The postman delivered the Autumn 2024 issue (Volume 31.2) in the middle of the summer. 50 pages full of interesting articles as always. Thank you, Gareth!
I am happy to see that Roger Boyes is back with another article in his long series about Duke Ellington in the 1940’s. It is a six and half pages detailed report on Duke Ellington On The Road and in New York Summer of 1945.
He starts his article with Ellington leaving the New York area n 4th AprilIn the middle of May 1945, the Ellington Orchestra finally the New York area where it had been based since the opening at 400 Restaurant on 4th April to go on tour in the mid West and continue the Treasury broadcasts.
The next part of the article is particularly about Billy Strayhorn (A Strayhorn sequence) followed by one about the recordings for Victor and World Broadcasting.
After this, the Blue Light reader can learn about “The Magazine Suite (Perhaps)” – the name sometimes used for the three ” blues-based pieces” Ellington recorded on 14th July, 1945 – Downbeat Shuffle, Esquire Jump and Metronome All Out.
The last part of Boyes article is about the Alistair Cooke Broadcast.
Thank you Roger! There is so much to learn from your series.
Another highlight in the new issue is the transcription of an interview of Lawrence Brown that Danny Caine did with him in the summer of 1982. It took place “when he was on his backstage job at the Century City production of Sophisticated Ladies after its Broadway run had closed.”
It is a interview full of the bitterness one has heard about. A couple of quotes:
“The best things about my years in this business was the experience of travel and meeting people all over the world. I had a very deep dislike of Ellington.”
“They don’t pay you fair, and that’s for a certain reason. I first stayed with it because I came from here (i.e.California). I started to go back the first year, but if I had quit and gone back, the West would have seen me as someone who couldn’t succeed. So I had to stay, whether I wanted to or not”.
Brown expands on his dislike for Ellington later in the interview.
” I did not like Ellington. I had him figured from the beginning. I’m from out here (i.e. California). I went to school in Oakland, San Francisco, Pasadena, all around here. To me, the trombone should be played with beauty, just like any other instrument.”
Get the new Blue Light and read more of what Lawrence Brown had to say in the interview!
A third major article is Ellington Tempos by the writer for Jazz Journal and other jazz magazines Graham Colombé. It is quite short, only two and half pages, but there is a lot to learn from it.
He has analysed the tempi in some well known Ellington compositions and it is very interesting what he has come up with.
Here is one example.
In André Hodier’s Toward Jazz, there is an article titled Why Did Duke Ellington Remake His Masterpiece. The masterpiece is of course Ko Ko, which Hodier hailed in his book Hommes Et Problème du Jazz from 1954. The Swedish version (1956) was called Jazzens Musiker 0ch Idéer.
In Toward Jazz, Hodier compares the 1940 version on Victor with the version on the Bethlehem LP Historically Speaking and considers that the new version was performed in a “jarring, jerky style devoid of any swing”. “This is entirely due to the significant increase in the tempo”, says Hodier. Colombé gives the increase from about 145 in the original version to about 200 in the Bethlehem version.
But in his aricle, Colombé points ou that Ellington played Ko Ko at about 195-200 already in public peformances rather soon after recording it. “Clearly, these faster tempi reflected Ellington’s original onception how Ko Ko should be played, says Colombé.
So why the slower tempo on the Victor recording. Colombé’s answer is. It was necessary to have a record to sell that had a playing time of 2:41 minutes and not only 2 minutes as in the public performances.
Colombé also writes about recording of East St. Louis Toodle-O and Rockin’ In Rhythm. Rockin’ In Rhythm was played at 175 in the earlier 1930’s at 205 at the Stockholm concert in 1939 and finally played at 260 in Paris at Ellington’s last comncert there.
The article by Fred Glueckstein in latest Blue Light is titled The Notable Women in Duke Ellington’s Life and covers Edna Thompson Ellington, Fredi Washington, Mildred Dixon, Evie Ellis and Fernanda De Castro Monte “The Contessa”)
Other interesting articles in the new Blue Light issue are the long review of the Storyville CD Duke Ellington In Copenhagen 1958, the transcipt of an article by Charles Delauney in Jazz Hot about Ellington in Paris 1958, Brian Priestley how he started as a jazz critic and jazz writer. There is also one on the Ellington 125 conference in Stockholm on 29 April to celebrate Ellington’s birthday.
I will get back to the concerts, record reviews and more in the new Blue Light in another context. Now I am out of space.
Author: Ulf Lundin