The Spring Issue of the DESS Bulletin has arrived in the mailbox of DESS members.
As usual it is of interesting articles, most of them written by the energetic Bulletin editor and DESS President, Bo Haufman.
The cover artist in the new issue is Joya Sherrill.
In a five-page article, Haufman portraits The Ellington Songbird, as he calls her. He tells how the seventeen years old Sherrill came to join Ellington in the summer of 1942 (in July Sherrill says herself but according to TDWAW it was in August). It was a short stay of four months since she had to go back to school.
Two years later, she was back with Ellington but stayed only for 15 months because she was getting married.
However, she was one of Ellington’s favorite singers and he called her back on special occasions like for A Drum Is A Woman and My People. According to the article, she was offered to take part in The Sacred Concerts but she turned it down.
The article also covers Sherrill’s recording career with Ellington and on her own as well as her television career and participation in Ellington conferences.
Other articles by Bo Haufman’s in the Bulletin are among others “Duke Ellington och hans djungel”, Duke Ellington Swinging the classics”, “Check Webb oh Duke Ellington”.
Bo has also found time to write an article about Gerald Wilson based on “The Jazz Pilgrimage of Gerald Wilson, which was publsihed a couple of years ago.
In conclusion, another issue of the DESS Bulletin full of good reading.