Conference, Birmingham: Review

A highlight of 2018 was The 25th International Duke Ellington Study Group Conference, Birmingham 2018, hosted by Birmingham City University and The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. I received recently via their newsletter, this review from Lee Farley of The Duke Ellington Society, Southern California chapter.Lee graciously gave me permission to share his review here...

When I arrived at the 25th International Duke Ellington Study Group Conference in Birmingham, England, I had no idea that my wife and I would be two of very few representatives from the United States and the only ones from southern California. That was too bad for those who couldn’t make it, because the event was an outstanding gathering, full of information and great music and characterized by an informal and collegial atmosphere that belied the academic setting. Some of the most memorable parts of the conference were the three concerts, comprised of five sets, played by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Ellington Orchestra, a student ensemble directed by Jeremy Price, Head of Jazz Studies at the Conservatoire and a co-organizer of the event.

The students played Ellington’s and Strayhorn’s compositions and arrangements with tremendous skill and enthusiasm, with polished ensembles that reflected hours ofrehearsals. And the repertoire wasn’t confined to Ellington’s greatest hits, but ratherincluded obscure and well-known pieces from all eras of the orchestra. I particularly enjoyed hearing Old King Dooji, a fine up-tempo and texturally interesting piece from 1938 that Ellington, for whatever reason, hardly ever played after its initial recording.

The two evening performances covered between them a wide range of compositions.The Friday concert’s first set was devoted to early Ellington (The 1920s, 30s, and veryearly 40s.) We heard Jack the Bear, Ko-Ko, and Black and Tan Fantasy among many others. The second set comprised selections from a list of about 40 compositions as chosen byaudience members. Saturday’s concert included a set with compositions from both DukeEllington’s 195 repertoire and The Far East

Suite. Thus, we heard, among others, Flirtibird, Dual Fuel, Tourist Point of View and Blue Bird of Delhi.

These are not the typical titles of repertory jazz orchestras and reflect how deeply these students are immersed in Ellingtonia. The Sunday afternoon performance included audience choices as well. And somewhere during the very tight scheduling of the conference was a jam session, where attendees could play Ellington/Strayhorn compositions with the students. All the concerts were held in the Eastside Jazz Club, an acoustically well-designed performing venue that is

part of the fabulous new building housing the Conservatoire. The audience of Ellington fans rightly gave standing ovations to the students for their skillful performances and to Jeremy Price for his leadership in creating and directing the orchestra.

I was so enthralled by the music that I forgot to take pictures. I did manage to get one of the student orchestra outside the Conservatoire building. Jeremy Price is on the far left.

Lee Farley

Pilgrimage to Catalonia

A Christmas present courtesy of Duke Ellington Society of Sweden: film of Ellington's Third sacred Concert performed at Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar, 10 November, 1973. The full story of the concert is told here.

It occurs to me that Santa Maria del Mar is possibly the only place of worship to host two different Sacred concerts. Ellington appeared there four years earlier on 24 November, 1969 to perform his Second Sacred Concert. During that visit, he saw that one of the three kings pictured in a stained glass window was black and this became his inspiration for his final major work, Three Black Kings.

Here is the rarest of the three concerts of Ellington's Sacred music...

Advent of Coventry

Here is a round up of articles from the web re: the upcoming screening of Celebration in Coventry next Saturday, 29 December.

The photograph portrays Doctor Helen Wheatley of Warwick University, organiser of the event, with Brian Tesler, who commissioned the programme for broadcast on the ITV network. 

Celebration (tx. 21/2/66, ABC Television for ITV)

This newly restored recording of Celebration, the television programme of Duke Ellington’s 1966 performance in the Cathedral, will be the first public showing of Ellington’s performance in Coventry of the European premiere of his First Concert of Sacred Music since its original broadcast. This extraordinary conjunction of secular music in a sacred setting features a collaboration between the jazz legend and ABC’s Musical Director Robert Sharples, using ITV’s in-house singers the Cliff Adams Singers and the Jamaican baritone George Webb. In the half century since its broadcast, this landmark recording was presumed lost and forgotten in the history of jazz television. Following an approach to the Ghost Town project by jazz and TV historian Dr. Nicolas Pillai (Birmingham City University), the recording was ‘rediscovered’ in the Studiocanal archive and subsequent digital restoration by the archive television company Kaleidoscope with generous support from the University of Warwick offers us an unmissable opportunity to see Ellington play in Coventry once more. Interviewed about the Coventry concert, Ellington said in the TV Times, “It’s one of the most satisfying things I have ever done. And the most important.”

