Malmö, 25 October 1973
Merry Christmas to all DESS members!
What we are about to present to you, is a Christmas Gift consisting of mainly unissued and partly undocumented music by Duke Ellington and his orchestra
We are temporarily leaving the chronology for the concerts in Sweden and jumping forward to October 25th in Malmö. The reason for this is that this miserable year will soon come to an end and that we feel should at least bring something good, in the end. This is why we would like to share with our members two concerts from Malmö from the above date. These concerts have never been issued in their entirety before. The only existing commercial issue, Caprice CAP 21599 consists of a mixture of numbers from the first and second concerts.
This week we start with the 1st concert from Malmö.
The orchestra now has the following members to support the maestro: Money Johnson, Johnny Coles, Barry Lee Hall. Mercer Ellington, Rolf Ericson on trumpets, Vince Prudente, Art Baron, Chuck Connors, Åke Person on trombones, Russell Procope, Harold Minerve, Harold Ashby, Percy Marion, Harry Carney reeds and Joe Benjamin on bass and Rocky White on drums. In addition to these, Alice Babs, Anita Moore and Tony Watkins are participating vocalists. The concert producer George Wein is heard briefly at the piano and so is Nils Lindberg.
The Program is as follows: *C-Jam Blues*Take The A Train & intro*Kinda Dukish & Rockin’ In Rhythm*Creole Love Call*Caravan*In Duplicate*New York, New York*I Got It Bad*Blem*Chiniserie*Basin Street Blues*Medley*Serenade To Sweden*Checkered Hat*Spacemen*Jeep’s Blues*There’s Something About Me*Somebody Cares*Things Ain’t What They Used To Be*Satin Doll* Titles in bold have not been issued commercially before.
Anita Moore sings New York, New York
The October 1973 version of the Ellington orchestra includes a few new names that we haven’t met in Sweden before. In the trumpet section we now have a. o. Barry Lee Hall, Johnny Coles, Rolf Ericson together with Money Johnson and Mercer Ellington. Art Baron, Vince Prudente play together with Chuck Connors and Åke Persson in the trombone section. Percy Marion on tenor replaces Paul Gonsalves and Quentin White is the new drummer.
The complete program is as follows: *C-Jam Blues*Take The A Train & intro*Kinda Dukish & Rockin’ In Rhythm*Creole Love Call*Caravan*In Duplicate*New York, New York*I Got It Bad*Blem*Chinoiserie*Basin Street Blues*Medley*Serenade To Sweden*Checkered Hat*Spacemen*Jeep’s Blues*There’s Something About Me*Somebody Cares*Things Ain’t What They Used To Be*Satin Doll* and Duke announces the most of the numbers and soloists in his unimitable manner.
Already in the opening number, C-Jam Blues, we are able to hear two new solo voices, Barry Lee Hall on trumpet and Percy Marion on tenor. Harry Carney and Russel Procope (the former also on bcl) are heard on clarinets as well as Money Johnson and Rolf Ericson on trumpets in Creole Love Call. Caravan features Rocky White on drums and Harry Carney on baritone. In Duplicate, which, depending on the number of the solists, is called In Triplicate or In Quadruplicate, on this occasion presents Åke Parsson on trombone and Harold Minerve on alto sax and piccolo flute. The next few numbers are vocals by Anita Moore, and after that Harold Ashby gets the solo responsibility in Chinoiserie. Basin Street Blues follows with Money Johnson sounding like old Satchmo himself.
Alice Babs then participates in no less than six numbers: Serenade To Sweden, Checkered Hat, Spacemen, Jeep’s Blues,There’s Something About Me and Somebody Cares. What a great voice!
The program ends with Things Ain’t What They Used To Be and Satin Doll.
We hope you’ll enjoy it, just make a vist to the Goodies Room!