The Seventies: Just One Cornet...

To round out the golden anniversary of Duke Ellington in July 1970, here is a compilation of videos from the Orchestra's tour of Italy.

These videos are notable for the appearance of Canadian trumpeter/flugelhornist Fred Stone (or "Freddie" as Duke refers to him). Stone must first have appeared on Ellington's radar when Duke guested on the album of Ron Collier's compositions called North of the Border. Collier did quite a bit of work for Ellington, still suffering from the creative, let alone personal, loss of Billy Strayhorn.

Stone's discography seems quite brief and his musical circles were not exactly the same as Duke's but he contributed a rich vein in Ellingtonia.

To the videos: firstly, Palermo Pop 70 which was recorded on 2 July. There are two videos to share, an excerpt of Ellington being presented with an award and playing Aristocracy à la Jean Lafitte followed by the documentary from which the extract was drawn.

And for dessert, extracts from an appearance at La Bussola, nightclub, on 20 July, 1970.

Crescendo

To conclude our celebrations this week for the centenary of Paul Gonsalves, here are two articles posted recently to the Duke Ellington Society on Facebook from Crescendo magazine...

Under the influence of Ellington - PAUL GONSALVES tells his own story, Crescendo Magazine, March 1964.

As it was the instrument that was available at home, I started on guitar. My father taught the foundations to my two brothers and myself. During those days we used to have to play to entertain company. It wasn't until I was eleven or twelve or so that my eldest brother, Joe, started bringing home jazz records. The music impressed me very much.

But I didn't start thinking about becoming a jazz musician until I was well into junior high school. I guess most of my training in guitar wasn‘t formal, It was just what I'd picked up from my brother and listening to a lot of Django Reinhardt records. The first few Coleman Hawkins records I heard made me want to play the tenor saxophone. I had always admired Hodges. Benny Carter and quite a few instrumentalists of the day.

Turning Point
In the town where I lived - Potucket. Rhode Island - there was a store which had a tenor in the window. A Selmer, I think. On the way to school every day I used to spend at least a half-hour, just gazing in at this instrument, never dreaming that I'd be able to own it one day.

When I did eventually secure this born, I was fortunate that the proprietor of this music store recommended a teacher to my father, who took me to see him. His name was Joseph Pietratelli. He had taught a few years before at the Boston Conservatory. However, his attitude towards jazz was favourable. Not only was he a good teacher. but he took an interest in me and that made all the difference. We used to have a lot of discussions on jazz. At that time there was a radio programme called Saturday Night Swing Session, featuring different jazz artists. We'd listen and then discuss what we'd heard.

Practically everyone else I talked to never took it quite that seriously – or they were against it. I had a lot of confidence in my teacher. And for him to go along with what I wanted to - that made me all the more interested.

While I was studying with him I practised eight hours a day, seven days a week for three years. This was how I acquired enough technique. There are no short cuts.

Having acquired a lot of technique, you want to put it to use in jazz. To play fast with facility. You can‘t play any faster than the ideas pop out of your head. So it means that you accumulate a lot of ideas. You have to store up a sort of a mental library. These things are all related to each other.

As for developing my style, I've tried to absorb all that I liked from other musicians. Hawk was my main influence. then Ben Webster and Don Byas. I was influenced by Ben mainly when I heard the first Ellington records featuring tenor. But it still all reverts back to the Hawkins tradition of playing.

Other influences were Lester Young, Chu Berry even Bud Freeman. And this may sound odd: a lot of trumpet players had an effect on the way I wanted to play. So did Art Tatum.

Classic form

Hawkins stands out, though, because what he did seems to be in a more classic form. He played the instrument in the way that the saxophone should be played, in execution and everything else. What I loved about Lester was his sense of rhythm and dynamics. But it seemed an unorthodox approach to the horn.

One thing I've never quite got over is having Lester mention me as one of his favourites. When a few years have passed and you find men that you've admired saying something favourable about you. naturally you're flattered. Everybody who takes up the profession expects some sort of a reward, but there‘s no greater reward than that. I never expected it to get to that point.

When I have discussions with people and they speak of some younger musicians who are supposed to be influenced by me—that's a great feeling. I never thought about that happening. I guess it makes you want to keep on your toes. I never dreamed I'd be fortunate enough to have worked in both the Ellington and Basie bands. Duke was certainly my idol from the start. as far back as my guitar-playing days. He did something special for jazz. He gave it class.

