The Coventry Mystery Play

Here is a post from 2017 republished here with some further information new to me. I recently discovered another reference to The jaywalker, a play written by Barbara waring and performed in Coventry I can now confirm on 24 June, 1967. In fact, as the photograph below proves, the play was performed on the steps of the cathedral where Ellington and his Orchestra had given a Sacred Concert some 18 months earlier...

The caption to the photograph reads:  

"Long haired leather jacketed girls and boys watching a scene from this rehearsal of the first of the Coventry Cathedral Drama Porch Plays 67 The Jay Walker, which has music specialty written by Duke Ellington.

The play will be presented on the Cathedral steps tomorrow."

Date taken: 23rd June 1967

Here is the original post...

The recent reissue of the Storyville album The Jaywalker, anthologised in Duke Box 2  set me thinking about the play for which Ellington composed this music. With 2017 being the fiftieth anniversary of the work’s alleged première at Coventry Cathedral in July 1967, it seemed appropriate to look a little further into this theatrical piece.

    Research into the background of the play reveals the fascinating confluence of high art and high living centred around the ‘bright young things’ of the twenties and thirties who could well have stepped from the pages of a novel by Evelyn Waugh.  

    The Jaywalker was written by the former actress Barbara Waring who eventually became Lady Cunliffe through her second marriage to the chairman of British Aluminium, Geoffrey Cunliffe. Her first marriage was to the theatrical agent Lawrence Evans and Barbara Waring was steeped in theatre. She had appeared in Nöel Coward’s Cavalcade and graduated to work in the film industry, her most famous appearance being made in the film In Which We Serve. She was also an habitué of art critic Arthur Jeffress’ social circles, going on from clubs such as the Blue Angel to frequent parties he held at Orchard Court. Was it at one of these gatherings she first heard Ellington’s music? The critic was used to auditioning ‘hot’ records he had brought back from America on such occasions in the company of fellow jazz enthusiasts like Constant Lambert. When Ellington first visited Britain in 1933, he had been lionised by and later met teenager Renee Gertler, neice of the artist Mark Gertler. As Mrs Leslie Diamond, in the 1950s Renee entertained Ellington at her Park Lane home and it was through this mutual friendship that Ellington came to write the music for Waring’s The Jaywalker.

In his book Duke Ellington’s Music for the Theatre, John Franceschina describes the plot of The Jaywalker as follows:

“The play tells the simple story of a boy named Mac who wants to stop the traffic on the highway so that people on one side of the road can have the freedom to cross to the other side. After being bullied by a gestapo-like policeman, and witnessing the callousness of the crowd at the sight of a hit-and-run accident, Mac decides to take it upon himself to stop the traffic by running out into the road where he is ‘crucified between a lorry and a Rolls Royce.’ ”

    The tune Kixx subsequently found its way into Ellington’s Second Sacred Concert as The Biggest and Busiest Intersection. Whilst the connection to Ellington’s sacred work is, of course, obvious, I’m sure there are connections to be discovered, too, to the narrative drive of other Ellington works as diverse as Monologue (Pretty and the Wolf), A Drum is a Woman and The Golden Broom and the Green Apple, all works which might be said to address the idea of congress in the widest sense of the word: the nature of the exchange between man and woman; man and God – Morality and mortality, if you will. I’m sure there’s an academic paper in there somewhere… Duke Ellington and his Orchestra recorded the music for The Jaywalker in a single ‘stockpile’ recording session in New York City on 23 March, 1967. 

What of the play itself, however, for which the music was destined originally? John Franceschina writes:

    “… for some reason by 17 July, the author had not yet received permission from Ellington to use the score in production. With Duke’s touring schedule during the summer of 1967, it comes as no surprise that Lady Cunliffe had difficulty in pinning him down. Ultimately the production proceeded as planned, received warm notices, and except for the echoes of the score in Ellington’s Second Sacred Concert, disappeared forever.”

It remains a mystery still…

There is further reading on Barbara Waring and The Jaywalker here.

... if it ain't got that Swingle...

When Duke Ellington took his Sacred Concerts abroad, the choral parts were taken by groups of singers local to the venue. This, I assume, explains the involvement of Bob Sharples, for example, at the performance in Coventry Cathedral in 1966. 'Uncle Bob' was better known on these islands as the musical director for television personality Hughie Green of Opportunity Knocks fame (click on the linked title to see 'Uncle Bob' introduce the show...)

When Ellington performed parts of The Second Sacred Concert (and click the link here to watch the recording on a Japanese website) on 16 November, 1969 at The Church of St-Sulpice, just days before celebrations in Paris for his 70th birthday, the local vocal group was The Swingle Singers.

