I posted here a couple of days ago a 'rough cut' of Robert Levi's documentary from 1992, Reminiscing in Tempo. A major contributor to the documentary was Marian Bruce Logan, the wife of Dr Arthur C Logan who, among his many professional duties, was personal physician to Duke Ellington. Marian Bruce Logan speaks movingly in the documentary about the circumstances surrounding Ellington's final few moths. Marian Bruce Logan herself died in 1993. Her close ties to the issue of civil rights are evident in the extract above from the documentary where she speaks of the meeting between Ellington and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Mrs Logan was also a former Commissioner of Human Rights in New York.
Prior to her marriage, Marian Bruce was a cabaret singer. There is only one album to her name, Halfway to Dawn, recorded for the Riverside label in 1958. She is accompanied by Jimmy Jones on the piano, Everett Barksdale on guitar, Al Hall on bass and Joe Wilder on trumpet.
Today is the fiftieth anniversary of 29 May, 1970, when Duke Ellington and his Orchestra appeared at Mount Abbey Angel Library, Mount Angel, Oregon in a performance commemorating the dedication of the library. From David Palmquist's Duke - Where and Whensite...
9 p.m. concert by Ellington and his orchestra, premiering a new work by Ann Henry, arranged by Ron Collier at the dedication of the Abbey's new library.
Collier conducted the Ellington orchestra, Ms Henry and a small choir in his arrangement of a three movement composition by Ann Henry, "Pockets: It's Amazing When Love Goes On Parade."
…An UPI wire story datelined Mt. Angel, published in the Eugene Register-Guard 1970-05-27 p.3-B, announced Ellington's band would perform on the Friday, architects from around the world would tour the building on the Saturday, and the Portland Junior Symphony would perform Saturday afternoon.
The Oregonian reported Ms Henry had toured with Ellington (additional research is needed), and went to Toronto and New York for the rehearsals. Ms Henry had had a career in music and dance until stricken by multiple sclerosis after which she became the Abbey's composer-in-residence. Stratemann says the band rehearsed her composition in Toronto, and this was the only time it was performed by the Ellington orchestra.
The April 21, 1970 contract between Mount Angel Abbey Library and Duke Ellington, Inc. provided for a 2 hour concert with 13 musicians including the leader for $5,000, half payable on the execution of the contract and half in cash or by certified cheque the day of, but before, the concert. A rider required Mount Abbey Library to pay:
·first class airfare for Duke from Cincinnati to St. Benedict, and then to Chicago
·first class airfare for Ron Collier from Toronto to St. Benedict and return
·economy airfare for 17 musicians and staff of the orchestra from Cincinnati to St. Benedict, and then to Chicago
·Ron Collier's arranging fee, either directly to him or to Duke Ellington, Inc.
·
While the Abbey has no record of their activity the rest of the weekend, the title in the finding aid for the Smithsonian's Ellington collection for Series 2, Box 16, Folder 33 "Mount Angel Abbey (Oregon) Library Dedication May 31, 1970" suggests Ellington remained in Oregon until the Sunday. This is not confirmed. While the Smithsonian folder label is dated May 31, in reply to the question Is there any indication in this folder that Ellington and/or his orchestra stayed all 3 days?, Smithsonian Reference Services volunteer C. Windheuser reviewed the contents in 2016 and wrote
“You are correct - program for event confirms Duke's concert was Friday May 29.”
I am very pleased to include notes on the video written by Jack Chambers, a leading light of the Toronto Duke Ellington Society and author of the book Sweet Thunder: Duke Ellington's Music in Nine Themes, as a commentary on the video presentation which follows. Jack writes:
Duke Ellington at Mount Angel Abbey, St. Benedict, Oregon, 29 May 1970
Dedication of the new $1.2m library designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto
VIDEO <2 – Duke greets, band plays on Vimeo>
Duke greets the audience (“the kids in the band… do love you madly”).