The screening will be introduced at the event by a specially recorded message from Brian Tesler who commissioned the programme for ABC Television. Tesler recalls the production of Celebration, and its reception, for us. 

With thanks to Nic Pillai (BCU, for bringing this programme to our attention), Kaleidoscope (for excellent detective and restoration work), Studiocanal (for access to the master tape), the Warwick Impact Fund (for financial support), and Brian Tesler (for the wonderful intro).

From The Coventry Observer

A FILM of jazz legend Duke Ellington’s concert at Coventry Cathedral has been found after being ‘lost’ for more than 50 years. 

The footage is unseen since its original broadcast in 1966 and Ellington himself described the performance as one of his most satisfying and important, the University of Warwick says. 

Fittingly the recording will receive its first public viewing in 52 years on December 29 at the cathedral. 

Ellington’s original performance was the European premiere of his first ‘Concert of Sacred Music’.

The university says it included a piece specially written for the concert, named ‘Come Easter’, which was only ever performed in Coventry that night.

Ellington said in a television interview: “It’s one of the most satisfying things I have ever done. And the most important.”

The performance was broadcast by ITV as part of their Easter programming, under the title Celebration.

The black and white recording has been digitally restored by archive television company Kaleidoscope with support from the University of Warwick.

The footage was found in the university’s StudioCanal archive. 

Dr Helen Wheatley, of the University of Warwick’s department of film and television studies, said: “It is wonderful to be able to bring this important broadcast ‘back home’ to Coventry, thanks to the combined efforts of colleagues at the StudioCanal and Kaleidoscope archives. 

“Ellington’s performance in Celebration is absolutely captivating.

“Coventry Cathedral has been an important site of arts and culture, as well as a significant place of worship, since its consecration in 1962. 

“Ellington chose Coventry Cathedral to perform in as a beacon of modernity in the post-war era, and artists today continue to be attracted to this wonderful building and the forward-thinking people that run it”.

This event is the fourth part of a series of university events or ‘hauntings’ in the ongoing project Ghost Town: Civic Television and the Haunting of Coventry (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/film/ghosttown/). 

The project takes programmes made in and about the city out of the television archive and re-screens them around the city in expected and unexpected places, the university says. 

Tickets are available here: www.universe.com/events/ghost-town-cathedral-of-culture-tickets-8DH9QM

2020 Vision

Save the Date...

International Duke Ellington Conference

Mapping Duke Ellington's World.

Georgetown University, Washington DC
Wednesday 11 March to Sunday 15 March, 2020
Call for Papers: February 2019

Raiders of the Lost Archive

MEDIA RELEASE

WEDNESDAY 5 December 2018

NATIONAL JAZZ ARCHIVE SATELLITE ARRIVES AT BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY

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Birmingham City University now hosts a satellite archive of the National Jazz Archive (NJA). 

The British Institute of Jazz Studies collection has recently arrived at Birmingham City University as a satellite of the National Jazz Archive. This collection includes an extensive number of foreign language magazines and books. This will be complemented in the following years by additional UK focused materials and jazz ephemera.

“The partnership between Birmingham City University and the National Jazz Archive is an important new initiative that seeks to stimulate debate about the history and significance of jazz in the UK and beyond. Through exhibitions, performances, talks and workshops, our aim is to create a vibrant, living archive known for innovative research and outreach programmes that are uniquely anchored in the wider community."

Professor Nick Gebhardt, Director of the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research (BCMCR)

“Birmingham with its strong jazz scene and the keen interest in jazz research seems to be a natural home for the National Jazz Archive. I really welcome its arrival.”

