
Up-to-Date 2018.
4. Piron's New Orleans Orchestra: Ghost of the Blues
(Brymn-Bechet), NY, 15Feb24, Co 99-D.
5. Viola McCoy and Billy Higgins (acc. by ?Louis Metcalf, t; unk., p): Get
Yourself a Monkey Man and Make Him Strut His Stuff (Morton), NY, early
oct24, Vo 14912.
6. Gertrude Saunders (blues singer with jazz band [a contingent from
Paul Whiteman's orchestra]): Love Me (Pinkard), NY, 6Sep23, Vi
19159
7. Sunny and the DC'ns: Oh How I Love My Darling (Leslie-Woods),
NY, Nov24, Blu-Disc T1003.
8. Duke Ellington & His Washingtonians (Miley, Charlie Johnson,
Nanton, Prince Robinson, Hardwick, unid. alto sax, Ellington, Guy, Mack Shaw,
Greer): Li'l Farina (Smith-Mier), NY, 21Jun26, Ge 3342.
9. Bert Lewis (Of Club Kentucky) Piano Acc., Jack Carroll: If My
Baby Cooks (As Good as She Looks) (Kahal-Carroll), NY, 13oct26,
Ge 3399.
10. Clarence Williams' Blue Five (Miley, Irvis, Hardwick, Clarence
Williams, Fred Guy or Leroy Harris, Bass Edwards) Vocal Chorus by Eva Taylor: Pile
of Logs and Stone (Called Home) (Pinkard), NY, ca. 22Jan26, OK 8286.
11. Duke Ellington and His Kentucky Club Orchestra (Miley, Metcalf,
Nanton, prob. Prince Robinson, Hardwick, unid. reedman, Ellington, Guy, Mack
Shaw, Greer): East St. Louis Toodle-o
(Elllington-Miley), NY, 29Nov26, Vo 1064.
The title of Ken’s work was chosen by his wife, who was struck by the title of
one of the articles, reproduced on page 23 of his work. When I realized how
much time and devotion Ken had invested in this present for his friends, I had
a problem using the term “booklet”. It is so much more than that. In addition
to the great collaboration between Stratemann, Ewing, Pilkington and Igo, Ken
Steiner has also benefitted quite a bit from the privately published work of
Steven Lasker in 2006 titled: “The Washingtonians: A Miscellany”, 50 copies of
which were printed and distributed among interested friends and research
colleagues. The result of this collaboration between Steven and Ken is
impressive and will give the privileged readers a great joy.
After I mailed a draft of my report with my compliments to Ken for his
impressive work, he e-mailed me:
“It was such a disappointment
for me to miss the London conference. I'm very pleased to hear of the wonderful
reception of "Wild Throng." Your comments are very meaningful to me.
Thanks for mentioning Steven's important role. He is the one who really put the
puzzle together. I firmed up the dates and added details. It was so much fun. I
wish I had the time to write up all my 1930s research.
Steven had a very interesting comment about "Headlines," the 1925
movie that the Washingtonians likely appeared in. He said that Klaus would have
needed to make the starting point of his book in 1925 if indeed it is true that
the film contains scenes of the Club Kentucky band.
I only have a few extra copies of "Wild Throng" left. I plan to
correct the typos and make a few minor corrections, and do a second printing.
Arne mentioned "Wild Throng" on the jazz-research list, and I
received more requests than I could fulfil.
Ken Steiner
azuremood88@yahoo.com
PS Thanks for mentioning my wife - she was delighted to hear it.”
Ken Steiner allowed us to publish his e-mail address, so in case you would like
to have a copy of his work, you know where to go.
4. The afternoon started with what could be called a panel discussion between
the three Ellingtonians, Buster Cooper, John Lamb and Art Baron.
In the chair was Brian Priestley who did not have much to do. The three
guests told us anecdote after anecdote about the Ellington period of their careers,
which resulted in their contribution to the conference programme being the most
hilarious one.
When Brian opened the discussion by asking each of the guests to say in a few
words what it had meant to them to play in the Ellington Orchestra, I expected
that Buster Cooper would repeat his remarkable statement from Oldham
1988, when he gave as an answer to the same question: “I didn’t have to
audition anymore.” But he didn’t this time. Instead he gave us recollections of
the great trombone section: Lawrence Brown, Chuck Connors and himself.
John Lamb very appropriately made the remark that Duke’s band would not
have existed without the musicians. They were the band. A noteworthy remark
from John Lamb was the mention of his real birthday: 29Nov33. Since the midwife
was a bit confused the date was registered as being 4Dec33. That’s probably the
date that she went to the Registry Office. (The same happened with my
grandfather, who was too busy with his butcher’s shop to realize that he had
come to the Town Hall two days after the date of birth of my father.) This
warrants a correction in the New DESOR. The wrong date of 4Dec33 can be found
in the New Grove (edition 1994). The New DESOR had the different wrong date of
12Apr33. This is because of the different ways of expressing all-figure dates
in the USA and Europe: M/D/Y as opposed to D/M/Y.
Art Baron who was obviously very much enjoying himself during the
Conference, told some anecdotes about him being the junior in the band.
This was undoubtedly the most casual and good-humored panel discussion with
Ellingtonians since 1988, when Jimmy Woode and Sam Woodyard were
also on the panel with Buster Cooper and Bill Berry. The Jimmy Woode
story is too long but Sam was very brief: When he was asked why he left the band,
he said: “Money”. When someone asked him why he came back, he said again:
“Money”.
5. Earl Okin was the next speaker. The title of his presentation was a
little thought- provoking: “Duke writes for orchestra, but his real instrument
is the piano”. I enjoyed this presentation very much, because I agree with
Earl. It is true that Ellington plays new melodies in his improvisations. It is
true that he had a very personal way of piano playing, which is probably
because he was in spite of Marietta Clinkscales’ efforts largely self taught.