Request for Harlem, DE makes long intro while band finds the music
Harlemto 16:47
acknowledges Rufus Jones d, Harold Ashby cl, Harry Carney bs, Julian Priester and Booty Wood tb, Freddie Stone tp, Cat Anderson tp, Cootie Williams tp, 1stalto illegible
Meditations piano solo 18:47 to 21:27
22:06 DE intro Ron Collier: “And now I’d like to have you meet the great Canadian composer and internationally celebrated orchestrator and an incomparable conductor, Mr. Ron Collier. He orchestrated and will conduct the new work which is to be presented by Ann Henry, the new work Pockets. This is Ron Collier.”
25:19 piano intro
26:37 Ann Henry + seminarians “Look up, love is comin’”
29:00 ballad tempo Ann Henry + seminarians
30:13 “It’s amazin’! when love goes on parade”
32:00 “only love lets me try… and keeps comin’ back to me. Beautiful!”
Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of Duke Ellington in the studios of Decca with the Cincinnati Symphony orchestra, conducted by Erich Kunzel and the recording of the album Orchestral Works.
The entire album is available for listening on You, courtesy of The Universal Music Group. There were five years between the first public performance of The Golden Broom and the Green Apple and this recording. One of Ellington's 'occasional' pieces, the composition was written for the New York Philharmonic's French-American Festival which took place from 14 to 31 July, 1965. Scored for symphony orchestra, bass, (John Lamb), drums (Louie Bellson) and piano by Ellington bassist and copyist Joe Benjamin, the work had its première on Friday, 30 July, 1965. Ellington also played New World A' Coming with the New York Phiharmonic under the direction of Lucas Foss and was the narrator with the Orchestra in Copland's Preamble For A Solemn Occasion. The performance was repeated on Saturday evening, presumably the finale to the festival. The link with Erich Kunzel and Cincinnati was forged almost twelve months later , Saturday, 16 April, 1966, when Ellington presented an afternoon seminar and piano recital at the Cincinnati Conservatory. On this occasion, Duke was presented with the key to the city.
That evening, Ellington gave a concert with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at The Music Hall in the city. Erich Kunzel was the director of the city's Symphony and so the connection was established. The evening concert comprised New World A' Coming, Harlem and The Golden Broom and the Green Apple, the pieces recorded for the album 27 May, 1970. The Golden Broom and the Green Apple is a fascinating piece, not least because of Ellington's enigmatic narrative. There seem, to me, to be precursors to this, recurring narrative themes, in both Pretty and the Wolf and A Drum Is A Woman.
Ellington narrates on the Decca recording in the form of a 'poetic commentary'. He also wrote a commentary for the original programme of the New York Philharmonic's performance which is reproduced here by way of a libretto to the recording...
New World A’Coming
The première of New World A’Coming was in 1944. It is a statement of the hope of the American Negro for the enjoyment of the fruits of his labors which he has put into the building of the United States.
This work, coincident with the book of the same title by Roi Ottley, shows an awareness of many Negroes of the changing social scene during that early period in 1943. The first few notes were written during a Broadway theatre appearance with Lena Horne.
The Golden Broom and the Green Apple
Stanza I: The Golden Broom
The Golden Broom is a reflection of the haze we enjoy in the spin of today’s whirl, as our luxuriously appointed vehicle (designed origiannly for the beautiful rich city witch) dashes through space with its vacuum jet stream magnetizing the golden gleam of material security.
Stanza II: The Green Apple
As we relax graciously we love thinking that in spite of all we’ve done to acquire our portion of advantages, we still have our green apple (naturally grown and owned by the poverty-strick’ country chick), the symbol o our potentials – our virtues – our God–made and untouched purity.
Stanza III: The Handsome Traffic Policeman
In the third movement we may find the symbol of ourselves in the very handsome traffic cop, flashing his reds, greens and ambers as he stomps his authority around the intersection, where the paths of the beautiful rich city witch with her golden broom and the poverty-strick’ country chick with her green apple will sooner or later converge – and the decision has to be made.
With only one ticket left in our book which of these two ladies gets the ticket? The reason the handsome traffic cop’s book is down to one ticket is that all the more desirable ladies prefer to commit their violations at his intersection.
For 26 May, 1970, David Palmquist's monumental work Duke - Where and When says Activities not documented.
Is it possible that the photograph above was taken on that day?
