It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World...

 To Madison Square Garden in happier times... 17 October, 1957 and "A Little Party"  celebrating the first birthday of Around The World In 80 Days.

DUKE ELLINGTON and his orchestra for dancing

Playing Second Fiddle

These items, a copy of Duke Ellington's Music Is My Mistress and a Christmas Card interestingly a signed, possibly(?) by Evie is currently for sale on eBay.fr

Music is my Christmas!

I have left the vendor's description in its original tongue.

Pictures of the items for sale are all we can afford...

Editions Doubleday & Compagny, Inc - Garden City, New York 1973. Enorme in-4 cartonnage éditeur pleine toile noire de 522 pages au format 18,5 x 5,5 x 28,5 cm. Premier plat et dos avec titre doré et gravé. Complet de la jaquette bleue avec titre imprimé en blanc. Frottis aux coins et mors de la jaquette, qui présente aussi de petits manques et qui à été renforcée au verso. Souvenirs de l'artiste accompagnés de très nombreuses photos hors texte. Tirage sur couché. Rare édition originale américaine en premier tirage et superbe état général, à l'exception des défauts de la jaquette. Précieux Exemplaire accompagné d'une d'une carte de vœux imprimée avec mention " Season's Greeting and Best Wishes for the New Year ", enrichie d'une dédicace autographe signée de Edward Kennedy Ellington dit Duke Ellington et de Beatrice Ellis, sa femme, dite Evie : Sincerely The Duke Ellingtons ( Evie and Edward ).Le livre est aussi accompagné d'une magnifique photo au format  18 x 24 cm, en tirage argentique, avec cachet au verso, représentant Duke Ellington en galante compagnie lors d'une fiesta organisée par Eddie Barclay. Rare et superbe ensemble.

Live: November 2024

 It is advisable to book any event listed here in advance when possible and check with the promoter/ organiser to ensure any performance is going ahead as planned before travelling.

Saturday, 9 November, 2024 19:30 (GMT)

The Music of Duke Ellington 

Harmony In Harlem, dir. Michael Kilpatrick

40-43 St Andrew's St, Cambridge, Cambs CB2 3AR Tel: 01223 506343

Harmony In Harlem return to St Andrew's Street Baptist Church in Cambridge, for a fresh performance of our vibrant foot-tapping swing, exotica and jazz from the great composers Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. On this occasion we are reviving some of up-tempo repertoire all the way from the mid-1930s through to the mid-1960s for an invigorating show. We are pleased to be included as a Fringe Event within the Cambridge Jazz Festival. Doors open at 7:00pm.

Details here.

Saturday, 16 November 2024 20:30 (CET)

La Légende de Duke Ellington: Du Cotton Club À Newport

Duke Orchestra, dir. Laurent Mignard

Théâtre de la Garenne, 22 Av. de Verdun 1916, 92250 La Garenne-Colombes, France

Two great orchestras brought together on the same stage (Nicolas Montier's Jazz Circus and Laurent Mignard's Duke Orchestra) bring us back to life the odyssey of the most brilliant jazz composer and orchestrator of all time.

From the Cotton Club in the late 1920s to the Newport Festivals in the late 1950s, a breathtaking journey along the paths that led Duke Ellington to the height of fame and glory.

An exceptional concert specially designed to celebrate 20 years of Jazz at La Garenne and the 125th anniversary of the birth of Duke Ellington. A new sesame to enter the world of jazz… not to be missed under any circumstances!

Details here

Sunday, 17 November, 2024, matinee and Evening Sets

Mr Tipple's Jazz Club San Francisco

From Nick Rossi:

I am very proud to once again present the Jazzopaters: an Ellingtonia Unit this coming Sunday, November 17th at Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club here in San Francisco. This, our final scheduled performance of the year, will consist of two shows each showcasing our Swing Era book of Duke Ellington’s “small group” material adapted and arranged for our 9 piece repertory ensemble. Shows are at 5 and 6:45 p.m. and will consist of two programs of material. We hope that you can join us for this amazing music played with love by some of the best musicians on the scene in a sophisticated but comfortable night club setting. 

Advance Tickets Highly Recommended: here

Sunday, 24 November, 2024, 18:00 (GMT)

Kings Place (Hall One), 90 York Way, London N1 9AG

Tomorrow’s Warriors presents Nu Civilisation Orchestra led by Peter Edwards for this special EFG London Jazz Festival performance of Duke Ellington’s New Orleans Suite.

Intensely evocative, New Orlean’s Suite is not just Ellington’s love letter to the city that is regarded as the cradle of jazz, but also an homage to the great musicians that shaped the Crescent City sound and who would go on to have such a huge influence across America and beyond.

These compositions retain the trademark Ellington swing, but he’s added something more. There’s a swagger and grit to the opening track, Blues for New Orleans, with its swirling electric organ riffs and rolls that anchor you in Tremé from the get-go. Equally evocative is the high-energy street parade of Second Line, conjuring images of crowds partying down streets amidst a sea of spinning umbrellas.

But Ellington goes beyond just celebrating the city. He also honours some of the great New Orleans musicians, many of whom were his contemporaries, with a series of portraits for Sidney Bechet (who Ellington recalled hearing in 1921, “the greatest thing I ever heard in my life. It knocked me out.”), Louis Armstrong, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and bassist Wellman Braud.