The way he played the piano was also the way he arranged for the band.
Gunther Schuller made the same statement. Earl played for us The New
Piano Roll Blues. He said that when he played it for some of his friends,
they assumed that it was Thelonious Monk. I again agree with Earl: Duke
had two specific qualities as a piano-player: The self taught Monk style and
his romantic piano playing.
The highlight of Earl’s presentation was when he played for us a tape, recorded
by Renée Diamond in London in Oct58. (Renée was a dear friend of Duke,
and also a friend of Earl.) On this tape we hear Duke play his first version of
Single Petal of a Rose.
This is what Earl earlier mailed to the Duke LYM list on
18May99:
“I have the actual original tape-recording in my possession here. Renée Diamond
left it to me. She certainly told me he'd composed it on the spot. A year
later, he apparently sent to her for a copy because he's forgotten how it had
gone and wanted to record what is now on Pablo. Again, if he'd already been
playing it a few times, I think that he wouldn't have needed to have a copy
sent to him. This and the fact that there are one or two real differences
between this and the 'final' version make me believe it really was composed on the
spot. After all, we know that he did compose like this relatively often. Of
course, we'll never know for certain. As you know, I'm sure, it was named after
a petal, which was falling on the piano that night from a vase of roses...”
In a later E-mail, Earl Okin mentioned the fact that since the Diamonds were
close friends, Duke would not have deceived them, and would have told them so
if it had been composed earlier. He even made the Diamonds fly to his 70th
birthday party in the White House.
6. By far the most interesting presentation (for my taste) was the one by Harvey
Cohen, the author of the book “Duke Ellington’s America”. His book will be
out next year around May. Maybe I am biased because I had the great pleasure of
reading his dissertation, which was submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate
School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 2002. His
dissertation won the Pauline Maier Best Dissertation Prize. In his
dissertation, Harvey gives us a picture of Ellington in all his aspects, not
only as a composer or a musician. It shows him as an important figure in
American history, especially as far as race relations are concerned. He
illustrated his presentation with a lot of audio recordings of Ellington
statements during interviews. Several of these recordings were taken from the
long (more than half an hour) Stanley Dance interview in London on 21oct71.
Harvey had already published in the American Quarterly, “Duke Ellington and
Black, Brown and Beige: The Composer as Historian at Carnegie Hall”. Duke not
only composed the suite, he also produced a written version of his story of the
American Negro in the USA. The handwritten manuscript as well as a typed version
are in the Smithsonian Collection. In this manuscript, Duke used the name Boola
for his subject. In the interview with Stanley Dance he mentioned this text
manuscript saying that music only needed to sound good. But music on its own
was not sufficient to convey the story fully. This article is the basis of one
of the chapters in Harvey’s forthcoming book.
Harvey also wrote “The Marketing of Duke Ellington: Setting the Strategy for an
African American Maestro” for the Journal of African American History. Both
these publications are hard to come by, but this article too is adapted from a
chapter in Harvey’s book. So don’t worry. Next year you will be able to read
both.
During the seven years of the writing of his dissertation, Harvey worked
intensively at the Smithsonian Institute through Duke’s business records and
through the scrapbooks to get a clear picture of the non-musical aspects of
Duke’s life. He also explored the maze of paper at National Archives II in
College Park, MD. At the U.S. State Department Library he found a lot of
information about Duke’s State Department tours. He furthermore visited the
Library of Congress and the Institute of Jazz Studies and he interviewed many
people who knew Duke.
When Duke died, I read in a Dutch weekly magazine (Elsevier) that he had left
around $300.000. My admiration for the man grew considerably. He had managed to
write his music and play it for his audiences and still leave a small positive
financial legacy. If he had simply tried to make more money, he would have died
a very rich man, but if he had done that he would not have lived the life he
wanted. He went as far as he could go in combining a good life with his
artistic ambitions. Harvey concluded his presentation with the same
observation. Ellington always found enough profit to keep his band touring, and
his artistry in record stores. Some people say that he was not a good
businessman. Harvey said that he couldn’t have been a better one. He
accomplished in his life exactly what he wanted, including supporting friends
and family, rather than aiming for pure profit.
I am very much looking forward to the book next year. I expect it to be in the
same category as the writings of the late Mark Tucker, with whom Harvey
Cohen shares many qualities, even his way of teaching and his outlook.
7. Bob Wilber and his wife Joanne Horton (a.k.a. Pug) made the
most moving presentation. They started it with three versions of Jam a Ditty.
The first one was by Ellington, the second by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
and the third by the winners of the 2008 Essentially Ellington contest, the
band of the Roosevelt High School of Seattle. Bob Wilber and Pug attended the
contests in NYC between 15 and 17May of this year. Bob was one of four members
of the jury, together with Wynton Marsalis, David Berger and Reggie Thomas.
1000 bands from the US, Canada and Western Australia participated in the
contest. For the last round 15 bands were selected. The winners of first,
second and third prizes participated in the final concert. You can find their
pictures at www.jalc.org/about/gallery/ee-08.
The whole program is a huge success and the number of young musicians taking
part is growing every year. A promotional film has been prepared, titled
“Chops”. (By the way, chops are vital for playing every instrument, even a
piano.) The documentary was made two years ago at the 11th contest
in NYC. The trailer of this picture was shown on screen. Because the conference
auditorium was very light and couldn’t be made any darker, the film was hardly
visible. If you wish you can see it yourself at www.chopsthemovie.com.
