The 5th Ellington Study Group Conference took place in Toronto May 16–18, 1987 and was organized by the Toronto Chapter of The Duke Ellington Society founded in 1959 by Rhea Anger, “a close friend of Duke Ellington”.
The Metropolitan Toronto Council declared May 11-17 Duke Ellington Week and the conference was framed in this context
The conference had an impressive program. It had 23 presentations and four concerts. Among the presenters were JerryValburn, Mark Tucker, Maurice Peress, Helen Dance, Bill Hill, Andrew Homzy, Sjef Hoefsmit, Alice Babs, Ron Collier, Erik Wiedeman, Jack Towers and Stanley Dance.
Aaron Bell and BootyWood were Ellington alumnies in The Ellington ’87 All Stars, whicj also included who partiicipated in the evening concerts together with among others Ray Bryant, Doc Cheatham, George Kelly, Jim Galloway and Gus Johnson.
Eddie Lambert died of cancer before the conference and was honored in the program and at the start of the conference.
Below is the video of the opening of the conference and Jerry Valburn’s remembrance of Eddie Lambert.
A selection of the conference presentations will be published this month and in February and March.
Author: Ulf Lundin