The few years in Basie's band were a wonderful experience - the freedom and the way that it swung. But you got the feeling with everything that you knew what range it would be in musically.

After being in Ellington‘s band I realise there is a difference in musicianship between the two groups of men. This isn't meant in a derogatory way, but this band is able to do a lot more than Basie’s.

The scope is broader. I think Basie realises himself that he isn't the musician that Duke is.

With the writing of Ellington and his protege, Strayhorn, you've got the greatest in the jazz field. There’s so much music coming in - and it's not just blues. You never know what you're going to be playing. For about a year. I was in the Dizzy Gillespie band. That made me realise the pace at which things are changing. I hate to use the term bebop or modern music, because I think Basie and Ellington are modern bands, too. It was just that a new era started with Gillespie, Parker and Monk. So many strides have been made that a musician, if he is going to stay active, must have an open mind and make some effort to keep up with all these things. As for putting them to use in the organisation that you're with, that's something else.

On the subject of those 26 choruses of mine on Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue, we hadn‘t played that number for about four or five years. He just happened to call it one night at Birdland in I951, when Louis Bellson was in the band. The way the tenor solo came in - I had the feeling during the piano modulation that I'd like to take a solo, I took quite a number of choruses on it.

Ellington decided on the spur of the moment that we would open with that when we did our spot at Newport. I guess everything seemed to gel, so he just let me play as long as I wanted to. It wasn't planned. It was a thing that just happened by chance. I never guessed that it would get much attention.

Since that time we've more or less played it every night and it's become something of a frustration. People request it and expect me to do the same thing every time - even to tie point of having some of them ask for it just to see how long I'm going to play, rather than what I'm going to play.

After a few years of that you don't want to play it at all. Also it's gotten to be a thing now that if I've got a tenor solo on any number it has to be a long one. I don't think that's right or fair, either. Maybe some nights you're right mentally, not physically.

Actually. what I really like to play are ballads—beautiful standards like I Cover The Waterfront, Gone with The Wind and You Go To My Head. However, since Diminuendo, whenever we perform most places I'm elected to play these extended things, so I don't get the chance.

Masterpiece

I like to play Body and Soul, but I generally hate to get requests for it. When people ask for that on tenor they have in mind the Coleman Hawkins rendition. But his solo on that is a masterpiece. I really don't see anything else that can be played on it. Future hopes? I’ve been under the influence of Ellington ever since I've been in the band. And rightly so, because he's that sort of a leader. Being with art organisation that's practically become an institution, I'm assured of some work during the year.

But if anything ever happened to the band and I were able to remain in one place for a while, I would try to do a little more studying, in order to play better. I feel there‘s quite a bit more that I still have to know in music.

I'd like to study guitar formally. also a couple of other instruments. and to go into theory. Because of changing ideas and increasing competition, a jazz musician has to use his brain and keep trying to improve. It's not only an asset - it’s a necessity.

Anything you do, you come under his influence

Says Paul Gonsalves, Crescendo Magazine, March 1965.

As Anything you do - you come under his influence, says Paul Gonsalves.

I would like to remain in jazz, and I have some responsibilities that I've acquired in the past few years that I never expected. I have a family to support. Ellington is that sort of leader that anything you do - you certainly come under his influence.

However, if I ever get an opportunity to have my own group. I have something that I would like to do. I have the feeling that there's quite a bit more that I still have to know in music. I don't know - I just feel that I could play better.

But I would like to be able to do it, and still make a decent living and support my family. I guess everybody would like that. That's really the biggest hope that I have. Because it's getting more competitive every day. Its not an easy field.

I‘m fortunate now that I happen to be with an organisation that's practically become an institution, and I‘m pretty much assured of a certain amount of work during the year. But I think if anything ever happened to the band, and I were able to remain in one place for a while. I would try to do a little more studying. Also. there's a couple of other instruments I would like to study if I had the time. Plus going a little more into the theory of music. I think it‘s needed, because changes are taking place so fast. Ideas are changing all the time.

Most of the other things are more or less material things. This business of being a musician is pretty time absorbing. As I intend to remain in music, I might as well try to do it the best that I can.

If I have an original style, it all stems from a thought - you know, observing different things. That's what we have a brain for - to use it. You have to know where the pitfalls are. A fad or something can come up and everybody will embrace it. You have to be strong enough, if it doesn't conform with your way of thinking, to reject it.

