Cracker

This 'promotional video' for the Nutcracker album from the television show Playback is very familiar to Ellington admirers.

The soundtrack to the version uploaded to YouTube a day ago has been 'stereo-fied', however and, it's true enough, the sound stage does seem remarkably wide.

The poster, Bob Zwolinski, writes:

Here is a TV promo video for Duke Ellington’s 1960 Christmas album: The Nutcracker Suite with an interview by then president of Columbia Records, Goddard Lieberson with Duke Ellington.

The album was recorded at Radio Recorders, Inc. located at 7000 Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. [My church was only 2 blocks away and I didn’t even know it]. Studio sessions were May 26, 31, June 3, 21–22, 1960. The album was released for Christmas 1960.

Due to the camera being focused on a "roundie" TV monitor, this appears to be a professional 70mm kinescope of either the live broadcast or from a videotape playback for distribution to CBS affiliates. Either way, it was recorded on high fidelity vacuum-tube equipment, preserving the great audio forever.

Music arranged by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn 

Personnel:

• Duke Ellington – piano

• Willie Cook, Fats Ford, Ray Nance, Clark Terry - trumpet

• Lawrence Brown, Booty Wood, Britt Woodman - trombone

• Juan Tizol - valve trombone

• Jimmy Hamilton - clarinet, tenor saxophone

• Johnny Hodges - alto saxophone

• Russell Procope - alto saxophone, clarinet

• Paul Gonsalves - tenor saxophone

• Harry Carney - baritone saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet

• Aaron Bell - bass

• Sam Woodyard - drums

Technical Information:

I used SPLEETER v2.4 to separate the components [Drums, Bass, Brass and Piano] into 4 separate tracks. [Sadly Duke's piano wasn't miked properly, if at all].  Adobe Audition was used for Dynamic Range recovery, EQ and final mixdown. NERO 2019 Platinum used to generate the final video.

I wish to thank my good friend, John VanBroekhoven, for introducing me to this great video!

Enjoy my MONO-to-STEREO conversion of this historic TV performance and interview of Duke Ellington and his Band performing excerpts from their 1960 Christmas album The Nutcracker Suite.

This video is strictly for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended.