In Bombay 10 Oct 1963, part 1

Our previous article on Ellington’s long tour of Middle East, Central East and Far East ended with his arrival in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. He, the orchestra and his entourage stayed there for tree days and then went to India for his tour there. It started in New Delhi, where Ellington spent some days partly sick.  From New Delhi, the tour continued to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Madras and then Bombay.

Ellington etc arrived in Bombay in the late evening of 8th October. The first concert in Bombay was scheduled for the next evening and there was apparently a strong interest in getting tickets. It took place at the open air amphitheatre Rang Bhvan at 6:30 p.m. The concerts were 90 minutes long with no intermission. Simons wrote the acoustics were poor and the audience did not take kindly to the late start nor to the shortness of the programme. Ellington played only the Medley, leaving Strayhorn to cover the piano part for the rest of the performance.

The concert was repeated the next day. This time Ellington also played Diminuendo In Blue and Wailing Interval in addition to the Medley

The website is happy to have a copy of the complete 80 minutes concert and present the first part of it in this article.

It includesTake Thé A Train, Afro Bossa, Stompin’At The Savoy, Lullaby Of Birdland, Silk Lace, Tutti For Cootie, I Got It Bad, Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, All Of Me,The Eighth Veil, Jam With Sam and C-Jam Blues.

Interesting  solo parts are the ones with Rolf Ericson in Stompin’ At The Savoy and Lullaby Of Birdland, Jimmy Hamilton in Silk Lace and Afro Bossa, Johnny Hodges in All Of Me and I Got It Bad and Cat Anderson in The Eighth Veil.

Here are five of them.

The full part 1 is available in the Goodies Room

Author: Ulf Lundin and Anders Asplund

Concert and music comments by Anders Asplund