A busy night at the Hurricane
We are continueing our presentations of rare broadcast recordings from the Hurricane in 1943. Here is a file with 35 minutes of music by Duke Ellington & His Orchestra.
Starting with a Mutual broadcast from May 1943, (Desor4315a-e)) where a couple of new names appear in the sax section, Sax Mallard on clarinet and alto sax, and Scotty Scott on alto, replacing Otto Hardwicke. The first tune is Cabin In The Sky, unfortunately incomplete, but with a nice solo by Ben Webster, followed by In A Mellotone and I Don’t Want Anybody At All, sung by Betty Roché. Two more numbers from this session are Barzallai Lou with a cornet solo by Rex Stewart and Don’t Get Around Much Anymore which was commonly played at this period to round off the broadcasts. Of these, Cabin In The Sky and Barzallai Lou have been previously issued on on LP, Caracol-435.
Next, we have a date from July 14, also A Mutual bc, with only one tune, Barzallai Lou, but this time the trumpet solo is by Harold Baker, who also during this period played with the orchestra. A comparison with Rex Stewart’s performance is interesting.
The third broadcast is from CBS on September 11, (Desor 4352). The session is not complete, (a and c missing), but it starts with Betty Roché and Go Away Blues, followed by West Indian Dance. At this date there are some more new names in the personnell, namely Bernard Archer on trumpet, Jimmy Hamilton (cl, ts), Nat Jones (cl,as) and Skippy Williams (ts). Ben Webster had recently left. Unders these circumstances the next number, Cottontail, sounds very exciting. Skippy Williams plays some very good solos on this number. On The Sands Of Time is a sentimental solo number for Lawrence Brown, followed by Ray Nance’s singing and soloing on A slip Of The Lip. Don’t Get Around Much Anymore rounds off this broadcast. On The Sands Of Times has previously been issued on a rare LP, Temple M-554.
The last session from Hurricane this time is from CBS in September 1943 (Desor 4355a-c). It starts with Take The A Train (n. c.) and continues with Someone (AKA Blue Again) and ends with Jump For Joy and in all cases Ray Nance is heard on trumprt. The two latter tunes have previously, but long time ago, been issued on White Label.