The Seventies: Where was Duke on 26 May, 1970?

For 26 May, 1970, David Palmquist's monumental work Duke - Where and When says Activities not documented.  

Is it possible that the photograph above was taken on that day? 

28 May, 1970 is the fiftieth anniversary of the recording session for Duke Ellington: Orchestral Works, an album of Ellington at the piano, accompanied by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel. Looking for an image of Kunzel with Ellington, I happened across the photograph posted above which may be found in a gallery of the website of  Milken Archive of Jewish Music. The page is dedicated to the music of Dave Brubeck who is, of course, the third figure pictured in the image above. The caption for the photograph reads: Dave Brubeck with Erich Kunzel and Duke Ellington The Gates of Justice recording session, Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Gates of Justice is an album of religious music. Given Ellington's own commitment to his faith and having recorded at that stage two albums of sacred music himself, his interest in this aspect of Brubeck's work would be apparent. The only discographical date I can find (in Lord's discography) for the recording of this album is 19 October, 1969. Like Ellington's album Orchestral Works, it was recorded for the Decca label and Erich Kunzel was present, conducting The Cincinnati Brass Ensemble.

As far as I know (not having listened to a copy of the album) The Gates of Justice is a studio album rather than a live performance (hence the photograph above). 19 October, 1969 is a Sunday. I would have thought it extremely unlikely that the recording studio would be open on a Sunday and therefore the date in Lord's discography must refer to a live performance. Furthermore, from 30 September, 1969 to 20 October, Ellington and his Orchestra were in residency at the Casbar Lounge of the Sahara Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, some three hours' flight away from Cincinnati. 

If The Gates of Justice was not recorded on 19 October, 1969, then, it is possible that Ellington was in the studio with Dave Brubeck and Erich Kunzel on another day. But what was the recording date for The Gates of Justice? If any Brubeck expert reads this, please let me know if you have that information.

For a week or so following his engagement at the Sahara, again, there is no documentation discovered so far for Ellington's activities. He was in San Francisco on 23rd of the month and left for a European tour on 27th, returning to the USA on 1 December and spent the rest of the year mainly between San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Even brief sojourns in Detroit and Milwaukee would have entailed lengthy flights to Cincinnati.

Brubeck had already recorded with Erich Kunzel on 19 and 20 March, 1968 but, again, this would preclude Ellington's presence in the studio since he was in Las Vegas then as well.

Interestingly, Brubeck's third encounter with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra occurred, however, on 26 May, 1970. According to the cover of a later French edition of the resulting album, pictured below, called Elementals, the LP was recorded at Music Hall, Cincinnati. Listening to the album today, however, I'm sure this is a studio recording rather than a live performance. The photograph above looks like a recording studio. Could it be on this day, when he could have been in Cincinnati, that Duke met Brubeck and Kunzel? One of the tunes featured on the album recorded that day?  The Duke. Curiouser and curiouser...

Ellington himself was certainly in Cincinnati on 27 May at the Taft Theatre (associated, I believe with the Cincinnati Symphony and half an hour's walk from Music Hall)  and also 28 May, returning to New York it would seem later that day to begin recording Orchestral Works, his stay in Cincinnati presumably to make arrangements ahead of the session at Decca. We may never know if he attended Brubeck and Mulligan's performance and it still does not explain the provenance of the photograph with Erich Kunzel but it it is interesting to speculate...

UPDATE

Well, my theory about the photograph at the top of this post has been trounced comprehensively by the discovery of a photograph on eBay taken at the same sessions which claims that Dave Brubeck was present in the studio for the session Duke Ellington recorded with the Cincinnati Symphony on 28 May, 1970. 

The caption on the Milken Archive website is further out. It may be the position of Brubeck in the photograph relative to Kunzel and Ellington that has given us all the misleading impression that it was Brubeck's rather than Ellington's gig. Good to add this image to the post, however, and to clarify for the record.