I recently blogged about an extremely rare Ellington CD ...in Concert, Piano Solo and Orchestra in this post, La Bellissima Africaine.
A comment was left by a kind reader who under the nom de plume Reminiscing in Tempo, runs a channel on YouTube dedicated to Duke Ellington. He promised to upload the Cd and sure enough, in two parts, here it is.
The discographical details on the album are rather less than accurate, however. In answer to a query about the female vocalist in the 'Medley' portion of the disc, I did a little research on line and I hope the following 'screen shot' from the Duke Ellington Music Society Bulletin will clarify the actual provenance of these invaluable recordings.
Thank you for your discographical research! I updated the videos info... Ok for Lil Greenwood, but I still have doubts about the male singer... I'm sure he's not Tony Watkins, but I don't know who he is
ReplyDeleteThe male singer is trumpeter and violin player Ray Nance. Tony Watkins joined the band much later - end of the sixties.
ReplyDeleteRay Nance was no with the orchestra in 1970 (he left in 1966), and Tony Watkins was the regular vocalist in that days, but definitely is not him on this concert. However the voice and the scat singing sound like Nance. Maybe he was a special guest in that concert...
ReplyDeletePlease note, the Medley portion is from 20 September, 1959 and not as the liner notes to the CD would have us believe. Ray was then in the orchestra, of course. Ten years separate this full orchestra performance from Duke's solo piano recital.
ReplyDeletePerfect! I corrected all infos on my videos. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome - and thank you for posting the music in such great quality!
ReplyDelete