DEMS BULLETIN
DUKE ELLINGTON MUSIC SOCIETY
09/1 April - July 2009
Our 31st 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 09/1 April - July 2009 Our 31st Year of Publication FOUNDER: BENNY AASLAND |
Voort 18b, 2328 Meerle, Belgium
Telephone: +32 3 315 75 83
Email: dems1@telenet.be
SAD NEWS
©
Patricia Willard, 2009 Good NEWS DEMS 09/1-7 NEW FINDS NEW BOOKS DVD REPORTS
Frank Dutton
DEMS 09/1-1
See DEMS 08/3-4
I am very sad to hear of the passing of Frank Dutton. During the 1960's, when
he lived in Ruislip, west of London, he and I met frequently to talk and play
records. Apart from his love of Ellington's music, Frank was very keen and
knowledgeable on Lunceford, the Blue Rhythm Band etc. His particular love was
for Duke in the 20's, 30's & 40's and, since I came to the music in the
1950's, mine was at that time for the 50's & 60's. We got along very well
together. Frank was a warm-hearted, generous man, with a great sense of humour
(you will know that from correspondence with him) and I regret that we did not
keep in touch when he went "back home" west to Malvern Link and I
north to Derbyshire & N Wales. I miss his chuckling laugh - he would really
have chuckled to hear that he is regarded as a giant.
Ron Malings
Sue Markle
DEMS 09/1-2
I just received the monthly bulletin from the Jazz Institute of Chicago, where
I learned that Sue Markle died on Dec. 19th. She was a former
president of the Jazz Institute and active in the Ellington conferences along
with Dick Wang. I don't have any further details. I think you knew Sue.
Jo Ann Sterling
I certainly knew Sue. I met her in 1983 for the first time in Washington at the
so-called first International Duke Ellington Study Group Conference. I remember
that when Joe Igo, Eddie Lambert and Klaus Stratemann were presenting their
plans for new books about Duke, Sue stood up and asked if there would not be too
many books about Ellington. She certainly was worried about the capacity of the
market to absorb so many new publications in a short time. I remember Joe Igo’s
response: “There can never be enough books about Duke!”
I cherish my memories of these good friends and especially of several
get-togethers in Sue’s apartment.
Sjef Hoefsmit
Bob Udkoff
DEMS 09/1-3
Saturday's L.A. Times contains a (paid)
obituary for Bob Udkoff, 17Jun17-21Jan09, who "passed away peacefully at
home in Beverly Hills." It mentions that he was "lifelong friend and
associate of Duke Ellington, Joe Williams, Kenny Burrell and many others in the
jazz world."
Steven Lasker
Bob Udkoff was indeed a very close friend
of Duke’s. Along with his wife Evelyn he has his own chapter in Music is My
Mistress (p405). He donated to the Ellington community the tapes with the
recordings made at his 50th birthday party (see DEMS 05/3-15 and
06/1-13). Bob and Evelyn were also present in Norman Granz’s studio when the
recordings were made for the Pablo LP “The Big Four” (see DEMS 08/1-9).
DEMS
Birgit Åslund
DEMS 09/1-4
I would just like to let you know that Birgit Åslund, Benny's wife, died on
February 7. We in DESS learned about this today. The funeral is scheduled for
March 10 at Järfälla church. Some of us plan to participate, and in our next
Bulletin we will publish an obituary.
For the Duke Ellington Society of Sweden,
Anders Asplund
Not long before my friend Ove Wilson died (see DEMS 81/2-7), he arranged for me
to meet Benny Aasland on 31Jan81. Benny invited me for dinner at his home and
it was then that I met Birgit for the first time. Until that moment I lived
with the assumption that Birgit Åslund was Benny Aasland’s secretary because
she wrote the letters to the membership and handled the finances. I assumed
that the similarity of the names was purely coincidental. I was surprised to
learn that she was his wife and Benny explained that Aasland was an error by a
type-setter and that Benny decided to keep it as his pseudonym.
Ever since my first meeting with Birgit I have been astonished by the great
help she gave Benny in running the Duke Ellington Music Society. She was not
only a perfect cook and a lovely wife, but she was also Benny’s greatest
support, especially when Benny got problems with his health. DEMS members owe
her a lot.
