Concerts in Stockholm 1966
In our endeavor to publish Duke Ellington’s concerts in Sweden in chronological order, you will have noticed that the only surviving concert from 1965 was extensively covered in three different articles in April-May 2017. We will therefore continue with events in Stockholm 1966. That year there were two concerts at the Stockholm Concert Hall (Konserthuset) on February 7 and a televised concert from Cirkus on February 8, which we previously have presented in videoformat. The two concerts in the Concert Hall have never been issued on record, nor have have we presented them in these pages, but some numbers have found their way on LP records.
The 1966 tour was organized by Norman Granz and in the concerts the time was divided more or less equally by Duke and his orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald and her trio.
Cotton Tail with Ella Fitzgerald
We here present parts of the first concert (we have left out the parts where Ellington is not present in order to avoid a too large music file) in the Goodies Room. We have no evidence of this part ever being broadcast, in contrast to the second concert which was indeed broadcast by SR.The program you will hear is as follows:
*Introduction by Norman Granz*Take The A Train*Soul Call*West Indian Pancake*El Viti*The Opener*La Plus Belle Africaine*Veldt Amor*Magenta Haze*Things Ain’t What They Used To Be*Wings And Things*Cottontail*Imagine My Frustration*Duke’s Place*Azure*
There were remarkably few changes in band personell between the visits in 1965 and 1966 – Ray Nance had left the band for good in the summer of 1965. Ella Fitzgerald participates in the last four numbers.
A surprisingly large part of the program consists of recent or near recent compositions such as West Indian Pancake, La Plus Belle Africaine, Wings And Things and Veldt Amor, all new in 1966 and El Viti from 1965 and Soul Call and The Opener from 1964. It is therfor interesting to note that Magenta Haze and Azure have reappeared (at least temporarily) in the concert repertoire.
Happy listening!