Pug supplied us with a great number of statistics. 200 packs with scores and
recordings were sent to each school this year. The recordings included one of
each selection by the Ellington band and one by the Jazz at Lincoln Center
band. There were 6 different selections. It took the students 8 months to
rehearse. They were youngsters between 16 and 18 years old. The total of
selections used for these contests in the past 13 years is 71. A total of
66.000 scores have been distributed and more than 210.000 students have taken
part in the 13 contests. 3700 Schools were involved. Next year music by Benny
Carter will also be included. Much more information is available at www.jalc.org/jazzED/ee/index.html.
The enthusiasm of Bob and Pug was stimulating and the great success of the
program “Essentially Ellington” is a blessing. David Palmquist spoke a
few words of appreciation for the work Bob and Pug are doing to preserve
Ellington’s music. The applause underlined that we all felt the same.
Since the final contests are held each year in May, it seems to be a golden
opportunity to organise a future Ellington Conference in conjunction with these
rehearsals or concerts. Even if we had to spend the daytime in the concert
hall, we could easily decide to have our presentations in the evening.
8. Bjarne Busk began by asking us to bear with him because he was the
only non-English speaking presenter at the conference. He was mistaken. Arne
Neegaard comes from Norway! Bjarne’s was probably the most entertaining
presentation. He played us a lot of music that almost none of us had ever heard
from the period 1924-1939. Like Bill Hill in California, he is highly
interested in recordings made of Ellington compositions by other bands, and in
tributes to Ellington. In DEMS 05/3-60, Bjarne published his list (Oct05) of
all the Ellingtonia he could trace, even if he had not heard the recordings. An
updated list (Jun08) will be sent to everybody who expressed interest by giving
their name and e-mail address at the Storyville stand.
Bjarne played the following recordings:
Jim Dandy, by the Hungarian orchestra of Sándor Józsi a.k.a. Dajos Béla, 24oct25
Jig Walk, by The
Devonshire Restaurant Dance Band in Great Britain, 10Dec26
Bjarne recommended two CDs for people with an interest in these ancient
recordings: Keith Nichols’ CD “Harlem Arabian Nights” from 1996, on which 13
compositions out of 23 are by Ellington and with Bob Hunt on trombone
(remember Leeds 1997?); and Bob Hunt’s own CD “What a Life”. See DEMS Bulletins
99/4-23/1 and 99/5-6/3.
The Mooch, by Leo Reisman and his Hotel Brunswick Orchestra, in a
Vitaphone film, which was shown on screen. This is probably the only film
showing Bubber Miley although only in silhouette. Recorded Mar29. After
a discussion on Duke LYM, Andrew Homzy does not believe that this was Bubber
Miley.
Misty Mornin’, by Spike Hughes and his Dance Orchestra of Great Britain, 5Nov30.
Next Bjarne showed us a clip from a Dutch newsreel. It contained a very short
part of Duke’s performance claimed to be in Scheveningen on 25Jul33. The date
and the location are wrong. The newsreel text said that it was secretly filmed
at the “Gebouw voor Kunsten and Wetenschappen” (Hall of Arts and Sciences) in
The Hague. This film clip was made on 8Apr39. (According to Joop Gussenhoven
and Ate van Delden the date was 8Apr and not 7Apr as mentioned in Ken Vail’s
Duke’s Diary 1.) I have an old Dutch book, titled “Jazzmuziek”. First edition
Nov39, second edition Jun47 (which is my copy). It was written by Will Gilbert
and Mr C. Poustochkine. At the end of the book are a few pictures, one of which
is exactly identical with what we saw on screen. The caption reads: “Edw.
Ellington orchestra during his latest European tour, performing in the Gebouw
voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen at The Hague (1937 [sic]).” It obviously dates
from 1939. Although Otto Hardwick was supposed to have stopped playing his bass
saxophone by 1939, he still has it with him on stage. The picture shows Rex
Stewart and Wallace Jones. On the film clip the trumpets were too dark to be
identified. The music we hear accompanying the film clip is the final (4th)
chorus of the 14oct39 recording of Little Posey, a further indication
that the year 1933 must be wrong.
The number of recordings of Ellington tunes by others constantly increased in
the early thirties. With the exception of the second half of the year 1933,
more recordings were made in the US than in Europe, approximately 60% as
against 40%.
An example of the recordings, made as a tribute to Duke, is a composition by
Klaas van Beek (van Beeck is wrong), titled Duke’s Holiday. The
recording, made in Dec33 by the Dutch Radio Dance Orchestra “The Ramblers”, was
played.
On 17Nov33, The British band Madame Tussaud’s Dance Orchestra recorded Echoes
of the Jungle.
On 15oct31, Don Redman recorded Shakin’ the African, The first part of
this piece consists of a spoken intro (by Don Redman) over the first strain of
Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo: “Boys, look like we’ve picked out the
wrong spot this evening. Of course this sweet music is all right, but man, we
wanna go where it’s hip,……(?). And I really know a spot too with real
excitement. Take your coat, get out of here, and come along with me. I mean I
gonna take you to a place where it’s just too bad” - and then the music
continues with Shakin’ the African, with some more narration. When Roger
Boyes proof-read my text, he made the remark that the similarity of the
beginning of this piece and Mood Indigo is hardly noticeable.
In his book “Louis Armstrong on the Screen” (1996), Klaus Stratemann’s second
masterpiece, Klaus wrote on page 27-36 about the film “København, Kalundborg
OG? In this film are the three famous clips with Louis Armstrong playing I
Cover the Waterfront, Tiger Rag and Dinah. Also in this 70 minute
film is a clip of Roy Fox and his Orchestra playing It Don’t Mean a Thing.
Bjarne showed us this clip, with a great number of beautiful girls, dressed in
old-fashioned bikinis, as an illustration that we do not exclusively talk
during these conferences. The film was made in London probably in 1933.
The next recording was Mood Indigo, by the British band Nat Gonella and
his Georgians. The name of the band was probably connected with the song Georgia
on My Mind, which was one of the big successes of Nat Gonella in these days
(as I remember vividly). The recording of Mood Indigo was made 13Apr38
in London.
