After Helsinki, Ellington and the orchestra went to Stockholm where they were going to have a busy period. On 6 February, they played two evening concerts at the Stockholm Concert Hall. (Konserthuset)
The first concert starts with Simon Brehm, who was responsible for the whole Swedish tour. He welcomes the audience and introduces Ellington. Then the band starts to play Take The “A” Train. Ellington enters the stage and the concert is in full swing. Then we hear Afro-Bossa (aka Boola), Kinda Dukish & Rockin’ In Rhythm and Silk Lace with Jimmy Hamilton as soloist.
The rest of the program is Eighth Veil, Pyramid, Asphalt Jungle Theme, Guitar Amore, Cop Out & Cop Out Extension, Jam With Sam, Stompy Jones, New Concerto For Cootie, Tootie For Cootie, Star-Crossed Lovers, Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me, Dancers In Love into close
The second concert is also introduced by Simon Brehm. He apologies to the audience that the second concert starts quite late because the first concert lasted longer than planned.
The program is the same as for the first concert except that One More Once (Encora Bossanova) and C Jam Blues replace Dancers In Love.
The first hour of the second concert was identical to the full first first concert but the second hour was totally different. Then the band played Stompy Jones, New Concerto For Coote, Tootie For Cootie, Star-Crossed Lovers, Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, Perdido, The Blue, Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me, One More Once (Encora Bossanova), C Jam Blues and Take The A Train & close.
Here is Stompy Jones, New Concerto For Cootie, Star-Crossed Lovers and C Jam Blues from the second concert.
The solists in C Jam Blues are Ray Nance, Cootie Williams, Paul Gonsalves, Buster Cooper and Jimmy Hamilton.
After the second concert, which must have ended about 11 pm, band members went out to jam. Cat Anderson went to Gyllene Cirkeln just a short walk from Stockholm Concert Hall to play with a small group with Walter Bishop at the piano, XXX at bass and Sune Spångberg at drums. “He played a surprisingly good swing trumpet” said Lennart Östberg in Orkesterjournalen. Buster Cooper went to Nalen to jam as he might have done when he visited Stockholm as member of the Lionel Hampton band in 1953.
Author: Ulf Lundin
Recordings provided by: Anders Asplund