I think I read somewhere...

 First of three Duke Ellington UK-related posts this week...

And another discographical mystery solved. On 5 January 1973, Duke Ellington was at BBC Television Centre,  Wood Lane for an interview with chat show host Michael Parkinson. Parkinson was a big name at the BBC, his late night chat show a mainstay of the corporation's Saturday night schedules.

The interview, which occupied the entirety of Parkinson's hour long show as indeed it should, was broadcast on 24 February that year. It concluded with an impromptu performance by Duke at the piano with the Harry Stoneham Five, the resident band for the show.

With the exception of Harry Stoneham himself on organ, the rest of the musicians are not named in any Ellington discography. Those names may now be known. Later in the year, the same set of musicians recorded an album on the EMI studio2stereo label.

In the liner notes, written by Michael Parkinson, he says:

"Satin Doll is for Duke Ellington. He played a solo on the show, then nodded across at harry Stoneham. 'Will dat cat paly with me?' he asked. That cat did and they swung into Satin Doll."

The personnel on the album The Harry Stone Five subsequently recorded is:

Bass Guitar – Pete Morgan

Drums – Dougie Wright

Engineer – Peter Brown*

Guitar – Dick Abell*

Organ – Harry Stoneham

These were the 'cats' who became honorary Ellingtonians for one evening, joining a very select group of musicians from the UK who played with Duke.

The drummer, Dougie Wright is still with us. His website may be found here.

The album, which may be listened to in its entirety here, was probably released around October of that same year when Ellington himself was back in the UK for a Royal Variety Performance.

And here is that excerpt from The Michael Parkinson Show...