Tony Dudley-Evans, Programme Advisor, Jazzline Programme at Town Hall Symphony Hall

The Birmingham City University satellite collection is housed in the Arts, Design & Media archives at Parkside Building. This collection is available to all through appointment with the Keeper of the Archives, Dr Pedro Cravinho.

 

This year represents a significant milestone for the National Jazz Archive as it celebrates thirty years of activity. The NJA holds the UK’s finest collection of written, printed and visual material on jazz, blues and related music, from the 1920s to the present day. Since the NJA was established in 1988, its vision has been to ensure that the rich cultural heritage of jazz is safeguarded for the future generations.

This year also represents the beginning of a partnership between Birmingham City University and the NJA towards the establishment of an NJA’s satellite-based at the University’s Arts, Design and Media Archives located in its Parkside Building, where the first archival materials have already arrived.

Both achievements provide us with a great opportunity to recognise, appreciate and celebrate these milestones through an exhibition, displaying examples of a significant and exciting jazz magazine   collection, published in a multiplicity of different countries and representing a distinct and vibrant jazz diaspora culture during the twentieth century.

 

The archive includes a diversity of foreign-language jazz and blues-related magazines from across the world, to include:

 

Jazz Podium (Germany), Musica Jazz (Italy), Jazz Bladet (Norway), Jazz Forum (Poland), Jazz ‘n’ More (Switzerland), Jazznytt (Sweden), Quartica Jazz (Spain), Hot Jazz Club (Argentina), Jazz Live (Austria), Jazz (Belgium), Jazz Bulletin (Czech Republic), Jazz Revy (Denmark), Rytmi (Finland), Jazz Nu (Netherlands), Melody Maker (UK), Australian Jazz Quarterly (Australia), Coda (Canada).

 

These materials are available to all through appointment with the Keeper of the Archives, Dr. Pedro Cravinho at ADM-Archives-Request@bcu.ac.uk

 

“This archive is an invaluable resource, providing researchers with material evidence of how jazz has been historically represented in the media.”

Trish Clowes, London-based saxophonist & composer, BASCA British Composer Award winner & former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist

“The National Jazz Archive at Birmingham City University holds much of interest for the typographically curious. This wide collection of printed ephemera forms a microcosm of changing graphic styles from across the eras and around the world. It presents an exciting opportunity to examine the typographic language of Jazz and how this particular genre has developed a visual dialect as vibrant and innovative as the music itself.”

Professor Caroline Archer- Parre, Director of the Centre for Printing History and Culture, Birmingham City University

“There are plenty of visual treats to inspire and intrigue within this collection. Anyone who has seen the album designs that Reid Miles did for Blue Note will appreciate the powerful relationship between type, image and music that is a hallmark of jazz. To see this strong link expressed with such diversity in these publications from around the world, is of significant interest to researchers and practitioners alike.”

Nathan Tromans, Head of School Visual Communications, Birmingham City University

A curated snapshot of the recently arrived archive was on display at Birmingham City University’s Parkside Building for students, members of staff and the general public during November. This represents the beginning of a series of associated events, which will be advertised through the Jazz Research BCU social media channels. 

 

The Telecasters

From The Coventry Telegraph... by John Carlon

'Lost film' of jazz legend Duke Ellington to be screened in Cathedral

A film of the jazz legend Duke Ellington playing in Coventry Cathedral has been restored for a new screening.

The recording of Duke was thought missing since it was broadcast on ABC Midlands Television (the forerunner of ITV) in 1966.

Duke Ellington described the concert as “one of the most satisfying things I have ever done. And the most important."

The film will be shown in the cathedral on December 29 - the first time it will have been seen since its original broadcast.

Ellington’s performance at Coventry Cathedral in February 1966, at which he was joined by his orchestra, was the European premiere of his concerts of his First Concert of Sacred Music.

It included a piece called Come Easter which was especially written for Coventry and was only performed at this one concert.