The Ecclesiastical, other-worldly sound of The Swingles (as they were later known when Ward Swingle re-founded the group in London in 1974) is suited perfectly to Ellington's Sacred music and, a staple of mainstream variety shows as they were on TV in the UK, perfect as the days of Autumn turn ashen in the run up to Christmas. So, with this in mind, I compiled a complete playlist of the eleven albums the original Parisian edition of The Swingles recorded for the Philips label during the Swingling(?) sixties, the period when they appeared with Ellington. 

If you have access to Spotify, the playlist is here:

In my researching of the group's history, I was delighted to discover a hitherto unpublished recording from this period. The recording may be found on a blog called Dans l'ombre des studios. It is Pavane for a Dead princess' by Ravel, recorded by The Swingles in 1967. The recording may be found here.

Homage to Catalonia

 

I recently happened upon a page of the website of Radiotelevisión Española, or RTVE, with the broadcast recordings of Duke Ellington's performances in the Basilica de Santa Maria Del Mar, Barcelona from 1969 and 1973.

Here are the links to the relevant broadcasts...

Sacred Concert 1969 Part One

Sacred Concert 1969 Part Two

Sacred Concert 1973

The relevant page may be found here.

The following descriptions from the website have been put through Google Translate which may explain any peculiarities in the translation.

50 years ago, Duke Ellington shouted 'Liberty' in Barcelona

It is 50 years since Duke Ellington's first concert at the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona. The audience was amazed by the spectacle and surprised by the performance of the song Freedom in the midst of Franco's regime. The musician returned to offer another concert there. place and with the same critical and public success in 1974(sic)

Shocked, the public heard in Santa Maria del Mar, in the historic Born neighborhood of Barcelona, at the concert of Duke Ellington and his orchestra, the interpretation of the song Freedom. It was 1969. The closing of the IV Barcelona International Jazz Festival was being celebrated and one of its featured shows was this concert.

Along with the great Duke Ellington (Washington, 1899) and his great orchestra, their vocalists Alice Babs and Tony Watkins sang, and the Sant Jordi Choir completed the staging with its founder and director Oriol Martorell at the helm. Also among the musicians were a group of jazz fans who two years later would form the legendary band La Locomotora Negra.

The concerto belongs to those of sacred music composed by Ellington. A musician who, to compose, drank from his roots in show business and of course African-American culture, but also from his religious faith.

And this is how the Study in Black program captured it. The TVE teams recorded the event on November 24, 1969 and it was broadcast at Christmas. It was directed by Jose Carlos Garrido and the narrator was Albert Mallofré. The recording is in two parts and bears little resemblance to the familiar themes of those dates on our television.

Satisfaction Guaranteed

The flagship auction of the late Charlie Watts, drummer for The Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts: Literature and Jazz Part One  will take place live in London this coming Thursday, 28 September with Part Two to Friday, 29 September.

For the record, here are photographs and details of the lots related specifically to Duke Ellington...

Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington

ELLINGTON, Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ (1899-1974). 

Rare set of six 12-inch acetates of the debut performance of Duke Ellington’s ambitious extended composition Black, Brown and Beige: a Tone Parallel to the History of the American Negro by Duke Ellington and his orchestra at Carnegie Hall, New York, 23 January 1943. 

Following extensive media hype, Duke Ellington debuted his 45-minute multi-part work Black Brown and Beige to a packed Carnegie Hall on 23 January 1943. ‘Celebrities were practically hanging from the chandeliers,’ reported the New York Post. Ellington’s groundbreaking composition, explains historian Harvey G. Cohen, ‘programmatically illustrated black history from the African continent to the African American contribution in World War II.’ For Ellington, who enjoyed an unrivalled crossover popularity with white audiences at the time, music served as a non-confrontational form of activism that allowed him to challenge racial inequality through a focus on black history, while at the same time circumvent and subvert racial stereotypes by ‘carefully cultivating an image of respectability and “genius”’. Despite a rapturous audience response to the Carnegie concert, a lukewarm critical reaction to the work ‘became a notorious snub that reduced Ellington’s confidence in his work.’ Cohen theorises that the negative response was a consequence of critics only having the opportunity to hear the complex composition once, as ‘it is not a work that reveals itself in one hearing’. Black, Brown and Beige would be performed in its entirety only once more - at Boston’s Symphony Hall on 28 January. ‘Future performances consisted of excerpts only, writes biographer Stuart Nicholson, ‘and the composition was never recorded in the studio in full.’ 

