New from Storyville: Rotterdam 1969

From the Storyville Records website:

"Duke Ellington & His Orchestra toured Europe in November 1969, a time when Duke was still at the top of his powers. The new CD is a recording of the whole of an excellent concert held at De Doelen Concert Hall in Rotterdam—a venue famous for its splendid acoustics.

The ambience is remarkable: The audience is audibly enthusiastic and these high spirits clearly influence the band. Duke Ellington and the orchestra gave two concerts on November 7th, and even though this is the second one, the musicians sound nothing but lively and fresh.Still in a brilliant mood after two concerts, Duke Ellington even played an after-party concert with a quartet—Storyville Records hopes to issue these recordings in the future."

The repertoire includes classics such as “Take the A Train” and Don’t Get Around Much Any More rarely heard as swinging as on this day, vigorous and fresh versions of Kinda Dukish and Rockin’ In Rhythm and the newer 1966 composition La Plus Belle Africaine, the centerpiece of the concert.

Personnel:

Cat Anderson (tp), Cootie Williams (tp), Ambrose Jackson (tp), Mercer Ellington (tp), Nelson Williams (tp), Benny Bailey (tp), Lawrence Brown (tb), Chuck Connors (tb), Russel Procope (as,cl), Johnny Hodges (as), Norris Turney (as,ts,cl,fl), Harold Ashby (ts, cl), Paul Gonsalves (ts), Harry Carney (bar,cl,b-cl), Duke Ellington (p), Victor Gaskin (b), Rufus Jones (d), Tony Watkins (vcl)

Track listing:

Take The ‘A’ Train (theme)

C-Jam Blues  

Kinda Dukish/ Rockin' In Rhythm 

Take The "A" Train  

Up Jump        

La Plus Belle Africaine         

Come Off The Veldt 

El Gato           

Black Butterfly          

Things Ain't What They Used To Be          

Don't Get Around Much Anymore   

Medley          

  1. Caravan           

  2. Mood Indigo   

  3. Sophisticated Lady     

Making That Scene - vTW   

It Don't Mean A Thing - vTW          

Be Cool And Groovy For Me - vTW 

Satin Doll       

Satin Doll       

R.T.M. 

Wailing Interval       

Satin Doll 

The disc may be ordered online here.

And that additional quartet performance which Storyville promise to release on another occasion, by the way:

Duke Ellington(p); Wild Bill Davis(o); Victor Gaskin(sb); Rufus Jones(d)

Black Swan    

The Lake       

Satin Doll       

Just Squeeze Me

       

Priestley on Strayhorn

Reed College, Portland. Ellington and Strayhorn a Celebration

Ellington and Strayhorn: A Celebration

Join us for a series of lectures and performances to commemorate the 100th birthday of Billy Strayhorn; celebrate jazz greats Strayhorn and Duke Ellington; and explore a creative partnership unique in the history of music.

Presented by the 23rd International Duke Ellington Study Group Conference in partnership with Reed College. All events are free and open to the public. Registration requested for planning purposes.

Reed College
November 6–8, 2015

Visiting scholars and performers include Walter van de Leur, author of Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn; Harvey C. Cohen, author of Duke Ellington's America; jazz horn master Willie Ruff; clarinetist David Shifrin, and, for the first time together, two of Portland's international jazz stars, Rebecca Kilgore (vocals) and Darrell Grant (piano), performing songs by Billy Strayhorn.

Friday, November 6

4 p.m.
Keynote: Walter van de Leur, "'After All': Strayhorn Studies in the 21st Century." Van de Leur is professor of jazz and improvised music at the University of Amsterdam and author of Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn
Eliot Hall chapel

7:30 p.m.
Concert: Performances by Darrell Grant (piano) and David Shifrin (clarinet), arranged by David Schiff; Matt Cooper (piano); and Darrell Grant (piano) and Rebecca Kilgore (vocals).
Kaul Auditorium

Saturday, November 7

10–11:45 a.m.
Scholarly Session:
Lisa Barg, "Invisibility Blues: Searching for Strayhorn in the 21st Century”
Luca Bragalini, "Harlem: Sounds from the Big Court"
Walter van de Leur, "People Wrap Their Lunches in Them: Ellington and Notation"
Chair: Mark Burford
Performing Arts Building 320

1–2 p.m.
Willie Ruff, "The Duke Ellington Fellowship at Yale inaugurates The Conservatory Without Walls"
Willie Ruff, professor of music at Yale University School of Music, organized the Duke Ellington Fellowship at Yale that has honored forty legends in the story of African American music. Professor Ruff will discuss that momentous gathering in 1972 and its continuous strivings.
Performing Arts Building 320

2:15–3:30 p.m.
Scholarly Session:
Harvey Cohen, "Ellington in His Own Words"
Carl Woideck, "Pseudo-African or African? Ellington in Dakar, 1966"
David Schiff, "Going South? Re-hearing the Deep South Suite"
Chair: Morgan Luker
Performing Arts Building 320

4 p.m.
Matt Cooper, "Duke Ellington: The Piano Player in the Band." Cooper is professor of music at Eastern Oregon University, a classical pianist, and author of Duke Ellington as Pianist: A Study of Styles
Performing Arts Building 320

Sunday, November 8

10 a.m.

Discussion and Coffee:

International Duke Ellington Study Group, "What might we gain or lose if we viewed Ellington and Strayhorn as individual artists rather than collaborators?"

Steven Lasker: "New Discoveries and Rarities of Early Vintages"

Geoff Smith: "The Stockpile Recordings"

Ken Steiner: "The Goal Was Impact: Duke Ellington's Radio Shows"

David Palmquist: "Recent Discoveries While Chronicling the Duke's Travels"

Chair: Geoff Smith

Performing Arts Building 332

Full details here.