In Apr36, Aage Juhl Thomsens
Orkester from Denmark recorded in Berlin Showboat Shuffle.
Bjarne read a paragraph about Duke Ellington from the book by Martin Goldstein
and Victor Skaarup, titled “Jazz”, Denmark 1934.
The last item in this presentation was the film clip of Ellington and his
sidemen leaving the ferry from Malmö to Copenhagen and a picture of the band
playing in Copenhagen in 1939.
As it was playing we watched in the background our friend Arne Neegaard
struggling with the inadequate presenters’ equipment for his presentation the
next day. He was still doing this when Bjarne concluded his very entertaining
presentation with the understatement: “That’s all there is. Sorry.”
9. The most academic presentation was the one by Professor Andrew Homzy.
Andrew had two dreams: one about the fact that the history of classical music
is based on the composers and the history of jazz music is based on the
performers. The second dream was inspired by statements by Buster Cooper and
Clark Terry, who both described Duke’s orchestra as a University, a graduate
school for musicians. This led Andrew to the idea of identifying several
‘chairs’ in each section of the orchestra, which as in a University had to be
occupied from time to time by a new incumbent, replacing his predecessor in
order to keep the chair occupied and available for Ellington to write for.
Andrew only dealt with the trumpet chairs in his presentation, but his handout
also covered the trombone and the reed section.
For the trumpets he first played West End Blues by Louis Armstrong,
being a hot player, followed by Singin’ the Blues by Bix
Beiderbeck being a sweet-cool player, King Oliver with Dippermouth
Blues as being a bizarre player and Henry Busse as a sweet-legit
player in Way Down Yonder in New Orleans. Andrew now set up four chairs
on the podium, labelled for each of these four categories. Then he started to
discus the trumpet-players in the Ellington orchestra. Bubber Miley was
unquestionably a bizarre player and Arthur Whetsel a sweet-legit. Freddy
Jenkins was a hot player. These three players gave Ellington a choice of
trumpet sounds and styles. When Bubber left, Cootie Williams was
supposed to take his place. Cootie as we all know started as a hot player, but
gradually developed himself into a bizarre player in order to replace Bubber in
that empty chair. When Rex Stewart came in the band, Duke had a second
bizarre player, but this time not so much with the plunger as with his special
half-valve technique. When Wallace Jones came into the band, Duke had
his first sweet-cool trumpet and a full trumpet faculty with four chairs. With
the replacement of Cootie by Ray Nance Duke had a multitude of qualities
at his disposal. Andrew characterised him as hot-plus. He could be hot, play
the violin and sing. Andrew forgot to mention Ray’s qualities as a dancer.
Harold Baker took the chair of sweet-cool and Cat Anderson could
play anything. Andrew called him bizarre-screech. He could play in every style
and he had his own speciality, his high notes. Clark Terry was a
sweet-cool player. The last trumpet player to be mentioned in Andrew’s
presentation was Fred Stone, undoubtedly a bizarre player. Andrew’s
hand-out enables us to play his selections again, but without having them
abruptly cut short (which hurt like an amputation). We can also cover the two
other sections and play the selections chosen by Andrew to illustrate the fact
that in these sections too the diversity of styles was always preserved by replacing
specific players with successors who more or less played in these same four
styles: hot, bizarre, sweet-cool or sweet-legit.
10. The most personal presentation was the first session of the Saturday
afternoon, 24May, devoted to memories of Duke’s 1958 tour through Britain. Peter
Caswell, Roger Boyes and Jack Kinsey told their stories about the
concerts they attended. The presentation was illustrated with the showing of
the DVD of the 1958 Amsterdam concert (DEMS 08/1-10).
Roger Boyes suggested that the entire Ellington tour originated in the 1958
Leeds Music Festival. Leeds Town Hall was completed in 1858 and opened by Queen
Victoria. Now 100 years later, her great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II
was coming to Leeds for this centenary festival, which was organized by her
first cousin Lord Harewood, a great music lover. Lord Harewood’s brother,
Gerald Lascelles who was co-author with Sinclair Traill of publications about
jazz, arranged a programme of jazz concerts. Sinclair made, probably through Stanley
Dance, contact with Duke. Duke wrote later the foreword for the 1959 edition,
volume 3, of the annual publication of Traill and Lascelles, titled “Just
Jazz”.
The band played in Leeds on two different dates at the same venue, the Odeon
Theatre, a movie theatre from the 30ties. The first date was on Monday the
13oct and the second date, 18oct, was the more important one, because it was
when the Queen was in Leeds. On that occasion she couldn’t come to the concert
in the afternoon. But the Duke of Edinburgh and Benjamin Britten, who in the
morning had conducted a Mozart concert, sneaked out of the lunch at Harewood
House and came in during the concert. Late in the evening of that day the
famous Civic Hall reception was held where the Queen and Duke exchanged their
compliments. When Roger spoke about the single record, pressed for the Queen of
“The Queen’s Suite”, Steven Lasker produced a copy of that original LP,
to the great surprise of Roger and everybody else in the audience. Steven would
later that afternoon talk about the rare copies of the Queen’s Suite LP.
The concerts in Manchester were planned to be at the Free Trade Hall, but that
was already booked, so they had to be relocated to the Kings Hall, Belle Vue, a
very large uncomfortable “garage” in the words of Bob Hope. Because this huge
hall could not be filled twice on the same day, there was only one concert in
the end, which turned out to be a terrific bonus for those who didn’t have to
leave to catch a bus (like Peter Caswell whose family had a new car). The
reason is that after the concert the band members gradually returned to the
stage and they played exactly what they wanted. Later Duke himself joined the
group. What a pity that this was not recorded!