Musicologist Andrew Homzy confirms that the historic concert ‘was recorded by technicians at Carnegie Hall, and copies of the original acetate discs circulated among a small circle of record collectors.’ On Ellington’s direction and for his private use, four sets of acetates were cut from tape transfers of the Carnegie recordings, which were sent across the road to the famous Nola Recording Studios at Steinway Hall on West 57^th Street after the concert. The present set was passed to Ellington’s close friend and supporter Jack Barker, who received a mention in Duke’s 1973 autobiography: ‘starting with my first visit to Canada, when we were playing the Shea Theatre in Toronto [a one-week engagement starting 7 June 1935], I had made two close friends in Jack Barker and Robert Favreaux... I spent much of my time with them in Canada.’ A second set is held at the Library of Congress as part of the Valburn/Ellington Collection, while the rumoured third and fourth sets have not yet surfaced. Despite the circulating acetates and bootlegs, the Carnegie Hall concert was not released commercially until after Ellington’s death, by Prestige in 1977. Regardless of whether it was viewed as an artistic achievement, Black, Brown and Beige, stated Cohen, allowed Ellington to establish himself as a unique force in the American musical scene, a focus for American and African American pride and achievement, a figure of commercial strength and historic importance who, more than any other musician at the time, could stretch out in almost any artistic direction he wished. Cohen, 203, 211, 234, 242. Cook & Morton, 435. Ellington, 137. Homzy, in Black Music Research Journal, 13(2), 87. Nicholson, 246. 

One single-sided and five double-sided acetates with red and white ‘Nola Recording Studios’ labels numbered 1 to 11, with typewritten details ‘DUKE ELLINGTON & ORCH / BLACK BROWN & BEIGE / COPY’, in brown paper sleeves, and housed in an aluminium flight case; accompanied by an archive of material related to Ellington’s visits to Jack Barker and his family in Toronto, including: 

- ULANOV, Barry. Duke Ellington. New York: 1946. First edition, second printing, signed and inscribed in blue ballpoint pen on the half-title by Duke Ellington ‘to Jack & Eleanor, good luck, Duke Ellington’; 
- white paper coaster for the St. Regis Hotel, Toronto, c.1950s, warmly inscribed in black ink by Duke Ellington ‘To my Pretty Little Friend, Eleanor, Love You Madly, Duke Ellington’; 
- Four gelatin silver publicity portraits of Duke Ellington, c.1950, one signed and inscribed in turquoise ink by Ellington ‘To Eleanor, good luck, Duke Ellington’; 
- a group of eight unpublished personal photographs, 1950s-60s, including four deckle-edged vintage gelatin silver prints, dated Saturday 16 February 1957 - two of Duke at the microphone, one of Barker and Duke warmly embracing, another of Barker with Johnny Hodges - with later enlargements and negatives, a matte black and white photograph of Ellington at the piano with Barker, a passport-sized candid shot of a laughing Ellington sporting a cravat, together with three colour photographs of Ellington, laughing and smiling, in an intimate family setting, various sizes, the largest 175 x 130 mm; 
- a group of 1950s/1960s ephemera, including the business card of longtime Ellington trombonist Lawrence Brown and nine concert programmes.   

Part-printed document signed by Duke Ellington, an agreement with The Theatre Guild to act in the television adaptation of Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s musical allegory on the origins of jazz A Drum is a Woman, dated 1 February 1957, together with a first draft copy of the shooting script, dated 27 march 1957, with a few pencilled annotations, and a programme for the Ellington Orchestra’s concert at King’s Hall, Belle Vue, Manchester, 23 October 1958, signed by Ellington on his portrait page. 

This version was broadcast on The United States Steel Hour, 8 May 1957. In his DownBeat review, jazz journalist Jack Tracy described the work as ‘the most ambitious project attempted by Duke Ellington in years. It is a capsule history of jazz, it is a history of the [African-American] in America, it is a history of the Ellington orchestra, and it is a folk opera… But more than any of these it is a revealing self-portrait of Duke Ellington’. 

Two pages on one leaf of ‘The Theatre Guild, 23 West 53rd Street, New York’ letterhead, 279 x 216 mm, signed in blue ballpoint pen by Ellington at lower left and countersigned by Armina Marshall, wife of founder Lawrence Langner, on behalf of The Theatre Guild, accompanying a 39pp. carbon copy typescript draft shooting script; the programme wire-stitched in original pictorial wraps; all housed in a modern custom blue cloth solander box with morocco patch label to the front board. 