Sjef Hoefsmit
Louie Bellson
DEMS 09/1-5
Louie Bellson, composer, innovative
percussionist, bandleader, educator, corporate executive, tap dancer, author,
poet and universally admired good person, died February 14 at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, of complications of Parkinson’s
Disease following a broken hip suffered three months earlier. He was 84.
His musical development began at age three under the tutelage of his father and
progressed through continuing private study, and, from age 17, concurrent
on-the-job absorption in the big bands of Ted FioRito, Benny Goodman, Tommy
Dorsey, Harry James, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and ultimately, his own large
ensemble, tenures with the troupes of Gene Norman’s Just Jazz and Norman
Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic, motion picture soundtracks and thousands of
record dates with nearly every major instrumental and vocal performer.
Louie Bellson was much more than Edward Kennedy Ellington’s favorite drummer,
1951-53.
Repeatedly, in post-midnight telephone calls throughout the 1950s and ‘60s,
Ellington would ask, “What’s the world’s greatest musician doing? Do you think
we can persuade him to come back…to help us out at Basin Street East (December
’54)…for ‘My People’ in Chicago (August ’63)…for our prestigious gig with
Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops and the very important Concert of Sacred
Music at Grace Cathedral and the television projects we’re doing for Ralph
Gleason (July-September ’65)…for our ‘Assault On A Queen ‘ soundtrack for
Sinatra (January ’66)…”
And those were just the entreaties Ellington won.
On November 19, 1952, Bellson married the singer and entertainer Pearl Bailey.
It was she who ultimately convinced him to leave Ellington to become her
musical director and eventually the leader of his own band. Ellington
privately considered her his arch rival, sometimes remarking, “She just
couldn’t stand hearing my band sound so good.” She died in 1990.
Bellson always described his Ellington years as the most illuminating and
rewarding experiences of his life. His psychic/spiritual/extra-sensory rapport
with Ellington was second only to that of Billy Strayhorn’s. Flashes of the
Ellington-Bellson visual and musical connection can be seen and heard in
exchanges on Norman Granz Presents Duke: The Last Jam Session, the DVD
illumination of the LP Duke’s Big Four (with Ray Brown and Joe Pass),
and in the Basin Street West band performances on Ralph J. Gleason’s
documentary Love You Madly (Eagle Eye Media).
Louie was a student of the Japanese martial art of Aikido in which the ki
is the positive force of mental inner strength that can be used physically to
total relaxation and to communication. “I play with intensity but I am
completely relaxed at the same time,” he explained. ”The body vibrations are
really working like mad, and I’m more relaxed at the end of a long solo than
when I began it, Marcel Marceau used Aikido. And the ki worked with
Duke all the time. Often I could even see the vibrations coming from his body,
and I could feel them.”
In 1951, Granz having lured Johnny Hodges and Lawrence Brown from the Ellington
band and Sonny Greer no longer able to withstand the rigors of the road, Duke
was talking to his good friend and former colleague Juan Tizol about
returning. Tizol offered a package—straight out of the Harry James band, which
was down to a one-night-a-week play schedule. Tizol would come back but he would
like to bring his fellow sidemen, the famous alto saxophonist Willie Smith and
the brilliant young drummer Louie Bellson. Ellington had been hearing a lot
about Bellson but had never heard him play. Tizol vouched for him. The deal
was done. The trio gave notice to their boss, whom they genuinely admired,
that they were leaving to join Duke Ellington. Louie swore that James begged,
“Take me with you!” For years, this historical music business defection has
been known as “The Great James Robbery”--originally a reference to post-Civil
War bank and train assaults by notorious Missouri outlaws Jesse and Frank
James.
Bellson had been composing since he was 14 and was eager to learn more from the
masters. He implored Strayhorn to show him how Caravan was
orchestrated. He refused. Tizol convinced Louie to show Duke The Hawk
Talks, written for but never played by James’s band. Ellington immediately
called a recording session, and Louie’s tune became a successful Columbia
Records single. Shortly thereafter, Duke summoned Bellson to the piano,
saying “This is how we voiced Caravan.” Soon Ellington was proclaiming,
“We are proud indeed to have been the first to present him as a musician
extraordinaire in an entire fifteen-minute feature, his own composition Skin
Deep.” That was a piece Bellson had written, then stored in a suitcase in
1948.
At 15, he decided that the only way he could produce the big sound he wanted
was with twin bass drums. “I was ambidextrous,” he related. “I write with
either hand, kick a football with either foot, I’m a switch-hitter in
baseball, and I tap dance. I had to have two bass drums.” His detailed sketch
earned him an “A” in high school art class. He saved for a year to be able to
take his drawings to Slingerland in Chicago. “Even though I had the money to
pay for what I wanted, they acted like I was off my rocker, he related. “The
designers at the factory handed back my sketches and told me, ‘Look, kid,
there’s nobody in the world who would play with two feet. Go back home and
just read Buck Rogers [the comic book space explorer]; don’t try to be
like him!” Seven years later, having triumphed over 40,000 teen-age drummers
to win Slingerland’s Gene Krupa Drum Contest, the drum company built a drum set
to Louie Bellson’s specifications. Ellington was so enthusiastic about the
configuration and the sound that he decreed that all Bellson’s successors in
the band must play drums of the Bellson design.
Less than a year after Bellson became Ellington’s “first chair percussionist,”
Duke decided that Louie deserved to record as a leader and approached concert
impresario/disc jockey/record producer Gene Norman, who knew Louie well.
Norman, later to establish his own GNP and Crescendo labels, at that time had a
recording and distribution agreement with Capitol Records. Capitol accepted
Norman’s proposal with one exception—Louie as leader. The ten-inch LP
was issued on the Capitol label (H348) as Just Jazz All Stars featuring
Louis Bellson. On the back of the sleeve appears the notation that “Louis
Bellson is surrounded by a group of his own choice: Willie Smith, Harry
Carney, Juan Tizol, Clark Terry, Wardell Gray, Billy Strayhorn, Wendell
Marshall, John Graas [French horn].” Repertoire is comprised of two Bellson,
two Strayhorn, one Ellington, one Tizol and two Shorty Rogers numbers.
Norman’s brief liner notes acknowledge that, on The Jeep is Jumpin’,
“Ellington himself set the mood and tempo from the booth.” Actually, Ellington
produced the entire February 1952 session at Radio Recorders Annex in
Hollywood, California, and with an extremely significant, lasting imprint. He
picked one dramatic drum figure that Louie improvised on Rogers’s Sticks,
and advised his protégé, “Louie, every artist should have an signature. In
music it must be a unique sound that the listener will always identify with
you. You just played yours. I’m going to play back this take for you.
Remember it. This figure says Louie Bellson! Always incorporate it into your
performances from this day on.” Louie complied.
Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni was born July 6, 1924 at
Rock Falls, Illinois to Italian immigrants Louis Balassoni from Naples and
Carmen Bartolucci Balassoni from Milano. The elder Balassoni preferred the
name Louis. The son detested the name and preferred Luigi. To
him Louie was an acceptable compromise. “Louie is a good nickname for Luigi,”
he said. “I am Louie or I am Luigi. I am not Louis!” The public couldn’t get
it, and throughout his life and on many record albums, his Louie inevitably was
changed to Louis. Some said it was a demonstrated respect. He hated it.
Balassoni became Bellson when customers of the father’s music store could not
remember and rarely could spell the ethnic version. For many years and in many
publications, Bellson’s birthdate was erroneously listed as July 26, 1924
because of a typographical error in Leonard Feather’s original The Encyclopedia
of Jazz, published in 1955. Despite many entreaties to correct it in
subsequent editions, Feather refused on the grounds of “I do not make
mistakes!”