Jack Kinsey was very unhappy with the Manchester concert. For a start he had to
catch his bus and so missed the encore session. Also, the sound was terrible.
He very much more enjoyed the London-Kilburn concert. A selection from the
double CD of both Kilburn concerts was played, and then Peter invited the
audience to add their own stories about 1958. One of those who did was Claude
Carrière. It was a great pleasure to meet him for the first time in person
at this conference. Lance Travis also saw the band for the first time in
1958. His recollections are part of the liner-notes of DETS CD Vol 13 (See
08/2-28).
11. The greatest disappointment was the presentation by Arne Neegaard
about Duke’s State Department Tour in 1963. It was not disappointed so much for
us in the audience as upset for Arne himself, who had prepared his talk as a
Power Point presentation, but who had to accept the fact that he couldn’t show
it with the poor equipment that was available at this conference. To compensate
a bit for this shortcoming, Arne had invited Buster Cooper, the only
living soul from the band during the 1963 tour, to assist him. Their
collaboration was obviously unrehearsed. Buster was sometimes in a different
city with his memories than Arne who was trying to follow the itinerary of the
tour.
Arne had chosen the 1963 tour as his subject because of the information he had
received about a forthcoming movie with Morgan Freeman, titled “The Jazz
Ambassadors”. This film in which Morgan will personify Duke Ellington will be
out next year. Shooting starts at the end of this year. Morgan Freeman not only
plays the lead role in the film, he is also involved in the production with his
Morgan Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment. It was found out that the CIA
infiltrated Duke’s entourage. When Duke was in Bagdad to play two concerts, the
people were advised to stay home because of the danger of a coup which actually
took place and which resulted in Saddam Hussein becoming the country’s
dictator.
Jeremy Doner will write the script for the film. Buster Cooper has been
asked to be consultant. The film will concentrate on the relationship between
the black elderly Republican and the 25-year-old white Democrat, the U.S. State
Department escort officer Tom Simons and not Simon as he is wrongly
spelled in Music Is My Mistress. By the way if you make your correction on page
301, go also to page 328, where you can see Tom watching Duke at a water wheel.
This scene was also filmed, but since the “Contessa”, Fernanda de Castro Monte,
was also on the film, it was never released.
The Morgan Freeman film will show the problems with Ray Nance being sent
home because of his behaviour. The State Department was not happy with his
conduct especially since he had a history of drug abuse. The ambassador was
told to send him home. The ambassador told Tom Simons and Tom told Duke what to
do. This resulted in Ray being angry with Duke for a long time. Arne Neegaard
referred to Duke’s chapter about Ray in Music Is My Mistress to show that Duke
for his part was not angry with Ray. The film will also show Duke being happy
to go to Delhi where the Contessa was waiting for him. She created another
problem for the State Department because of the mixed race problem. Another
problem was the fact that Duke would explain in interviews that he had not used
the word jazz since the early forties. The tour had been advertised at great
expense as being by a jazz orchestra.
Both Buster and Arne made the best of the presentation, which despite all the
technical problems was very interesting for the audience, especially the
announcement that Arne still hopes to release his DVD of the concert in Oslo on
8Nov71 (see DEMS 07/3-19) from which the hilarious selection Fife was
shown on screen. It was clear that this black and white video is superb. Arne
is trying to find the remaining 20 minutes of the concert. He told me that it
must exist. Let’s hope he finds it. Anyway now we know why the intro to Fife
was so remarkable. You can see it described in the New DESOR on page 868 in the
description of 7173i, or you can hear it if you have a copy of the audio tape
which is in circulation. But you had to be in the London audience to see on
film what really happened.
Duke many times used the term “courageous performer” when he announced a
soloist for an unexpected performance. We can say that Arne was also a
courageous presenter, being at an Ellington Conference for the first time and
having to struggle along without the doubtlessly perfectly organized
preparations for his talk. Since the end of 2003 he has been a very active
member of the Duke LYM list and although he grew up with Ellington, we as a
community have failed all these years to contact him. Now we have met him in
person. It was a tremendous pleasure!
12. For people like me (the fanatic collectors), the traditional Steven Lasker
presentation is the highlight of each conference. The first recording he played
for us was the off take of Oklahoma Stomp of 29oct29 (Black Tuesday). It
differs from both the –A and the –B take. Duke was playing at that time at the
Cotton Club with the Washboard Rhythm Kings. He took Teddy Bunn on guitar and
Bruce Johnson on washboard with him to the studio for this recording session.
All takes of Oklahoma Stomp were recorded under the title Oklahoma
Stuff. David Palmquist wanted to know what an off take is. It is an office
take, from which only one pressing is made to listen to at the office. Parts
and test were usually destroyed but this one survived.
The next recording was Jive Stomp from 15Apr33. It is the alternate
take. On the label both the –A and the –B are visible. It is in any case much
faster than the well-known release. It was mentioned in DEMS 05/2-12.
The next recording, made in Dec36 in Hollywood, probably immediately after the
Ellington session of 21Dec, was by Ceele Burke with Betty Treadville. The label
number is Variety 600, and the matrix numbers are LO 379 for Baby, Ain’tcha
Satisfied? and LO 382 for I Never Had a Dream. LO 380 and 381 have
never been located. At the Ellington session the last matrix number was LO-378.
It is very possible that one of Duke’s men stayed in the studio and played with
the Ceele Burke group. The alto player, doubling on clarinet, sounds very much
like Johnny Hodges. One could also ask: why would Mills hire a Hodges clone if
Hodges was already in the studio? Steven played first I Never Had a Dream.
After playing both selections, he asked the opinion of the audience. Bob Wilber
guessed that Hodges played in the first selection, but that it was someone else
in the second. I personally believe that if it was Hodges in the first, it was
also Hodges in the second. I gradually changed my mind, inclining towards
Hodges instead of an unknown altoist.