[With:] a vintage black and white press photograph of Duke Ellington in conversation during rehearsals for the recording of the Symphonic Ellington at the Salle Wagram in Paris, 1963, vintage gelatin silver press print, 241 x 179 mm, stamped credits of ‘Paris-Match’ and the Swedish ‘International Magazine Agency, Stockholm’ and pencil annotation verso.

10-inch single signed in white ink on the label by Duke Ellington, in original green paper sleeve. 

‘Black Beauty begins with the same harmonies as the opening piano solo in the Gershwin [Rhapsody in Blue]; it’s even in the same key… Swampy River, which Ellington recorded at the same piano solo session as Black Beauty, began with an even more explicit allusion to Rhapsody in Blue… Gershwin returned the compliment, because the bridge of I Got Rhythm, written two years later, recalls the second strain of Black Beauty. Tipping his hat to Gershwin, Ellington flaunted his compositional and pianistic chops.’ Schiff, 275. 

[With:] a large vintage publicity portrait of Duke Ellington, late 1920s, signed and inscribed in black ink ‘To D.M. Levy, Best Wishes, In Appreciation, Duke Ellington’. Gelatin silver print, mounted to board, 354 x 277 mm, framed (396 x 322 mm). 

[And:] a novelty double publicity portrait of Ellington, c.1938, signed and inscribed in blue ink ‘To Miss Urtz, Best Wishes, Sincerely, Duke Ellington’, gelatin silver print, 204 x 258 mm.

Large publicity portrait of Duke Ellington and his famous Cotton Club Orchestra, signed and inscribed by Duke Ellington, 1931. Inscribed in black ink across the width ‘With kind regards and much success to Lud Palirr [sic] Studio. Duke Ellington, Oct 28/31.’ Ellington and his Orchestra appeared at the Stanley Theater in Jersey City on this date. Vintage gelatin silver print on card stock, 276 x 354 mm. Provenance: Ludwig “Lud” Palir (musician, 1895-1967; presentation inscription recto) – RR Auctions, Boston, 20 March 2014, lot 410. 

[With:] another original black and white photograph of Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra, 1932, signed in black ink by Ellington and all eleven members of his orchestra as pictured. Gelatin silver print, with stamped credit of ‘The Gramophone Co. Ltd. Hayes, Middx’ verso, titled and dated in an unknown hand 7 January 1932, 126 x 245 mm, in window mount (405 x 507 mm). 

[With:] another vintage publicity portrait of Ellington and his Orchestra, 1937, signed by eight members of the band, the signatures acquired by teenage jazz fan Bob Inman at the Saturday Night Swing broadcast, 13 March 1937, with Inman's typically exhaustive annotations verso. Gelatin silver print, 204 x 257 mm. Provenance: Bob Inman – RR Auctions, Boston, 20 March 2014, lot 411.

[With:] a publicity portrait of Ellington vocalist Ivie Anderson, signed ‘Best Wishes, Ivie Anderson’, the autograph acquired by Bob Inman on 13 March 1937, with his ink annotation verso ‘She is the nuts… She dances around when singing… She sang “Oh Babe! Maybe Someday” with the band.’ Gelatin silver print, 254 x 201 mm. 

[With:] two Cotton Club programmes for the second and fourth Cotton Club Parade on Broadway, 1937 and 1938, the first signed and inscribed in black ink at his portrait ‘Best Wishes, Duke Ellington’, the second signed in pencil on the front cover by Ellington and Ethel Waters, each wire-stitched in the original illustrated wraps, approx. 303 x 209 mm. 

[With:] a vintage informal stage photograph of the Ellington Orchestra appearing in Ottumwa, Iowa, c.1946, signed by orchestra saxophonist Johnny Hodges, together with a signed vintage publicity portrait of Hodges, c.1945. Gelatin silver prints, each approx. 209 x 254 mm. 

[With:] a dance-card for the Cardinal Cotillion Club mid-summer dance in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, 17 August 1936, signed in pencil on the first page by Duke Ellington, 108 x 75 mm. 

[And:] a horn case, labelled C. G. Conn Ltd., painted in white to the base ‘Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club Orchestra’, wood with imitation leather finish, 265 x 620 x 150 mm.

A collection of concert handbills, programmes, menu cards and other ephemera from the legendary Prohibition-era nightclub The Cotton Club in Harlem, New York, 1923-1940.

The Cotton Club was Harlem’s premier nightclub in the 1920s and 1930s during the Prohibition Era. Founded in 1923 and run by bootlegger Owney Madden, the club specialised in featuring prominent black entertainers and talent for exclusively white clientele, providing a springboard for the careers of many African American performers including Duke Ellington, whose orchestra was the house band from 1927 to 1931. Cab Calloway's orchestra replaced Ellington’s group in 1931 and Jimmie Lunceford’s band took residence in 1934. Lena Horne began her career as a chorus girl at the Cotton Club and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Sammy Davis Jr. performed as tap dancers. The club relocated downtown to Broadway and 48th in 1936 and remained in business for another four years, shutting its doors in 1940.