Belllson wrote more than 1,000 compositions and arrangements and more than a
dozen books on drums and percussion, was honored by the American Society of
Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) by its Jazz Living Legends Award with
his name inscribed on its Jazz Wall of Fame and by the Living Legend Award from
the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and four honorary
doctorates. He was voted into the Halls of Fame for both Modern Drummer
magazine and the Percussive Arts Society. Yale University named him a Duke
Ellington Fellow in 1977. He was recognized by the National Endowment for the
Arts with a Jazz Masters Fellowship, by the Avedis Zildjian Company with its
American Drummers Achievement Award. His recordings were nominated for five
Grammys by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. His papers are
archived at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. For several decades, he
served as vice president of Remo, Inc., the drum manufacturer. His last
recordings were The Sacred Music of Louie Bellson and The Jazz Ballet
and Louie & Clark Expedition 2 with Clark Terry. He is survived by
his wife of 16 years, the former Francine Wright, and by daughters Dee Dee
Bellson, a singer, and Debra Hughes; two grandsons; brothers, drummers Tony and
Henry Bellson, and sisters, Mary Selhost and Josephine Payne, a retired
dancer. A son, Tony Bellson, also a drummer, died in 2004.
We are extremely grateful that Patricia Willard accepted our invitation to
write an obituary for Louie Bellson in DEMS Bulletin. Nobody could have done it
better.
DEMS**
Clark Terry
DEMS 09/1-6
Clark Terry has been discharged from the Jefferson Regional Medical Center in
Arkansas on Tuesday, March 3rd. He went into the hospital right after the
inauguration. He had a finger-bone-tip infection on the middle finger of his
right hand — “the finger I use to play with”. He is looking forward to playing
again in April. Please go to Clarkterry.com for information on performances.
Your readers may communicate with Clark via his website. All communication will
be welcome and appreciated.
Clark's autobiography is now in the hands of his agent. Clark will select a
title, and a publication date will be announced as soon as possible.
It was such a pleasure to learn about DEMS, and we appreciate Patricia
Willard for introducing us to you.
Gwen and Clark Terry
Echoes of Ellington Conference
Here is the conference web link:
http://www.music.utexas.edu/echoesofellington/index.html
The “Echoes of Ellington” web page includes a full agenda and biographies of
the presenters. The conference has a strong academic bias..... in fact I am one
of only a few speakers not associated with a university.
Bill Saxonis**
Visiting this website gives you all details of the conference in Austin, Texas
from 15 until 17Apr09.
DEMS**
Treasures from South
Africa
DEMS 09/1-8
See DEMS 08/3-6
Another “NEW FIND” in the Jerry Valburn collection is a recording, made on
12Aug70 at the Rainbow Grill and planned to be used for a broadcast on 15Aug70.
It is justifiable to assume that what we have on the second date (15Aug) is
taken from this pre-recording (of 12Aug), the more so, since in both recordings
there was a promotion for Treasury Bonds. But that is not the case. The four
selections from 15Aug, numbered DE7072 in the New DESOR, are all very different
from the recording made on 12Aug, and the Bonds promo comes at a another point.
The 12Aug pre-recording looked as follows:
Meditation
Take the “A” Train
Second Line
Bourbon Street Jingling Jollies
Aristocracy A La Jean Lafitte
Bonds promo
Thanks for the Beautiful Land on the Delta
Satin Doll (dedicated to Agnes O’Neal, who was in the audience)
Sophisticated Lady
See for this New FIND Correction-sheet
1093
Lance Travis and Klaus Götting
DEMS 09/1-9
“Duke Ellington: His
Life in Jazz” by
Stephanie Stein Crease c.2009, Chicago Review Press
$16.95 / $18.95 Canada 148 pages Courtesy Photo
From the Washington Informer Book Review:
While “Duke Ellington: His
Life in Jazz” is a good book and quite interesting for a grown-up, it’s meant
for kids nine and up. In the first chapters, author Crease draws parallels
between Ellington’s life and that of children today, which gives kids a bit of
a reference point.
By the middle of the third chapter, though, Crease has gone into territory that
could tend to lose a kid’s interest: band members, who played where, and other
information better suited for the child’s grandparents than the child.
If your older child – say, 12-to-17 – loves a variety of music, this book will
quickly become a favorite. For them, “Duke Ellington: His Life in Jazz” is out
of this world.
Terry Schlichenmeyer
Ellington Uptown - Duke Ellington,
James P. Johnson, and the Birth of Concert Jazz
DEMS 09/1-10
See DEMS 08/3-7
7Mar09. The release of "Ellington Uptown - Duke Ellington, James P.