Further Listening...
A two hour special on the music of Paul Gonsalves in Duke Ellington Society UK's Uptown Lockdown series.  is still available here.
And recommended is David Brent Johnson's programme in the Indiana Public Media 
Night Lights series, Off the 'A' Train.
Finally, I have compiled a playlist on Spotify Paul Gonsalves 100 drawn from recordings within and without the Ellington Orchestra in the 1960s...

Crioulo Love Call or Whaling Interval...

Alexander Dunford 1 · 1 - Storie De Pol

In continuing the celebrations for the centenary of Paul Gonsalves, the above recording Storie de Pol shows the tenor player in the context, and the company of his Cape Verdean heritage.

His childhood friend, Joe Livramento is on alto saxophone. Leader and trumpeter 'Phil' Barboza was also, briefly, an Ellingtonian, deputising for Willie Cook for a couple of weeks in April, 1956, just months before the famous Newport performance, those 27 choruses of which clearly show the influence of Paul's background.

From Cimboa magazine:

One musician who apparently was able to draw on his Cape Verdean heritage to play jazz music was Paul Gonsalves who gained fame as a star tenor player in the famous Duke Ellington big band, according to Joli Gonçalves.

"I asked Paul once," Joli recalls. "He had this unusual form of taking solos. I asked 'where did you develop this technique?' He said, 'John I think in crioulo.' "

Gonsalves, who wowed audiences at the 1955(sic) Newport Jazz festival with a 22-minute (sic)solo while playing in Ellington's band also attributed that feat to his Cape Verdean heritage, according to entertainment lawyer Jim Lopes. "Gonsalves said when he played that solo, in his heart, in his mind he thought, 'this is for Cape Verde.'" Lopes says.

Birthday Presence

I shall be participating in a 'broadcast' by the Duke Ellington Society UK this afternoon at 5:00pm GMT in their series Uptown Lockdown. The presentation is a celebration of Paul Gonsalves' centenary. I've chosen eight records (Desert Island Discs style) which illuminate 'scenes from a life' as it were. I do hope you will be able to join us.

Here are some 'scenes from a life' which magpie-like I stole from Michael Steinman's terrific blog Jazz Lives and a post entitled The Elusive Paul Gonsalves.

Here are images of a young Paul Gonsalves (one could say a 'Young' Gonsalves looking at the final photograph which commentators on the original post (click on the link above) say is definitely Paul).

Michael discovered these images, as is my own wont, browsing eBay, in search, possibly, of what Eliot would probably call fragments we shore against our ruin... 

Gonsalves!!! by Matt Lavelle

Sketch of Beethoven by Paul Gonsalves

Further to yesterday's post where I linked to a post on Paul Gonsalves by Matt Lavelle, here is another piece by the same, blacked out, for some reason, on the webpage itself. I've copied and pasted. No copyright infringement intended and the source of the original is indicated below the essay...

When someone asked Duke Ellington what he thought of the avant garde,.he replied..

“For the avant garde,I have Paul Gonsalves..”

HAH!

Always looking for clues to the what’s REALLY up in jazz,.I struck gold when I read this.I even wrote to DOWNBEAT pressing my case that Paul be elected to their Hall of Fame.They said no, but printed my letter, which “fixed” the letter they printed that I wrote when I was 16 in 1986 claiming that Maynard Ferguson’s NON high note playing was the greatest of them all. In search of moving further and further away from my heroes, (I really agree with Matthew Shipp on how twisted we are in Jazz with our worship jones),I’m gonna reveal full disclosure on my true favorite musician... PAUL(and keep on gravitating towards my own SUN)When you're coming up, one way to go against the grain is to really get into the music of somebody on a different instrument, although I never thought about it like that then.