Coming soon...

The sequel to Columbia Studio Albums 1950-58 has a street date of 30 October, 2015.

The good news: first time releases in the US on CD of Unknown Session (something of an anachronism here since the album was not released in Ellington's lifetime)and The Girls' Suite.

Not so good: why finish in 1961 and not 1962 which is when Ellington's contract expired. Two of his original studio albums, Midnight in Paris and All American In Jazz (which could have fit easily on one CD) remain unreleased on CD in the USA - and indeed, unreleased since their original LP incarnations over fifty years ago, virtually.

Here is a listing of the contents of the 10 disc box:

Disc: 1

  1. Malletoba Spank - Duke Ellington feat. The Percussion Section

  2. Medley: Toot Suite - Duke Ellington feat. Britt Woodman, Jimmy Hamilton, Shorty Baker, Russell Procope, Quentin Jackson, and Paul Gonsalves

  3. Satin Doll

  4. U.M.M.G. - Duke Ellington feat. Dizzy Gillespie

  5. All of Me - Duke Ellington feat. Johnny Hodges

  6. Tymperturbably Blue - Duke Ellington feat. The Percussion Section

  7. Fillie Trillie

  8. Hello Little Girl - Duke Ellington feat. Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Rushing, Dizzy Gillespie

Disc: 2

  1. Main Title and Anatomy of a Murder

  2. Flirtibird

  3. Way Early Subtone

  4. Hero to Zero

  5. Low Key Lightly

  6. Happy Anatomy

  7. Midnight Indigo

  8. Almost Cried

  9. Sunswept Sunday

  10. Grace Valse

  11. Happy Anatomy

  12. Haupe

  13. Upper and Outest

  14. Anatomy of a Murder

  15. Merrily Rolling Along

  16. Beer Garden

  17. Happy Anatomy

  18. Polly

  19. Polly

  20. Happy Anatomy

  21. More Blues

  22. Almost Cried

  23. Sound Track Music: Anatomy of a Murder

  24. Anatomy of a Murder

  25. The Grand Finale

Disc: 3

  1. Perdido

  2. Copout Extension

  3. Duael Fuel, Pt. I

  4. Duael Fuel, Pt. II

  5. Duael Fuel, Pt. III

  6. Idiom '59, Pt. I

  7. Idiom '59, Pt. II

  8. Idiom '59, Pt. III

  9. Things Ain't What They Used to Be

  10. Launching Pad

  11. V.I.P.'s Boogie

  12. Jam with Sam

Disc: 4

  1. Three J's Blues

  2. Smada

  3. Pie Eye's Blues

  4. Sweet & Pungent

  5. C Jam Blues

  6. In a Mellow Tone

  7. Blues In Blueprint

  8. The Swingers Get the Blues, Too

  9. The Swinger's Jump

  10. Blues In Orbit

  11. Villes Ville Is the Place, Man

  12. Track 360

  13. Sentimental Lady

  14. Brown Penny

  15. Pie Eye's Blues

  16. Sweet & Pungent

  17. The Swinger's Jump

  18. Blues In Orbit

  19. Track 360

Disc: 5

  1. Overture

  2. Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes)

  3. Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)

  4. Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)

  5. Entr'acte

  6. The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance)

  7. Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance)

  8. Dance of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)

  9. Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance)

  10. Girls

  11. Mahalia

  12. Peg O' My Heart

  13. Sweet Adeline

  14. Juanita

  15. Sylvia

  16. Lena

  17. Dinah

  18. Clementine

  19. Diane

Disc: 6

  1. Happy Go Lucky Local

  2. What Am I Here For

  3. Kinda Dukish / Rockin' In Rhythm

  4. Perdido

  5. I'm Beginning to See the Light

  6. Mid-Riff

  7. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

  8. Main Stem

  9. Take the "A" Train

  10. Lullaby of Birdland

  11. The Wailer

  12. Dreamy Sort of Thing

  13. Lullaby of Birdland

  14. Harlem Air Shaft

Disc: 7

  1. Morning Mood

  2. In the Hall of the Mountain King 

  3. Solvejg's Song 

  4. Ase's Death

  5. Anitra's Dance 

  6. Misfit Blues 

  7. Schwiphti 

  8. Zweet Zurzday 

  9. Lay-By 

Disc: 8

  1. Everything but You

  2. Black Beauty

  3. All Too Soon

  4. Something to Live For

  5. Mood Indigo

  6. Creole Blues

  7. Don't You Know I Care (Or Don't You Care to Know)

  8. A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing

  9. Mighty Like the Blues

  10. Tonight I Shall Sleep

  11. Dual Highway

  12. Blues

Disc: 9

  1. I Can't Get Started

  2. Cong-Go

  3. Body and Soul

  4. Blues for Jerry

  5. Fontainebleau Forest

  6. Summertime

  7. It's Bad to Be Forgotten

  8. A Hundred Dreams Ago

  9. So

  10. Searching (Pleading for Love)

  11. Springtime In Africa

  12. Lotus Blossom

  13. All The Things You Are

  14. All The Things You Are

  15. Piano Improvisation No. 2

  16. Piano Improvisation No. 3

  17. Piano Improvisation No. 4

  18. Piano Improvisation No. 1

Disc: 10

  1. Battle Royal 

  2. To You 

  3. Take the 'A' Train 

  4. Corner Pocket (aka Until I Met You) 

  5. Wild Man 

  6. Segue In C

  7. B D B 

  8. Jumpin' at the Woodside 

  9. One More Once 

  10. Take the 'A' Train

  11. Jumpin' at the Woodside 

  12. B D B

  13. Blues In Hoss' Flat 

  14. Wild Man

  15. Battle Royal

   

Cornell and Bournemouth