It was sent to DESS members earlier last week and is strongly marked by being the last one put together by Bo Haufman. There is no major article by Bo himself but two shorter ones – one about Norris Turney and Soul Flute
The cover story and main article is written by Sven-Erik Baun Christensen and is about Al Killian – Duke’s Reluctant High-Wire Artist as Sven-Erik calls him. This five page article gives us the background and career of Killian.
He comes from the south, born in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1935, Killian moved to New York and in 1936 he started to work with touring band and also played a period in Brazil (Rio De Janeiro). In September 1938, Killian was back in New York, where he played with Claude Hopkins for a short period and then he was with Teddy Hill’s band.
He recorded with Slim Gaillard in October 1939 and with Don Redman’s new band in January 1940. However, His stay with Redman lasted only a month. In February 1940, he was recruited by Count Basie with whom he stayed a little bit more then three years.
Then it was Charlie Barnet, Basie again, Lionel Hampton, back to Barnet, short time with Jazz at the Philharmonic and back to Barnet again. From the fall 1946 Killian was based in California and played basically with big band and made recordings.
In December 1947, Killian joined the Ellington band as its high notes specialist. According to Eddie Lambert, “Killian’s main influence in the band was as a section man and his solo opportunities were few.
Killian took part in the recording of Liberian Suite but was rather absent from Ellington recordings after that. He took part in the 1950 tour but left the Ellington band shortly thereafter and died September 5, 1950 in Los Angeles, California. being shot by the janitor in the building where he lived.
Another regular Danish contributor is Rasmus Henriksen and in the new Bulletin he has written about Ellington’s visit to Copenhagen in November 1958 with a lot of review excerpts, which supplements what has already been written the Ellington concerts in Copenhagen in the Bulletin and on the Ellington Galaxy website.
The usual reprint of an article from Mike Zirpolo’s Swing & Beyond is titled A Visit to Cotton Club. It is a very good article giving a lot of details about the New Cotton Club located on the second floor in a building where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue. An opening show – The 4th Cotton Club Parade – with “Bojangles” Robinson and Cab Calloway leading a cast of some 130 performers. Zirpolo’s article has a good part on the composition of I Let a Song Go Out of Heart and the recording of it.
A new contributor to the Bulletin is Con Chapman who has written about Don Byas and Duke Ellington.
The regular contributions to the Bulletin by discographer Björn Englund is one about Choo Choo and one about Duke Ellington’s band members and ASCAP. Both articles are in Swedish.
I’d like to finish this article by thanking Bo from the bottom of heart for what he has done to keep the memory of Duke Ellington alive and the unselfish work he has done to keep DESS alive.
Author: Ulf Lundin