A new set of programs with Ellington material from the Mercer Ellington donation was put on the air by Danish Radio in the Spring of 1991. The first one was broadcasted on March 26, 1991. It was produced and presented by Bjarne Busk.
It is the the second “goodie” this month and is available in the ”Goodies” section of the website.
The program starts with a nice selection.
In the Mercer donation, Busk had found a record with three songs from Ellington’s six weeks engagement at Trianon Ballroom in Southgate, California in April and May 1942. It starts with Ivie Anderson singing The One You Love Belongs To Somebody Else. It is the only documented occasion when this song was performed by the Ellington band but it might have been performed on other occasions as well.
Next comes the first part of Body And Soul featuring Harry Carney and Herb Jeffries. Unfortunately, it is not complete. Missing is the end of Jeffries singing and the bridge by Ellington and Greer. Perhaps there was not enough space on the disc.
When Busk turns it over, Body And Soul continues with part two – an uptempo version played by Ben Webster. This fades into the station signing off followed by a Take The A Train theme. The NDESOR numbers are DE4206a-c
After the visit to Trianon Ballroom, Busk jumps almost 30 years to a 1971 stockpile recording session in New York City. Busk gives the date as May 14 while NDESOR lists it as from May 13.
The session starts with Nell Brookshire (aka Bobbie Gordon) singing Lover Man. She was with Ellington from the end of December 1970 to mid-February 1972.
Only one of the three takes is a rather full version. Take 6, which is not included in the broadcast, has been issued by Storyville on the Togo Brava Suite CD (STCD 8323).
The May 13, 1971 section of the brodcast ends with Ocht O’Clock Rock (-8 brk and -9) and Charpoy (-10) with Wild Bill Davis as solist.
Ocht O’Clock Rock (-9) is the version included in the original Afro-Eurasian Eclipse LP (Fantasy 9489).
Next comes selections from another 1971 stock pile session, this time the one from the February 11. It is a session basically dedicated to Afro-Eurasian Eclipse material but also some other songs were recorded.
The first selection is two tune with no titles. In NDESOR, they are listed as Blues No. 17 (DE7106a-b). The first one is a very short false start but the second is a full version. Busk says that theme of the 12 bar blues reminds him of the theme of Miles Davis Freddie Freeloader. Anyhow, Norris Turney is the solist but Rufus Jones makes himself very present as well.
13 takes of Gong were recorded in the session and Busk plays six of them (-1fs), -2, -4fs, -5brk, -6 brk, 7 brk, 8 fs and -15).The last one is a six minutes full version with Wild Bill David, Duke Ellington and Paul Gonsalves as soloists. None of the recordings of Gong in the February 11 session have been issued.
The last selections from February 11 are three incomplete versions of Tang (-17brk, -18brk and -19brk).
The broadcast ends with the version of Tang included in the Afro-Eurasian Eclipse album. It was recorded on February 17, 1971.