Johnson, and the Birth of Concert Jazz" was to have been this week. The author,
John Howland, tells me the publisher told him that due to a production delay,
the release has been delayed until March 13. Here's a link to the publisher's
website:
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=211239
Ken Steiner**
John Howland will be a speaker at the “Echoes of Ellington” Conference (see
DEMS 09/1-XX).
Visit this web-site for all the details about this book.
DEMS**
PARIS BLUES on DVD
DEMS 09/1-11
See DEMS 06/2-16
I found a new DVD of “Paris Blues”: Optimum Classic OPTD 1348. It is a British
release from 2008. The address is www.optimumreleasing.com.
I bought it on Amazon. The recording is impeccable, but that was to be expected
from the original MGM material.
Georges Debroe
Check and Double Check
DEMS 09/1-12
There is a fascinating New Discoveries piece of Ellington to report.
Mark Cantor, the knowledgeable film researcher, has just visited UCLA's film
archive in Southern California where a French print of Check and Double Check
has been found. ALL the Ellington portions of the film are DIFFERENT takes from
the ones we've been used to seeing.
Jerry Valburn
Back in August-September 1930, when the film was produced, RKO used a standard
three-camera set up for each scene. What we now know, however, is that after
each scene was photographed, it was re-shot again, without any changes, using
the same three cameras, script, blocking, etc. When the photography was
complete, the film was edited into two features, very similar, but with slight
differences in delivery of lines, pacing, editing choices and so forth. In
other words, there were two unique versions of the same feature produced in
1930.
Exactly why two versions of the same feature were produced is still a mystery.
While the second version may have been distributed to Great Britain, it is not
a foreign language version per se. It has been suggested that RKO felt the need
for an alternate printing negative due to the extraordinary popularity of Amos
and Andy, and the anticipated need for extra prints, but this is pure
speculation at present. The only fact is that two versions of the film are
extant!
The most important aspect of this discovery for the jazz research and for the Duke
Ellington community is that all of the music in the second version, on both
screen and soundtrack, is new and unique. The coverage of the band is
slightly different, with a little less Ellington, a beautiful close up, clear
and precise, of Johnny Hodges on his soprano sax, Jenkins hidden for a few
seconds behind the curtains, and so forth. While Freddie Jenkins' solo follows
the lead of his first take, it is less precise and not as well executed.
However, both Carney and Hodges are effusive and articulate; it is a real joy
to hear what are effectively alternate film takes on the featured numbers.
I don't know about plans to release this on DVD yet. It wouldn't be until later
in the year at the earliest, but I will keep the [Ellington] groups informed
about any progress in this direction.
Mark Cantor
DEMS 09/1-13
On April 7, 2009 Universal Studios will release a DVD box set called: Pre-Code
Hollywood Collection, including the 1934 Paramount (89 min. B/W) movie:
Murder at the Vanities. Good news for people who do not own or if they do, want
to replace their 1998 released Universal VHS tape! (The song Marijuana is great
and can be found on YouTube)
Fantastic hearing Duke and his Orchestra jazzing up Liszt’s Second Hungarian
Rhapsody in -Ebony Rhapsody- (it’s a pity only one-half of the number is
featured in the film). This box (in NTSC format, with subtitles in English,
French and Spanish) contains 5 other films from pre-Code period (1929 to
mid-1934 in which censorship barely existed). The Cheat (1931); Merrily We Go
to Hell (1932); Hot Saturday (1932); Torch Singer (1933); Search for Beauty
(1934) and a bonus feature: Forbidden Film, The Production Code Era. The
complete soundtrack is not yet released.
Milo van den Assem
Newport Jazz Festival, 8Jul62
DEMS 09/1-14
See DEMS 05/2-15 and 08/3-29
We are reasonably sure that the Newport Jazz Festival 8Jul62 which was earlier
released on a DVD Bach Films EDV1508 DIV 666 can now be found on the DVD
Quantum Leap QLDVD-0373. The list of names of the musicians is the same on
both, and in both cases Ruby Braff’s name was spelled Ruby Briff.
DEMS