I do believe I am the number 2 greatest living fan of Paul on Earth... trumped only by a doctor in England who created a Paul Gonsalves website. (I’m NOT making a Paul myspace page,.that’s a little kooky.) My man in England sent me cd-r copies of every record Paul did outside of Ellington, and we're talking almost TWENTY. I’ve paid people to transcribe solos of his, not to learn or memorize, but to put on my wall as ART. I’ve gone to record auctions and thrown down BIDS to get original copies of his 3 records on Impulse, and also had a a guest DJ set on WBGO once to do a seminar on just why Paul is so BAD, getting them to add more Paul to their play lists. (I did this on WKCR once to getting a phone call from a listener who said, ”Thanks man. I never knew”.) My relationship with WBGO went SOUTH when DJ and drummer Kenny Washington made me a deal: "If you write a letter to the program director telling him why BGO is WHACK, then I’ll play the Paul Gonsalves solos with Dizzy’s big band(which I looked for for years). I wrote the letter, pissing them off, but was able to record those Paul/Dizzy tracks off the radio on to cassette. To top it all off, I was even getting tight with MICHAEL JAMES, Duke’s nephew when we met at Tower Records. I made a copy of every record Paul ever did and called up Mike so I could give them to him and we planned a listening party where we would invite Tenor players. (We were both friends with Harold Ashby) when suddenly Mike passed on…(right around the time my friend HILTON RUIZ was murdered in New Orleans, post Katrina, really f-ing me up.)

So what is it bout’ Paul?,.(called “Mex .in the band with Duke, even though he was Portuguese). ((I’ll never forget this argument I had with a great jazz singer named Eugene,when I living in the Jersey city YMCA,and he saw my poster of Paul on the wall about whether Paul was black)). Well,..for me,.Paul has always been the road map through Jazz so I never got stuck like those Lincoln Center Ghouls.I CAME UP in swing by spending several years in a band with SIR HILDRED HUMPHRIES as my first real musical relationship and based on that, I could have turned into one of those “revivalist” guys, trying to play swing era music my whole life even though I WASN’T ALIVE THEN. Hildred always said that he thought Coltrane “was the greatest of us”, putting both of them in the same house and with a green light like that, I didn’t run from what I always heard from Paul Gonsalves,..FREEDOM.

In DUKE’s band….His MAIN soloist….playing ideas that defy straight time and harmony REALLY well. Paul Gonsalves created a completely original sound language and then spoke it right at the heart of Duke Ellington’s sound world for YEARS. Yes,.he dropped Ben Webster on Duke to get the job but he quickly moved on. Don’t forget that before Duke, Paul was BASIE’s main tenor man for 4 years and spent a year with DIZ,..with TRANE on ALTO. According to Michael James, Paul said he took Trane aside when they were with Dizzy and said, "Man,..Tenor is your path,go with the Tenor”... Paul was also playing SHEETS OF SOUND then before Trane with Trane right there. Paul would also play the first true extended solo in jazz history, the famous NEWPORT concert where he almost caused a RIOT and RE-IGNITED Duke’s career. Then there’s the fact that HILDRED was with BASIE for a few years,(Basie got him a gold plated tenor to get him to stay on the road). All this stuff is coming together. Oh yeah,..that record I have with ARCHIE SHEPP SITTING IN WITH DUKE.(Cat Anderson’s response on trumpet is beyond.catagory.)

FLASHBACK!!.

IT’S A PUBLIC DEBATE AT JALC IN THE EARLY 90’S.

***WYNTON MARSALIS VS JAMES LINCOLN COLLIER.***

The source of the debate... Collier’s book on Duke has challenged Wynton’s views and they have decided to settle up in a PUBLIC DEBATE. I’m in the Front row sitting with Stanley Crouch and Albert Murray (this is a true story). I’m an unknown trumpet player living in the Jersey city YMCA, so broke I’m eating at homeless shelters and shit. I’m not there to join in on this public BASHING of Collier (man, the WHOLE house was against him). I’m there to DEFEND PAUL because in his book, Collier dismissed him.During the public exchanges during the debate, I kept raising my hand but being denied a chance to speak and I was getting tight. Albert Murray stopped the whole thing and told the moderator, "Let this young man speak!”

So I challenged Collier on dismissing Paul and he responded, "I’m sorry,but he’s just not as creative as a COLEMAN HAWKINS or PRES…" "WHAT?” Wynton stepped in and said that Collier couldn’t hear what Paul was doing and stressed that that was an opinion. I blanked out after that (Did they carry me from the room?). The last thing I remember was Jimmy Knepper schooling the whole room on something.I guess if you roll with MINGUS like that, people need to stop and listen.

But that was then...