The collection comprising: two programmes for the 1927 and 1933 seasons, the first for the show Rhyth-mania, the second for Cotton Club Parade (22nd Edition), the largest 241 x 165 mm. The 1927 season marked the beginning of Duke Ellington’s relationship with the club, which put him on the road to stardom.

[With:] a programme for Ted Koehler’s Cotton Club Parade (26th Edition), 1935, opens 257 x 355 mm. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection.

[With:] five Cotton Club food and drink menus, one c.1929 and three c.1930, all Prohibition-era, listing only non-alcoholic beverages, the other c.1933 after the repeal of Prohibition, showing an extensive list of alcoholic drinks available, the largest 278 x 216 mm. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl.259).

[With:] a souvenir club photofolder, 166 x 215 mm, signed on the window mount in green ink by Louis Armstrong, with corresponding gelatin silver table photograph showing a party of four at the club. Armstrong appeared in the very last Cotton Club show before it closed its doors in June 1940. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl. 256). 

[With:] a programme for the Cotton Club, World’s Fair Edition, 1939, accompanied by a loosely inserted illustrated programme, 300 x 230 mm.

[With:] two Cotton Club Prohibition-era notices to guests - a table-card and thin card “collar” bottle neck slip, c. 1930. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl. 262 & 263).

[With:] a handbill for the 4th Edition of the Cotton Club Parade featuring Duke Ellington, 1938.

[With:] a minimum charge policy notice card, 1933.

[With:] a matchbook cover, c.1930. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl. 261).

[And:] a menu for ‘The Fabulous Cotton Club’ in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1958, apparently not affiliated to the famous Manhattan nightspot, inscribed on the back cover ‘musically yours, Dinah Washington’, accompanied by a vintage 8x10in. publicity portrait of Washington by James J. Kriegsmann studio.

Two concert programmes and a signed revue card for Duke Ellington’s first European tour in 1933. 

Rare revue card from Punch’s Club, Mayfair Hotel, London, 20 June 1933, signed in pencil by Ellington and all fourteen members of his orchestra including Charlie “Cootie” Williams, Fred Jenkins, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Juan Tizol and vocalist Ivie Anderson, additionally signed by tour promoter Jack Hylton; with a scarce concert programme for Duke Ellington at the Trocadero Cinema, London, 25 June 1933; and a tour programme for Ellington’s first appearances in France in July and August 1933. 

The Ellington Orchestra began its first European tour in London on 5 June 1933 ahead of a 55-day concert tour of England, Holland and France. The band’s first performances at the London Palladium were sold out, breaking all previous box-office records. After successfully touring other major British cities, the band returned to London where they played this one-night engagement at London’s Mayfair Hotel. Five days later, the band played to a packed house at London’s Trocadero Cinema, the largest theatre in Europe. Ellington biographer John Hasse makes particular mention of the Trocadero programme as an ‘elaborate twenty-four page program… presenting the musicians as serious artists, Ellington as a serious composer and his compositions as true works of art. Nothing like this had ever been done for Ellington in the United States. Even when he would finally be invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in the 1940’s the program booklets were not nearly as elaborate’. 

Single fold revue card, 204 x 128 mm, opening to 204 x 255 mm. Trocadero programme wire-stitched in the original light card wraps, with printed glassine overlay wrapper, 304 x 233 mm. French programme wire-stitched in photographic self-wraps, with original glassine overlay wrap, 251 x 202 mm. 

[With:] – Mood Indigo. New York: Mills Music, 1931. First edition of the printed piano-vocal score, signed in blue ink on the cover by Duke Ellington. Original three colour printed self-wraps, 307 x 232 mm.

Six concert programmes signed by Duke Ellington and a souvenir programme for the second Esquire Jazz Awards, 1940s to 1970s, comprising: Duke Ellington and his Orchestra at the Palais de Chaillot, 12-16 April 1950, signed and inscribed in blue ballpoint pen by Ellington on the front cover ‘To my pretty little friend Mimi, good luck, Duke Ellington. Provenance: Maria Therese “Mimi” Faelens (Belgian music critic and journalist); British Tour in association with Melody Maker, 1971, signed in blue ballpoint pen by Ellington at his portrait photograph, additionally signed by seven members of the band; Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra, 1945, signed in black ink on the front cover by Duke Ellington, additionally signed by six members of the band including saxophonists Johnny Hodges and Otto Hardwicke; Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra, c.1946, singed in blue ink by Ellington on the front cover; a souvenir tour programme for ‘The Biggest Show of ‘51’ tour of the US and Canada, 21 September – 28 November 1951, signed in black and turquoise ink at their centre page spread by Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole, additionally signed in pencil on her portrait page by singer Sarah Vaughan, and further inscribed ‘Love You Madly, Duke Ellington’ on his portrait page. Both Cole and Vaughan fronted the Ellington band during the two hour show; a souvenir tour programme for the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s 1963 UK tour presented by Harold Davison and Norman Granz, twice signed in blue ballpoint pen on the first page to Geoffrey and Robin ‘Good luck, Duke Ellington’; and a souvenir programme for Esquire’s 1945 ‘All-American Jazz Concert’ - the second Esquire Jazz Awards, 17 January 1945, the main concert in Los Angeles starring Duke Ellington, with a loosely inserted running order for the LA concert. As recalled by Ellington, the awards were given out by Hollywood personalities: ‘Billy Strayhorn received his from Lena Horne; mine was presented by Lionel Barrymore’. Alkyer, Downbeat: The Great Jazz Interviews, November 1952. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection.

 Music is my Mistress. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1973. 

First edition, signed and inscribed by Duke Ellington. Inscribed in black felt pen on the first blank ‘To my friend Mort Lawrence, Good Luck, Duke Ellington’. We are unable to trace any other inscribed copies in auction records. The scarcity is no doubt due to the short period of only six months between the publication of his autobiography in November 1973, and Ellington’s death in May 1974. The present copy was presented by Ellington to Mort Lawrence, an actor and voice artist who had worked on New York radio station WMCA’s groundbreaking series New World A’Coming, for which Ellington wrote the theme song. 

Octavo. Portrait frontispiece and numerous illustrations. Original black cloth gilt, blue endpapers, with the dust-jacket (light rubbing to corners, triangular chip to upper panel).

[DUKE ELLINGTON] GAMMOND, Peter ed. (1925-2019). Duke Ellington. His Life and Music. London: Phoenix House, 1958.

First edition, signed by Duke Ellington and his entire orchestra for British jazz journalist Jeff Atterton. Twice signed in blue ballpoint pen on the half-title by Ellington, additionally signed and often inscribed by the entire Ellington orchestra at the prelims, including Duke’s great collaborator and arranger, pianist Billy Strayhorn. The recipient, Jeff Atterton, wrote for Melody Maker and associated with many of the greats from the Big Band era and earlier.

Octavo. Portrait frontispiece and 16 other plates, pictorial endpapers. Original red cloth gilt, with pink pictorial dust-jacket. Provenance: Jeff Atterton (British jazz journalist).

[With:] ULANOV, Barry (1918-200). Duke Ellington. London: Musician's Press Limited, 1947. First edition, second impression, signed and inscribed in blue ink by Ellington on the front free endpaper ‘good luck, Duke Ellington’. Octavo. Original red boards gilt, with the dust-jacket. Ulanov, at the time editor of Metronome magazine, authored four seminal books on jazz music and culture. 

[With:] JEWELL, Derek. Duke: A Portrait of Duke Ellington. London: Elm Tree Books, 1977. Authorial presentation inscription. Music critic Derek Jewell was instrumental in staging Ellington’s Sacred Music in the UK and organised his London memorial service.

[With:] ELLINGTON, Mercer and Stanley DANCE. Duke Ellington in Person. An Intimate Memoire. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1978. Dance's authorial inscription to front free endpaper by Stanley Dance. 

[And:] TEACHOUT, Terry. Duke. The Life of Duke Ellington. London: The Robson Press, 2013.

An ivory handled conductor's baton, engraved on the tip of the handle ‘Presented to Duke Ellington by the Dodge Dealers of Chicagoland, December 31, 1939’. 

On New Year’s Eve 1939, WBBM broadcast the Duke Ellington Orchestra from the Marigold Ballroom, Chicago, as part of their “Meet the Band” strand, featuring a special arrangement of Ring dem Bells, performed by Cootie Williams. 

Gilt embossed brass, ivory and stained wood, with original velvet lined case, 457 mm. Provenance: Christie’s New York, 30 November 2007, lot 6.

First edition of the printed piano-vocal score, signed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Inscribed in red ballpoint pen on the front cover ‘To Andy Mansfield, Madly, Billy Strayhorn’ and in black ballpoint pen on the first page ‘Duke Ellington’. 

