Full blast at the Hurricane!
We follow up our series with unissued Ellington broadcasts from the Hurricane Restaurant in 1943 with two more.
They are from the end of Ellington’s tenure there. Both are from September 1943. Ellington and the band were to leave the Hurricane that month, playing their last gig on September 23. However, they would come back on March 30, 1944 for a longer stay.
The first broadcast that we present is of unknown origin (DE4356) and with a rather low sound quality. It is however of interest for the fact that a compositition by Wallace Jones is used, Until It Happened To You (Me) and also for nice bass plying by Junior Raglin on Jack The Bear. We can also hear one of the first recordings of On The Sunny Side Of The Street with solos by Johnny Hodges and Lawrence Brown.The next one is a CBS broadcast, also from September (DE4357). After the intro, a new number in the Ellington book appears, Do You Know? written by L Sarony, with a trumpet solo by Ray Nance (sounding like Harold Baker?). Betty Roché sings Go Away Blues in her inimitable way and Rockin’ Rhythm follows. Al Hibbler presents a new tune written by Mary Lou Williams, Ghost Of Love. During this time Mary Lou cooperated with Duke and wrote some arrangemants for the orchestra, Trumpets No End being the most famous. What Am I Here For follows before we can listen to Ray Nance and Taft Jordan in It Don’t Mean A Thing. The broadcast ends with Johnny Hodges playing in Sentimental Lady.
To summarize, the following numbers are played:
DE 4356a-e: *Take The A Train (n.c.)*Until It Happened To You(Me)*Jack The Bear*On The Sunny Side Of The Street*Cotton Tail (n.c.)
DE4357a-i: Take The A Train (n.c.)*Do You Know?’Go Away Blues*Rockin’ In Rhythm*Ghost Of Love*What Am I Here For*It Don’t Mean A Thing*Sentimentsl Lady*Don’t Get Around ( a few bars)*