Steven noted that 2008 was also the 50th birthday of the Duke
Ellington Society, started in Los Angeles by Patricia Willard (for the
very first time not present at the Ellington Conference) and Bill Ross.
Now it was time to go a little deeper into the miracle of the LP of The Queen’s
Suite. There is obviously more than one copy in existence, since one is in
Buckingham Palace and Steven had another with him. Apparently Teo Macero,
who died this year on 22Feb, had five copies. With all the rumours about other
copies, Steven estimated that a total of ten copies were pressed.
The second part of Steven’s presentation was dedicated to Ivie Anderson.
He read first an article by Paul Edward Miller published in Downbeat shortly
before Ivie left the band. This article contained the facts as later published
in John Chilton’s “Who’s Who of Jazz”. Steven went on to read to us many more reviews
and articles about Ivie, first from the thirties and later from the twenties.
Not everything in these articles was true, and there were too many for me to
sum up. Steven is considering writing an article about Ivie. We hope that this
plan materializes. Steven concluded his talk with an overview of Ivie’s
marriages and invited Claire Gordon who knew Ivie in person to say a few
words. Claire mentioned that in those days of racism it was not only Duke who
as Harvey Cohen had pointed out, behaved with dignity; Ivie did so too. In 1944
Ivie invited Claire to visit her and to Claire’s surprise had prepared a whole
chicken dinner. That was the last time Claire ever saw Ivie.
Steven Lasker has asked me to forward
these two jpgs to you for the bulletin.
The lacquer letters are minorly intriguing. The mono side is -1A which would
make sense for a very limited run. The stereo is -1D however which I take to be
the fourth cut (from the 1st tape master) of the side. (For a usual issue if
seems they'd cut several to begin with - maybe for different plants - and more
as needed - I might have an incomplete understanding of this!).
Antony Pepper**
14. Brian Priestley took over with a humorous presentation about Duke’s
verbal descriptions of his compositions, both to his musicians and to his
audiences. The instructions he gave to Sam Woodyard to play Half the Fun
and to Clark Terry to play the role of Buddy Bolden are good
illustrations. Brian discussed the difference between programme and abstract
music. It seems that many people gain listening pleasure from the story behind
the title. About Mood Indigo three different stories are known. Blood
Count was first known as Blue Blood. Which title is preferable?
Brian closed his talk by playing East St. Louis Toodle-O from the recently
released double CD AVID Jazz AMSC 937 (see 08/2-32).
15. The third speaker on the last day was Bill Saxonis. As he explained
to us, Bill is not a musician but like myself a pure amateur listener to good
music. Bill has other qualities however. Last April he made his ninth annual
broadcast on the occasion of Duke’s birthday. Thanks to my new computer, I had
the pleasure of listening to this broadcast. It was splendidly done.
Bill is apparently not only an admirer of Duke Ellington but also of Bob
Dylan. He titled his presentation “Ellington’s Sophisticated Folk Music”.
Bill saw many points of resemblance between Ellington and Dylan. He played for
us both the Ellington and Dylan versions of Bob Dylan’s song Blowin’ in the
Wind. It must be nice to find so many similarities between both your
heroes. It was a refreshing perspective and Bill used it for an entertaining
and personal talk.
One of his anecdotes was too good not to be documented: When Louie Bellson was
occupied with marrying Pearl Bailey Ed Shaughnessy replaced him. There were (as
we know) no drum parts. After the performance, Ed went to Duke and said: “Duke
I am not good enough for this band.” Duke answered: “I don’t believe that
anybody is good enough for this band.”
When I tried to find the name of Ed Shaughnessy in the New DESOR to avoid making
any errors in the spelling, I couldn’t. Louie married on 19Nov52 in London.
Benny Aasland was convinced that Ed replaced him during the broadcast at
Birdland on 20Nov52. The New DESOR however mentioned Louie as drummer during
that broadcast. Listening to How High the Moon, Lullaby of Birdland and
Perdido convinced me that Louie was indeed back in time, but it is still a
miracle how he managed to do that. If you have the CD Jazz Unlimited 2036 you
may want to listen to find out whether you agree with me.
16. John Fass Morton couldn’t come o the Conference, but he had prepared
a script for Ted Hudson to read to us. Ted received the text less than
24 hours before he left for London. He told us something about the author. John
is a writer. He writes among other things manuals for the government. His
father is a Navy officer who married an English woman. When John was once in
England, people needed someone with an American accent and John was chosen to
become an actor. He later appeared as an actor in the United States in the Star
Wars films, and, asked if he was able to play the role, he said that it was not
difficult since he was dressed in strange looking outfits and his face was
almost totally covered.
With some doubts, I was looking forward to the presentation. I couldn’t believe
that one could write a whole book about one concert (Newport) and even more so,
concentrating on one single solo (the Wailing Interval). Ted’s
presentation took away some of my doubts. The title of the book is not “The
Backstory to Newport ‘56” as given to the presentation in the London programme,
but “Backstory in Blue — Ellington at Newport ‘56”. Ted supplied us with some
background information. John had worked 6 years on the book. Ted had not read
the whole manuscript. It may be that this is why he spoke of 15 chapters, while
we later learned that there are 20 in the completed book. I know now because in
the meantime I have received a copy of the book to be reviewed in DEMS Bulletin
(see 08/2-8). The book contains 150 photos, many of which have never been
published before. John had planned to show us a few on the screen but yet again
the equipment failed him. I know now that the script for Ted contained parts of
chapters 10, 12 and 14. As of this moment I am still in the process of reading
the book. I must have the review ready for this next Bulletin, which at the
time of writing is on schedule. The book will be on the market in August.