Billy Strayhorn joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1939 and quickly became Ellington’s chief collaborator and arranger. Reportedly, Strayhorn was inspired to write Take the ‘A’ Train by the directions Duke provided on his first arriving in New York from Pittsburgh, and it soon became the signature tune of the Ellington Orchestra. The recipient, Andy Mansfield, was a Los Angeles radio broadcaster known for the music programmes Turn Back the Clock and America’s Popular Music. 

Printed piano-vocal score, bifolium, 305 x 228 mm. 

[With:] – V.I.P.’s Boogie / Jam with Sam. Columbia Records, 1951. 10-inch single signed on the A-side label in white ink by Duke Ellington and in black ink by Billy Strayhorn, vocalist Jimmie Grissom, drummer Louie Bellson and saxophonist Harry Carney, additionally signed by eleven other members of the Orchestra on the B-side label and the original brown paper sleeve . The additional signatures of singers Betty Roché and Jimmy Grissom, who do not appear on the recording, indicate that the record was likely signed at Birdland in November 1952. 

[With:] STRAYHORN, Billy (1915-1967). Mercer Records presents the Billy Strayhorn Trio. Mercer Records, 1950. Album signed in blue ballpoint pen on the rear slick ‘Billy Strayhorn’. A scarce recording on the short-lived Mercer label started by Ellington’s son Mercer and jazz writer Leonard Feather. The ‘Trio’ consisted of Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, with either Wendell Marshall or Joe Shulman on bass. 

[And:] ELLINGTON, Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ (1899-1974). Primping from the Prom – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. CBS, 1973. Album signed and inscribed in blue ballpoint pen on the front of the sleeve ‘To My Friend Jon Swenson [illegible], Good Luck, Duke Ellington xxxx’.

A collection of concert handbills, programmes, menu cards and other ephemera from the legendary Prohibition-era nightclub The Cotton Club in Harlem, New York, 1923-1940.

The Cotton Club was Harlem’s premier nightclub in the 1920s and 1930s during the Prohibition Era. Founded in 1923 and run by bootlegger Owney Madden, the club specialised in featuring prominent black entertainers and talent for exclusively white clientele, providing a springboard for the careers of many African American performers including Duke Ellington, whose orchestra was the house band from 1927 to 1931. Cab Calloway's orchestra replaced Ellington’s group in 1931 and Jimmie Lunceford’s band took residence in 1934. Lena Horne began her career as a chorus girl at the Cotton Club and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Sammy Davis Jr. performed as tap dancers. The club relocated downtown to Broadway and 48th in 1936 and remained in business for another four years, shutting its doors in 1940.

The collection comprising: two programmes for the 1927 and 1933 seasons, the first for the show Rhyth-mania, the second for Cotton Club Parade (22nd Edition), the largest 241 x 165 mm. The 1927 season marked the beginning of Duke Ellington’s relationship with the club, which put him on the road to stardom.

[With:] a programme for Ted Koehler’s Cotton Club Parade (26th Edition), 1935, opens 257 x 355 mm. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection.

[With:] five Cotton Club food and drink menus, one c.1929 and three c.1930, all Prohibition-era, listing only non-alcoholic beverages, the other c.1933 after the repeal of Prohibition, showing an extensive list of alcoholic drinks available, the largest 278 x 216 mm. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl.259).

[With:] a souvenir club photofolder, 166 x 215 mm, signed on the window mount in green ink by Louis Armstrong, with corresponding gelatin silver table photograph showing a party of four at the club. Armstrong appeared in the very last Cotton Club show before it closed its doors in June 1940. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl. 256). 

[With:] a programme for the Cotton Club, World’s Fair Edition, 1939, accompanied by a loosely inserted illustrated programme, 300 x 230 mm.

[With:] two Cotton Club Prohibition-era notices to guests - a table-card and thin card “collar” bottle neck slip, c. 1930. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl. 262 & 263).

[With:] a handbill for the 4th Edition of the Cotton Club Parade featuring Duke Ellington, 1938.

[With:] a minimum charge policy notice card, 1933.

[With:] a matchbook cover, c.1930. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl. 261).

[And:] a menu for ‘The Fabulous Cotton Club’ in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1958, apparently not affiliated to the famous Manhattan nightspot, inscribed on the back cover ‘musically yours, Dinah Washington’, accompanied by a vintage 8x10in. publicity portrait of Washington by James J. Kriegsmann studio.

Autograph music manuscript for Juan Tizol’s Perdido, together with Duke Ellington’s first sketch arrangement for the song, 1941.

