The third ”goodie” for January is program 21 in the Duke Ellington series broadcasted by the Danish Radio in the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The broadcast is available in the “Goodies” section of the website.
The program was broadcasted on June 14, 1985 and the announcer is Bjarne Busk
The program is focused on “stockpile” recordings. It starts with a selection from one in February 1957.
It is a little bit unusual since Ellington added a choir to the band in some of the tunes recorded. We hear “Take The ‘A’ Train” and “Perdido” in this format. Paul Gonsalves was quite featured in this recording session and the broadcasts let us hear an unusual version of “Moon Mist” with Gonsalves as soloist.
The broadcast then continues with the “stockpile” session, from March 19, 1956. Selections from this session have been included in earlier broadcasts. This time we hear “Miss Lucy” and “Prelude To A Kiss” with the full band with solos by Ray Nance and Johnny Hodges respectively.
Next, the broadcast moves to the July 18, 1963 “stockpile” session. Busk has selected an untitled blues for the listeners. In NDESOR and other discographies it is called “July 18th Blues”.
Finally, the broadcast ends with two selections from the stockpile session of June 6, 1962 – “Cottontail” with Jimmy Hamilton as soloist and “Taffy Twist” with Ray Nance and – once again – Jimmy Hamilton soloing.
“Taffy Twist” is a Mercer Ellington composition and in the broadcast he tells how it became included in “The River” ballet suite. Earlier in the broadcast, Mercer had talked about the relationship between Ellington and Paul Gonsalves.