“Ellington is a unique composer and bandleader. It’s not just the quality of his arrangements, he brings a humanity to his writing that is unlike anyone else. With New Orleans Suite, he is celebrating a city and its great musicians, but there is an added poignancy. At the time of the recording Bechet and Braud were both already dead, and Armstrong and Jackson would pass away within the next two years. Six decades into his own career, Ellington must have been acutely aware that this was the end of a chapter in jazz history, a changing era. You can feel that in the compositions, but he is embracing that change in true Crescent City style, celebrating life and banging the drum for its blessings. Ellington’s music stands alone. It’s tempting to say that there’s Ellington and then the rest is a bag of noise!”

Dr Gary Crosby OBE, Artistic Director, Nu Civilisation Orchestra

Book tickets here

The Killer's Boogie

 

Sumptuous illustrations from a recent lot in the virtual sale room, this programme from Sweden, 1950 is particularly notable for the alleged autograph of trumpeter Al Killian.

Killian's stay with the band was cut short tragically. His entry in Wikipedia reads, in part, 

'In 1946, Killian played with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series. An interest in bebop led to Killian forming his own band to play the new music in 1947, but this was short-lived.Following this he briefly toured with bands led by Earle Spencer and Boyd Raeburn, before landing a spot in Duke Ellington's band, with which he toured and recorded from 1947 to 1950.On September 5 of the year that he left Ellington, Killian was murdered in his Los Angeles home by "a psychopathic landlord".'

One of only  a handful of sessions where Killian was the leader was released recently on the Mosaic Records Box Set, Classic Black and White Jazz Sessions.

From the discography Mosaic Records include in the box, there is a savage irony in the titles recorded that day...

AL KILLIAN ALL STARS: Al Killian (tp), unidentified (cl), (ts), (p), (el-g), (b), (d).

LA, September 11 – October 30, 1946

466-1 Boogie In My Flat B&W 117

467-2 The Killer’s Boogie –

Incidentally, on the same box are the complete sides Al Killian recorded with the Kenton sound-alike Earle Spencer and his Orchestra. For the record (and, again, from the Mosaic Records discography), those sides were as follows...

EARLE SPENCER AND HIS ORCHESTRA: Al Killian, Bob Fowler, Jimmy Salco, Clair Jones, Richard Binns (tp), Ollie Wilson, Marshall Cram, J. Durward Morsch, Dick Monson (tb), Skeets Herfurt, William Hudspeth (cl, as), Herbie Steward, Francis Polifroni (ts), Bob Snell (bari), Paul Polena and/or Milt Raskin (p), Tony Rizzi (g), Artie Shapiro (b), Jackie Mills (d), Annette Warren (vcl), Frank Erickson, Bill Gillett (arr).

Radio Recorders Studio, LA

September 5, 1946, 2:00-5:30 pm

Supervised by Ralph Bass

384-1 E.S. Boogie (Part II) (BG-arr) B&W 800

385-2 E.S. Boogie (Part I) (ens-vcl) (BG-arr) B&W 799

386 Lover Man (AW-vcl)

or Spenceria (FE-arr) unissued, master no longer exists

387-5 Rhapsody In Boogie (Part I) (FE-arr) B&W 801

(GGG) EARLE SPENCER AND HIS ORCHESTRA: Al Killian, Bob Fowler, Jimmy Salco, Clair Jones, Richard Binns (tp), Ollie Wilson, Marshall Cram, J. Durward Morsch, Dick Monson (tb), James McGee, Richard Hofmann (f-hn), Les Robinson, William Hudspeth (cl, as), Herbie Steward, Francis Polifroni (ts), Bob Snell (bari), Paul Polena and/or Milt Raskin (p), Tony Rizzi (g), Morty Corb (b, arr), Jackie Mills (d), Bob Hayward (vcl), Frank Erickson, Harry Wham (arr).

Radio Recorders Studio, LA,

September 6, 1946, 9:00 pm – 12 am

Supervised by Ralph Bass

388-2 Amber Moon (BH-vcl) (MC-arr) B&W 843

389-2 Spencerian Theory (Part II) (HW-arr) B&W 799

390-1 Rhapsody In Boogie (Part II) (FE-arr) B&W 801

391-2 Spencerian Theory (Part I) (HW-arr) B&W 800

(HHH) EARLE SPENCER AND HIS ORCHESTRA: Al Killian, Bob Fowler, Jimmy Salco, Frank Beach, Richard Binns (tp), Ollie Wilson, J. Durward Morsch, Dick Monson, Ray Sims (tb), Les Robinson, William Hudspeth (cl, as), Ralph Lee, Don Lodice (ts), Hy Mandel (bari), Hal Schaefer (p), Mike Bryan (g), Morty Corb or Artie Shapiro (b), Sam Weiss (d), Bob Gillette, Paul Nelson, Paul Polena (arr).

Radio Recorders Studio, LA,

October 19, 1946, 7:00-11:00 pm

Supervised by Ralph Bass

529-3 Five Guitars In Flight -1 B&W 822

530 Polychronic Suite (PN-arr) unissued, master no longer exists

531-2 Gangbusters (poss. PP-arr) B&W 822

532-alt Piano Interlude (BG-arr) Tops L948-69 (LP)

532-3 Piano Interlude (BG-arr) B&W 854