I kept listening to Paul (whom David Murray cites as a key influence as well). Anybody reading and wants to go deeper, track down any version of Ellington playing a tune called UP JUMP. ”And now, ladies and gentleman, Paul Gonsalves practises Tenor saxophonic calisthenics in UP JUMP.” What follow’s is a blazing fast, totally augmented vehicle for Paul to basically play as fast and hard as he possibly can the entire piece, ending in a solo cadenza, where his DNA is laid bare before the whole world. Imagine, as a musician, playing in front of thousands of people, standing down front of Duke Ellington’s band and it’s all bout’ you. Not just you, but your ultimate music, your supreme chops, SOLO. YOU GOT THIS. Duke was Paul’s biggest fan then and even did an entire record to feature him, which never happened to any other Ellingtonian. Duke also revealed his DARK side, and why the DEVIL card in the tarot lines up with his birthday (along with the LOVERS) by having Paul play UP JUMP when he was BOMBED, telling the audience afterwords with some delight,.”Paul Gonsalves!,..Drunk again!.”

For many writers and musicians, it was Paul’s ability to get high (he was charter member of a group inside the band called the “Air Force”) that they think of and remember. I choose to take the Gary Giddins perspective in his great book on BIRD, that Paul’s life and music are a TRIUMPH over the ADVERSITY of Drugs, booze,.and in Paul’s case,..even ACID..(Which according to Jaee Logan, is what took Giuseppe out)

Any other folks out there want to go deeper still, check out Paul’s Riverside album, ”Getting Together”... a NO Duke vibe.. Let’s see... Well get Jimmy Cobb and Wynton Kelly from MILES, and Nat Adderley and Sam Jones from CANNONBALL, and then feature PAUL.(12/20/1960,.my fathers birthday). This is the only record I ever got SIGNED,.(by Jimmy and Nat),and with good reason: it proves my case that Paul is one of the Tenor Masters.I’m not going to go all tech like Steve Coleman did with Bird,.I just need to Hear what went down, not so much as see it.

IN closing...my sermon ends today with a recollection of my prized possession. A video tape of Duke giving a lecture at the University of Wisconsin about a year before both he and Paul would leave this world, within days of each other. After about 45 minutes of Duke speaking and answering questions, he seems slightly surprised that Paul has joined him on stage. "Ladies and Gentleman,..this is Paul Gonsalves”. Paul seems to be in another world,and waves off the microphone,.as they agree to play the ballad feature "Happy Reunion”...

What follows is what many people playing free today are searching for: those moments when the music comes together in a way that transcends the structure or the key and the music and we become ourselves. You need to play with a musical family to get there. No different than Paul’s solo on “Praise God and dance” from Duke’s Live Second Sacred Concert which I believe proves that the avant garde and swing schools are really the same thing and that Jazz might be the biggest dysfunctional family of all time.

One day we’ll get that Happy Reunion.

…..

Source: Gonsalves!!!

Out, out, brief candle... Blow by Blow

If ever a photograph typified the relationship between Duke Ellington and Paul Gonsalves, it is this one. It was taken by Sefton Samuels at The Free Trade Hall, Manchester in 1969. No infringement of copyright intended.

We are celebrating the centenary of Paul Gonsalves all this week ahead of the 'birthday broadcast' by Duke Ellington Society UK, Uptown Lockdown this coming Wednesday, 5:00pm GMT. 

Further evidence of the unique relationship between bandleader and tenor saxophonist is presented here in this marvellous video from the Duke Ellington Festival held by UWIS in 1972. There is a superb article by Matt Lavelle inspired by this performance 

"Back in the 80’s in my fledgling days of trying to be a jazz musician, I had one big signpost. I knew deep inside that Paul Gonsalves music was the way to myself."

Read the full article here.

Paul Gonsalves Centenary

Paul Gonsalves, born one hundred years from today.

The Seventies: Sock it to them...

In 1970 Duke Ellington played a company gig for the 75th anniversary of the sock and stocking factory Falke in Schmallenberg, a small town (population: 25,000) in the Sauerland region of (then West‐) Germany, halfway between Kassel and Cologne. At one point we were asked about the concert and became curious about why and how it happened in the first place. We wrote to Franz‐Otto Falke, together with his brother Paul one of the co‐owners of the factory since 1951, and asked for the details. It took a couple of weeks, then we received an envelope containing a report by the Falke employee Klaus Fenger who in 1970 was working for Falke in advertising, had been assigned the task of finding an appropriate jazz ensemble for the event and who now shared his very personal memories of how it all came about. We contacted Klaus Fenger in Zambia, Africa where he lives today, organizing bush safaris, to ask him for permission to translate and share his memories of that special event in his earlier career, and he gladly agreed. Franz‐Otto Falke provided a copy of the program as well as some photos from the concert and dinner afterwards. Here, then, is the story behind Duke Ellington's concert at Schmallenberg's municipal auditorium on 10 July 1970...