17. The next presentation by Chris Howes was a bit gratuitous. When
Antony was looking for presenters for his Conference, I offered to bring one or
two video tapes, for instance the one with the brilliant presentation by Mark
Tucker in New York 1993, about New World a-Comin’ or the one with
the Television show, “Duke Ellington We Love You Madly” from the Schubert
Theatre in Los Angeles in Jan73. He didn’t accept my offer, maybe because he
didn’t want to spend money on the required equipment or because he realized
that the hall would be totally unsuitable for video presentations anyway.
As a replacement for George Avakian, he invited Chris Howes. Antony
should have told Chris that an introduction to Ellington, well suited for any
other audience would not be of much value for us. It was not Chris’s fault that
he couldn’t tell us much that we didn’t know. He had titled his presentation
“My People”. He had to introduce himself, since obviously nothing was mentioned
in the programme notes and nobody was there to introduce him. He has been a
jazz enthusiast since he was fourteen. He worked for an insurance company, also
as a plumber and he was the last 27 years of his career a teacher at a
secondary school. Since retiring he has lectured about music, from Beethoven to
the Blues. Brian Priestley had taught him to play the piano. He described
Duke’s social attitudes. Duke took care of his family, his musicians, his
audiences and his friends (he mailed 4000 Christmas cards). From an early age
he managed to transcend the grotesque racial stereotype. As an example of this
phenomenon Chris mentioned the song All Coons Look Alike to Me. It was
written and composed by Harry von Tilzer. When I looked for this name on
Google, to be sure to have the spelling correct, I found out that the words and
music of the song were by Ernest Hogan. Harry von Tilzer was indeed a piano player
and a composer but he had nothing to do with the song other than possibly
having played it. A recording by George Gaskin on Berlin Gramophone was issued
in 1896. About the relation of this song to the race question I read the
following: “It is important to note that, in the song, a black person is saying
the words to another black person, not a white person speaking the offensive
words. Moreover, a black songwriter wrote this for black singers to introduce
to audiences (white singers sang it after the song caught on).”
Chris had hoped to show us clips from the 1983 Russell Davies BBC documentary,
“Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra”. He couldn’t do this because he was
on the wrong day for using the video equipment. He possessed only a few clips and
he would like to have a complete copy of the documentary. If he sends his home
address to DEMS, we will take care of it.
He considered the opening song of “A Drum Is a Woman” as being of poor taste,
but he played many selections from the LP. He had noticed a similarity in the
introduction by Sam Woodyard to Half the Fun and to Rhythm Pum te Dum.
Incidentally, the second title was not included in the television show itself,
but only on the LPs.
Chris also mentioned the show “My People”, with Duke’s soap box speech and he
read a transcription of an interview from the late fifties or early sixties by
Ralph Gleason’s Jazz Casual program. What he read out however was actually part
of Duke’s answer about “my people” to a question by Byng Whitteker on 2Sep64 in
Toronto for the CBC television show, “A Gift for Boxing Day”.
From the LP “My People”, Chris played What Colour Is Virtue? He closed
his presentation with the words of John O’Hara in his tribute to George
Gershwin, borrowed by Alistair Cooke for his spoken letter from America for the
BBC in May 1974: “Duke Ellington is dead. I don't have to believe it if I don't
want to”.
18. Between this presentation and the next one a number of people stepped
forward to use the mike.
Jan Falk asked if anybody had a video copy of the Michael Parkinson
interview of 5Jan73. DEMS can only supply an audio copy, which makes it clear
that during the interview clips were shown from the 1965 BBC documentary
“Ellington in Europe”, from the picture “Check and Double Check” (Old Man Blues)
and from the picture “Cabin in the Sky” (Things Ain’t What They Used To Be
and Goin’ Up).
Claire Gordon spoke about the high costs of sending her books
individually from the USA to the UK. She planned to send a supply of books to
DESUK for subscribers who gave their names and addresses to the DESUK stand.
She would send them a letter later with her signature.
George Ward expressed his love for Duke’s music in a very statement.
More time was spent by Lawrence Mirando, who spoke of a 2010 Conference.
He asked me for an audio copy of his “speech”. DEMS will be happy to send one
if he sends us his home-address.
See my comment at the end of this report.
David Palmquist expressed his gratitude for this conference and
plugged his website www.ellingtonweb.ca
with its many branches like http://www.ellingtonweb.ca/Hostedpages/CDCatalogue/CD-Lists.htm
and
http://ellingtonweb.ca/Hostedpages/DoojiCollection/DoojiCollection.htm
19. The last presentation of the day and of the conference was done by Ian
Wellens. He is the leader of the group called Ellingtonia, which was
scheduled to play for us that evening during the dinner party as first of the
usual two bands each evening. His talk gave us a highly revealing look into the
kitchen of a transcriber. After a short career as a furniture maker he was now
involved in keeping Ellington’s music alive. He discussed the problems of doing
this with Michael Kilpatrick and they came up with the analogy of an
ice-cream parlour. Once people have tasted it, they will certainly come back
for more, but the problem is, how to make them come in for the first time?
His talk was titled “14 Into Eight Does Go”. The question is how to play Duke’s
music? Exactly or not? Using eight instead of fourteen musicians is a
compromise: two brass, two reeds and four in the rhythm section (the fourth
being his guitarist, who was too good to be left out). [In my humble opinion
Duke should also have kept a guitarist in his band.]
Playing with a small group was not unusual. Duke did the same thing.
Transcribing the pieces Duke recorded with his complete band into scores for
eight instruments plus the occasional vocal was not easy. It is mostly
guesswork. Then there is the question about possible errors. Ian has had the
same experience which Gunther Schuller once described in one of his
presentations: if you think you have found a mistake, it may be better to keep
it in and not correct it. Ian was not greatly impressed by Duke’s arranging for
small band. He found it a bit lazy. The bridges were mostly based on the
harmonies of I Got Rhythm. A nice example of an exception is Boudoir
Benny with nice cymbal work at the intro.
