A new issue of Blue Light arrived in the beginning of 2025. This time, Gareth Evans has put together a 42 page issue plus front and back cover.
As always, it is full of good reading dominated by articles by the regular contributors Dan Caine, Graham Colombe, Fred Glueckstein and Gareth Evans himself.
Dan Caine’s contribution is the first part of an interview with Stanley and Helen Dance at their home in Vista, California. Caine does not say when it took place but it must have been around 1989 since he says Gunter Schuller’s book The Swing Era “is due any time now”.
The interview is five pages long in Blue Light and touches on many topics. I can only give some quotes here and refer to Blue Light for the full text.
SD: “I have a preference for what I call the hard core of his music.The extended works and so for were created for white people in particular. They don’t mean much to me. His true genius lay with the band pieces, which were superior to anything annybody else did.”
“Duke was a person, who understood the nature of the business and the audience. He was a very shrewd man. He knew what would get some good press and what the audience wanted.”
“The big thing I think everybody should stress is that he said over and over again that he needed a band to play his music and the secret of hearing his music was keeping the band alive.”
The article by Graham Combé is entitled Lawrence Brown – the mystery and The ‘Mooche’. It was triggered by another Dan Cain interview – the one of Lawrence Brown published in the previous issues of Blue Light.
When I read it, I was not surprised by Brown’s bitterness. It had expressed it before.There are letters in which Brown expresses himself in a similar way. Did he simply feel neglected or was it the fact that he was not recruited by Ellington but by Irving Mills, if I remember correctly.
Anyhow, the interesting part of Combé’s article is what he writes about Brown’s way of of playing The Mooche and particularly how he changed the way to do it at the Newport Jazz Festival 1963. Brown played it in Paris in 1963 and his solo lasted two choruses. In Newport, he played eight choruses. Read Combé’s article to know more how it happened.
Fred Glueckstein‘s contribution to the new issue is about Duke Ellington’s records for Capitol 1953-1955. A good read as well but not much is new.
Gareth Evans has listened to The Little Acorn and has put together what he “heard” in a six page article about Ellington’s early period from his first visit to New York, his return to Washington D.C back to New York in September 1923, and the first recordings. Gareth also writes about Ellington’s “lucky break” when he met Will Marion Cook.
Jazz Rag is an English jazz mag unknown to me until now. In a couple of issues, Ron Simpson (also unknown to me) interviewed Alan Barnes and Pete Long. The result is reprinted in the new Blue Light in a two-part article entitled ‘An Alternative View ot The Duke’ and ‘Legacy of The Duke’.
Two concerts and one event are also reviewed. One of the concerts is by Nu Civilisation Orchestra at EFG Jazz Festival in London in November last year with Far East Suite and New Orleans Suite.
The ‘event’ is a screening at the Barbican in London of a feature length film combining 11 Duke Ellington shorts that Ehsan Khoshbakht put together many years ago. I wish I had been there to see it.
Concerts that has just taken place or will take place during the Spring are listed in Editor’s Selection of Blue Light.
Thank you to Gareth for including an article about Ellington Galaxy (ellingtongalaxy.org)
And finally don’t forget to become member of DESUK to continue to get Blue Light;
Author: Ulf Lundin