Read the whole thing here.

The Seventies: The Cosmic Seen

GRÖNLAND RECORDS · Duke Ellington & His Orchestra - Afrique (take 3 vocal)

 

One never knows, do one? to quote Fats Waller, where one's explorations may lead?

In our golden anniversary celebration of Duke Ellington in the seventies, we reach 9 July today. On this day in 1970, Ellington and the Orchestra were in the Rhenus Studio in Köln, West Germany. For Ellington, it was just another stopover and a recording session for his private 'stockpile'. The engineer on this occasion, however, was Conny Plank and the 'discovery' of the tracks laid down that day created quite a media storm when they were copied to CD for release in 2015. You can read my earlier posts on the release of this disc here.

Quite the most intriguing aspect of this session was not so much the Kraftwerk engineer Conny Plank, but the presence of a vocalist Ellington seems to have acquired on his travels, Lena Junoff, pictured here with Maestro...

I am still trying to track down a copy of her autobiography/ cookbook (!), primadonnan från Hisingen. Some indication of its contents are in this post, Off The Wall,  here.

Miss Junoff is still pursuing her singing career, it seems, and I discovered the following video of her group called Cosmic Ellington Girls which I post here as a remarkable post script to the story of Ellington's Köln recording date...

An altogether more sober assessment of the relative musical merits of the so-called Conny Plank Session may be found at Michael Leddy's excellent blog Orange Crate Art.

Golden Feather

The Duke Ellington Story hosted by by Leonard Feather was reposted recently to Youtube at the behest of his daughter, Lorraine.

Here is the film...

Feather's presentation is drawn from two earlier Universal music 'shorts', A Salute to Duke Ellington and Symphony in Swing. Here are both of those pictures...

The Seventies: Bienvenue

Today, 6 July, is the fiftieth anniversary of the original telerecording of Duke Ellington's appearance on Guy Béart's chat show Bienvenue. 

The photograph at the top of the post shows Bill Coleman, featured in this extract, and Aaaron Bridgers, Billy Strayhorn's partner prior to the former's move to Paris in 1947.

Just days earlier in Ellington's recital for  ORTF recording (see previous post), Duke had made reference to Bridgers' playing of Lotus Blossom being preferable to Billy Strayhorn than his own. A touching reference and one assumes that Ellington had much to catch up on when Bridgers was in the audience for this television show.

That same day found Paul Gonsalves busy in the recording studios (presumably Barclay) for an album released subsequently on the Riviera label. The Paul Gonsalves All Stars consisted of Cat Anderson, Norris Turney, Wild Bill Davis (appearing as 'Prince Woodyard'), Joe Benjamin and Art Taylor.

One of the numbers, Alerado, was a tribute to Alexandre Rado, a great friend to members of the Ellington entourage, Billy Strayhorn, in particular. Rado produced these sessions. A few days later, the title was also re-recorded by the entire Ellington aggregation in the so-called 'Conny Plank Session'.

The album, Paul Gonsalves and his All Stars, has so far appeared neither on CD nor for streaming.

The Seventies: Radio Diffusion Télévision Français

2 July 1970 saw Duke Ellington in Paris in the television studios of Radio Diffusion for a remarkable piano recital. It is a measure of the high esteem in which Duke's music was held in France that a broadcast of such exceptional quality was arranged. 

The date of the recording is often misrepresented. This was because, in part, the programme was only broadcast some three years later, 7 August, 1973. Further confusion arises because some of the music, recorded in superb stereo, was released on CD in Italy, where the location was given as Dusseldorf, Oostende. An earlier post covered this issue here.

The piano portion of the disc is available here for your listening pleasure. I have also included the re-broadcast of the recital which Australian Broadcasting Commission television network carried. 

Everything available of this remarkable appearance, the fiftieth anniversary of which falls today, is therefore published here. An edited version of the ABC video, with just the Ellington recording is also available on the Facebook page for Ellington Live. The page is public and an account with Facebook is not necessary. Go here.

The Subject Is Jazz still(s)...

Read more about The Subject is Jazz here.