The backgrounds behind the soloist are another focus of interest. In I’m
Beginning To See the Light the background has a melody of its own. Ian
played I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart where Bigard’s solo and the
background are of equal interest.
It is difficult to write in Duke’s style. Duke’s style is elusive. There are
numerous Ellington styles, which makes it really difficult. Ellington did not
explore the possibilities of a small band to the limit. We hear mostly four
horns together or one horn solo and three others. Much more rarely we hear two
reeds against two brass. Ian uses this solution for imitating the full band; an
example is his transcription for small band of In a Mellotone.
In Bojangles, the relevant bit is the saxophone tune with Blanton
backing, which works perfectly with a small band. Call and response are not
repeated. Not all the recordings are the same. In the studio version of Bojangles
the piano at the intro compared to the same piano at the end shows that there
is a shift of two beats. In the Fargo version there is no shift.
Ian’s goal is keeping alive something like a reasonable representation of
Ellington’s music. The prospects of doing that are however slim. Even with
quite a number of “tribute bands” the whole thing is a niche within a niche.
But Duke’s music is too good not to be played.
At the end of the day, Antony Pepper thanked everyone for coming to his
Conference, for which he took full responsibility. He explained that it was not
a DESUK activity, but Antony is [and all of us are] very grateful for the help
given by DESUK.
20. I conclude this report of the 2008 Ellington Conference with a highly
personal note. In the report I have tried to give you the facts, now I give you
my opinion. I was extremely happy to see many of my old friends again after
many years. I also was excited to meet for the first time several people whose
names are well-known to me from the Duke LYM list. But I was also disappointed with
the Conference itself.
The first conferences were almost exclusively devoted to presentations. In 1983
in Washington we spent the three evenings with a free concert by the Army Blues
Band (thanks to Ray Knight), a film presentation of Duke in Mexico (thanks to
Jerry Valburn for the film and Jack Towers for keeping the machine running) and
on the last evening there was a recital by Brooks Kerr with George Duvivier
(sponsored by Brooks) at the fraternity house. There was no dinner party. We
held the daytime presentations in a local library. You can read the report in
DEMS Bulletin 83/4-5.
The next year we went to Chicago. Musicians, playing for a local festival, who
were so kind as to include some Ellington in their programs, delivered the
music.
The third Conference was in 1985 in Oldham. Those who were there and are able
to make comparisons, say that this was the best conference of all. Dear Eddie
Lambert was astute enough to get the local television company (Granada)
interested in making a documentary of the conference, but for that purpose live
music was required. No problem. Granada paid for the documentary. It was clear
after Ellington ‘85 that it would not be easy for future organizers to go back
to conferences with little live music. I have nothing against change and
progress. I fully accept that the conferences have evolved in the direction of
more music. I am however against spending almost all the money on the luxury of
having two bands each evening, and accepting a very inadequate hall with insufficient
equipment for the presenters, with the end result that we are having to help
out financially to write off losses. I know that not everybody has the same
interest in these conferences. There was even one music lover who only came to
the concerts and the dinner party.
I plead for a reasonable balance between what we do in the daytime and in the
evening. Let us try to find the balance which will attract the greatest number
of participants. That will help to keep the costs as low as possible, and to
avoid losses.
I am also strongly against one-man shows. One man cannot organize an Ellington
conference. (The only exception to the rule is Steven Lasker who almost
single handled organized two successful conferences in Los Angeles.) Organizing
a conference not only requires a group of people, but a group of people who are
able to work well together. It should not be organized without the 100% support
of the local Ellington Society, if there is one. The possibilities for a
conference in New York in the month of May are terrific if we work in
coordination with TDES and the organization of “Essentially Ellington” for the
music and if maybe Wynton Marsalis and/or David Berger would give us a nice
lecture. But I am apprehensive about the steel drum band which our friend Larry
Mirando is dreaming of.
I have not yet said a word about the music in London. I will be brief. It was a
real pleasure to see and hear Buster Cooper, John Lamb and Art Baron. I very
much enjoyed John Lamb’s bass playing, exquisite as ever. I have heard the
trombones of Buster and Art before and better, with less tricks and with more
music.
The two performances of the first evening were rather disappointing. I do not
object to hearing other music than that of Ellington, but I am not prepared to
travel all the way to London to hear it. I shall mention only a few musicians
by name.
Michael Garrick, who talked almost as much as he played, tried to be funny by
quoting from the most despicable book about Ellington, the one by Don George.
On the second evening Michael Kilpatrick gave us a splendid concert. His band
would be my first choice if I had to choose from all the bands involved. Let me
say that I did not stay all day on Monday. I did enjoy Brain Priestley with the
Ellingtonians, who were happily less acrobatic than on previous evenings. Then
I had to catch the Eurostar to bring my grandson back to school. I would have
loved to hear again “Echoes of Ellington”. This band made a tremendous
impression in Leeds. There is only one musician who I want to mention
separately: Simon Wyld, the trombonist of the Vo De O Do orchestra. He
showed impeccable musicianship and full control of his trombone (my favourite
instrument).
I hardly ever offer in DEMS Bulletins my personal opinion. I prefer to confine
myself to facts. I make an exception in this case because I very much regret
the way in which this conference turned out. I am not obliged to support Antony
in clearing his deficit, in order to have the right to express my critique. I
see however no reason for DEMS not to support this 2008 conference in the same
way we supported, on our own initiative, Pittsburgh and Chicago, the two other
cases where the expenses for entertainment were excessive. The equivalent of
1000 USD has been transferred in the meantime to Ellington 2008. (This gives
you at the same time an idea of where the donations go which I occasionally ask
from DEMS members for cassettes or CDs).
Sjef Hoefsmit