Speaking to Patricia Willard in November 1978 for the Smithsonian’s Jazz Oral History project, Tizol recounted the song’s origin: ‘Perdido was written on the train, a coach train... I gave it to Duke. And he took it right there and made some kind of arrangement... I extracted it, so we wrote it, he arranged it, and we played it that same night, because there was nothing to that first arrangement of Perdido. The song became a standard for the Ellington orchestra, first recorded in December 1941 for Standard Radio Transcription Services, and subsequently laid down in what is regarded as their definitive version on 21 January 1942 for the Victor Label. After lyrics were written for the song by Ervin Drake, it was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and many others. In his 1987 biography of Ellington, James Lincoln Collier somewhat dismissively remarks that, along with another Ellington classic C-Jam Blues, Perdido cannot ‘really be classified as a “song”’, conceding that ‘the lesson to be learned is that, in jazz, less is often more. These two recordings have outlasted a great many much more venturesome and complex pieces of that time… It is an inviolable rule of jazz: first you must swing. And these two minimal compositions swing.’ Collier, 235. Tizol cited in Nicholson, 239. 

Tizol’s draft manuscript in pencil on seven pages, 306 x 242 mm, six on dual ten stave paper printed on rectos only, the seventh on a half-sheet of dual twelve stave paper manually separated at the fold, the manuscript titled 'Perdido' and inscribed 'Juan Tizol, Copyt’., Tempo Music Inc. 261-Broadway N.Y.C.', the score complete with the song’s introduction, A and B sections and the head, with parts for saxophone, trumpet and trombone; Ellington’s sketch on five pages, 317 x 238 mm, comprising two half-sheets of dual twelve stave paper manually separated at the fold, scored on both sides, and one sheet of dual twelve stave paper scored on one recto only, the arrangement with parts for brass, saxophone, clarinet, baritone sax, and noting a solo passage for trumpeter Ray Nance; accompanied by a handwritten note of provenance from trombonist Lewis McCreary, stating '…Juan Tizol gave me these with the explanation that the one portion was his original draft of the tune Perdido, while the other was Duke Ellington’s first sketch and probably the only “arrangement” Duke ever wrote on the tune'; housed in a modern custom quarter morocco cloth slip case. 

[With:] a typewritten publishing agreement for the composition Perdido between Tempo Music, Inc. and the three co-composers Juan Tizol, Harry Lenk and Ervin Drake, dated 1 July 1942, noting Tizol’s share as three quarters, signed in ink by Tizol, Lenk and Drake, and by Ruth Ellington on behalf of Tempo Music. 4pp., 356 x 216 mm. Provenance: Guernsey’s, New York, 18 May 2016, lot 27.

[DUKE ELLINGTON] WOODWARD, Woody. Jazz Americana. Los Angeles: Trend Books, 1956. 

First and only edition, signed by Duke Ellington and seven members of his orchestra. Signed on his full-page photograph ‘Duke Ellington’ and on the next page by seven leading members of his orchestra including Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams, additionally signed throughout the text by Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Jack Teagarden and ten other prominent jazz musicians. A concise history of jazz by writer and Pacific Jazz Records art director Woody Woodward. Provenance: Ross Brethour (founder of Nomadic Records; his ownership inscription to title page). Octavo (235 x 169 mm). Wire-stitched in original paper wraps. 

[With:] BEECHAM, Sir Thomas (1879-1961). A Mingled Chime: An Autobiography. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1943. First edition, Duke Ellington’s Copy. Authorial inscription on the front free endpaper ‘For Duke Ellington from his admiring colleague Thomas Beecham, Aug. 10/43’. Octavo. Original blue cloth gilt, with dust-jacket. Ink-stamp of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation to front free endpaper. 

[And:] HARVEY, Chas. ed. Jazz Parody: Anthology of Jazz Fiction. London: Spearman/American Jazz Society, [1948]. First edition, signed and inscribed in black ink on the front free endpaper ‘Good Luck, Duke Ellington’. Octavo. Original red linen tape-backed boards with dust-jacket.

A captivating archive of unpublished photographs of American jazz greats in London by accomplished British photographer Jamie Hodgson. Known during his lifetime as a fashion and society photographer, Hodgson’s passion for jazz led him to document the British tours of his jazz heroes throughout the 1950s and 60s, capturing extraordinary unguarded portraits of the stars on stage, backstage and in his Knightsbridge studio. ‘We had never seen the great jazz musicians because, until the Fifties,’ said Hodgson ‘they never came to Britain. It was an exciting time.’ His jazz photography was latterly celebrated with an exhibition, Masters of Jazz: Unseen Portraits, at the National Theatre in 2005. The Independent obituary, 2006.