Ellington was joined in the concert by the Cliff Adams Singers with the baritone singer George Webb and his orchestra, comprising Herbie Jones, Cootie Wiliams, Cat Anderson, Mercer Ellington, Lawrence Brown, Chuck Connors, Buster Cooper, Jimmy Hamilton, Russell Procope, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsales, Harry Carney, John Lamb and Sam Woodyard.

Midlands ABC broadcast 'secular music in a sacred settings' as part of their Easter programming, under the title Celebration.

The concert took place in Coventry’s then new Cathedral building, which had opened in 1962 following the bombing and destruction during World War II of the previous structure, built in the Middle Ages. 

Coventry Cathedral is still recognised globally as a symbol of peace and reconciliation.

The black and white recording has been digitally restored by archive television company Kaleidoscope with support from the University of Warwick.

'Absolutely captivating'

Dr Helen Wheatley, of the University of Warwick’s Department of Film and Television Studies, said: “It is wonderful to be able to bring this important broadcast ‘back home’ to Coventry, thanks to the combined efforts of colleagues at the StudioCanal and Kaleidoscope archives. Ellington’s performance in Celebration is absolutely captivating.

“Coventry Cathedral has been an important site of arts and culture, as well as a significant place of worship, since its consecration in 1962.

"Ellington chose Coventry Cathedral to perform in as a beacon of modernity in the post-war era, and artists today continue to be attracted to this wonderful building and the forward-thinking people that run it."

The screening of Celebration is part of Ghost Town: Cathedral of Culture, the fourth part of a series of events or ‘hauntings’ in the ongoing project Ghost Town: Civic Television and the Haunting of Coventry. 

The project takes programmes made in and about the city out of the television archive and re-screens them around the city in expected and unexpected places.

Dr Wheatley is leading the project to screen archive footage of Coventry in the Ghost Town: Civic Television and the Haunting of Coventry project.

Ticket for the screening are free, available here.

Something to Give For...

More news about the acquisition of The Billy Strayhorn Collection by the Library of Congress...

Source

Announcing New Acquisition: The Billy Strayhorn Collection

November 29, 2018 by Larry Appelbaum

Portrait of Billy Strayhorn. Billy Strayhorn Music Manuscripts and Estate Papers (Box 83, Folder 1), Music Division, Library of Congress.

In January of 2017, I traveled to a suburb outside of Phoenix, Arizona to meet Dr. Gregory Morris and family. Morris is the nephew of Billy Strayhorn and Executor of the Billy Strayhorn Estate. Dr. Morris, a retired educator originally from Pittsburgh, kept the collection in safe hands for nearly five decades. The papers, including holograph scores, manuscripts, photographs and business papers, are a treasure trove for researchers and scholars of 20^th-century American music. It is of special interest for anyone interested in the work of Duke Ellington, with whom Strayhorn worked and collaborated until his early death from esophageal cancer in 1967. It’s taken nearly a year to process and catalog the collection, but researchers can now consult the online finding aid to the Billy Strayhorn Music Manuscripts and Estate Papers. As Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, announced this morning via video and press release, the collection is now available for researchers to consult in the Performing Arts Reading Room.

Additionally, to mark the announcement of the acquisition, I interviewed Dr. Morris via email about the importance of the collection and significance of the materials for scholars from various disciplines.

Billy Strayhorn died on May 31, 1967. Pick up the story from there. Did he discuss with you what he wanted for his papers?

A few years before my uncle, Billy Strayhorn, died, he asked if I would be the Executor of his estate. I asked what that meant and he said to take care of his stuff. I agreed to serve. Upon his death, I gathered his belongings and music from his apartment. I surmised from his comments that he wanted me to make certain that he got credit for all the work he had written. That meant that everything that had not been copyrighted should be copyrighted in his name.

Give an idea of what’s in the collection and how it might serve musical scholarship.

In the Billy Strayhorn collection, there are original manuscripts, titled and untitled, that would enable scholars to examine how Billy wrote music. He wrote many parts for specific musicians in the orchestra. A close study may reveal other secrets about Strayhorn’s approach to composition.

What kind of creative community did Billy emerge from in Pittsburgh?

Pittsburgh, a relatively small city, had a major symphony orchestra and opera company, as well as a Negro opera company. Billy studied classical piano for many years and then moved into jazz. Pittsburgh has a rich jazz history that produced Ahmad Jamal, Mary Lou Williams, Art Blakey, Billy Strayhorn, Ray Brown, Dakota Staton, Billy Eckstine, Dodo Marmarosa, Roy Eldridge, Erroll Garner, Earl “Fatha” Hines and many others. The free expression of the listening and learning of music flowed like the three rivers.

Essay entitled “Harmony” in Strayhorn’s hand, undated. Billy Strayhorn Music Manuscripts and Estate Papers (Box 86, folder 9).

What items resonate the most with you and the family? Surprises or revelations?

I was pleasantly surprised by the volume and variety of music Billy created such as “Valse,” “Chelsea Bridge,” “Lush Life,” “Upper Manhattan Medical Group,” “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Swing Dance,” “Something to Live For” and “Blood Count.”

Do you feel Duke ever exploited Billy’s good nature? 

Duke and his sister, Ruth Ellington, thought they owned everything Billy created and produced including songs he wrote prior to leaving Pittsburgh.

Can you tell from listening which pieces were composed by Duke vs Billy?

Personally, I cannot but Strayhorn aficionados can distinguish between the two.

We know which Strayhorn compositions are most famous. Any thoughts about which have the most musical significance?

Billy had so many different periods of writing. One significant period was in 1941 during the ASCAP strike. Billy was responsible for filling the Ellington band book with new songs since Ellington was restricted from performing any of his compositions on the radio — the radio was the life blood of the band. Billy’s most famous song was “Take the ‘A’ Train” which became Ellington’s theme song. There was also a string of titles that are some of the most often recorded today. Among these compositions was “Johnny Come Lately.” That and others like it revealed that Strayhorn was in tune with the soon-rising style of be-bop.

Any of his work before joining Ellington? (the show he wrote in high school, for example)

Before joining Duke Ellington, he wrote “Something To Live For” for his trio, The Mad Hatters, in Pittsburgh. He also wrote a production for Westinghouse High School entitled Fantastic Rhythm. From Fantastic Rhythm, “My Little Brown Book” remains. Billy also wrote “Lush Life” before leaving Pittsburgh. It is interesting that this title was never part of the Ellington book and Ellington never performed or recorded it.

What was the role of Walter Van De Leur in organizing the collection? 

What I brought from Billy’s apartment was from my non-musical background lots of paper. I had many people look at it but no one came back until David Hadju introduced us to Walter van de Leur. Walter came to Pittsburgh to organize and catalog what we had brought from Billy’s apartment. Walter organized the manuscripts and spent 10 years studying the music. Since Walter was a Fellow in the Ellington Collection at The Smithsonian, he could compare the Ellington hand and the Strayhorn hand. As a result of Walter’s work, he took copies home to The Netherlands to have The Dutch Jazz Orchestra play them. The DJO eventually produced A Portrait of a Silk Thread: Newly Discovered Works of Billy Strayhorn.

What did you think of Van De Leur’s book and David Hajdu’s? 

David Hajdu’s book Lush Life explored the life of Billy Strayhorn while Walter van de Leur’s book Something To Live Forexplored the music and the genius of Billy Strayhorn. Both were milestones in the effort to advance the legacy of Billy Strayhorn.

Are there any aspects of Billy’s life or work that have not yet been adequately examined?

A researcher can always find something to pique their interest.

What made you feel the Library of Congress was the appropriate home for the collection?

The Library of Congress was selected because it is the premier repository for valuable documents. The LOC is also easily accessed by scholars and being in our Nation’s Capitol, it is in close proximity to the many museums and research centers of The Smithsonian.

Photograph of Dr. Gregory Morris, his wife Thelma Morris, and Strayhorn scholar Alyce Claerbaut. Photograph by Larry Appelbaum.

Posted in: Acquisitions, Collections, Interviews, Jazz