28 May, 1970 is the fiftieth anniversary of the recording session for Duke Ellington: Orchestral Works, an album of Ellington at the piano, accompanied by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel. Looking for an image of Kunzel with Ellington, I happened across the photograph posted above which may be found in a gallery of the website of Milken Archive of Jewish Music. The page is dedicated to the music of Dave Brubeck who is, of course, the third figure pictured in the image above. The caption for the photograph reads: Dave Brubeck with Erich Kunzel and Duke Ellington The Gates of Justice recording session, Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Gates of Justice is an album of religious music. Given Ellington's own commitment to his faith and having recorded at that stage two albums of sacred music himself, his interest in this aspect of Brubeck's work would be apparent. The only discographical date I can find (in Lord's discography) for the recording of this album is 19 October, 1969. Like Ellington's album Orchestral Works, it was recorded for the Decca label and Erich Kunzel was present, conducting The Cincinnati Brass Ensemble.
As far as I know (not having listened to a copy of the album) The Gates of Justice is a studio album rather than a live performance (hence the photograph above). 19 October, 1969 is a Sunday. I would have thought it extremely unlikely that the recording studio would be open on a Sunday and therefore the date in Lord's discography must refer to a live performance. Furthermore, from 30 September, 1969 to 20 October, Ellington and his Orchestra were in residency at the Casbar Lounge of the Sahara Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, some three hours' flight away from Cincinnati.
If The Gates of Justice was not recorded on 19 October, 1969, then, it is possible that Ellington was in the studio with Dave Brubeck and Erich Kunzel on another day. But what was the recording date for The Gates of Justice? If any Brubeck expert reads this, please let me know if you have that information.
For a week or so following his engagement at the Sahara, again, there is no documentation discovered so far for Ellington's activities. He was in San Francisco on 23rd of the month and left for a European tour on 27th, returning to the USA on 1 December and spent the rest of the year mainly between San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Even brief sojourns in Detroit and Milwaukee would have entailed lengthy flights to Cincinnati.
Brubeck had already recorded with Erich Kunzel on 19 and 20 March, 1968 but, again, this would preclude Ellington's presence in the studio since he was in Las Vegas then as well.
Interestingly, Brubeck's third encounter with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra occurred, however, on 26 May, 1970. According to the cover of a later French edition of the resulting album, pictured below, called Elementals, the LP was recorded at Music Hall, Cincinnati. Listening to the album today, however, I'm sure this is a studio recording rather than a live performance. The photograph above looks like a recording studio. Could it be on this day, when he could have been in Cincinnati, that Duke met Brubeck and Kunzel? One of the tunes featured on the album recorded that day? The Duke. Curiouser and curiouser...
Ellington himself was certainly in Cincinnati on 27 May at the Taft Theatre (associated, I believe with the Cincinnati Symphony and half an hour's walk from Music Hall) and also 28 May, returning to New York it would seem later that day to begin recording Orchestral Works, his stay in Cincinnati presumably to make arrangements ahead of the session at Decca. We may never know if he attended Brubeck and Mulligan's performance and it still does not explain the provenance of the photograph with Erich Kunzel but it it is interesting to speculate...
UPDATE
Well, my theory about the photograph at the top of this post has been trounced comprehensively by the discovery of a photograph on eBay taken at the same sessions which claims that Dave Brubeck was present in the studio for the session Duke Ellington recorded with the Cincinnati Symphony on 28 May, 1970.
The caption on the Milken Archive website is further out. It may be the position of Brubeck in the photograph relative to Kunzel and Ellington that has given us all the misleading impression that it was Brubeck's rather than Ellington's gig. Good to add this image to the post, however, and to clarify for the record.
I believe this is a rough cut of the complete documentary, Robert S. Levi's Reminiscing in Tempo.I remember seeing the documentary on BBC Television some time in the early nineties. I went out the next day to buy the first Ellington CDs I could find which were, randomly, Midnight in Paris and TheCosmic Scene: Duke Ellington's Space Men which had just been issued on CBS France. "Did you see the documentary last night?" the man behind the counter asked me. My intoxication must have been obvious. Part 2 of the documentary, in fairly parlous condition, has been on YouTube a while. It's almost thirty years since I've seen the full programme. A rare treat...
Fifty years ago today, 13 May, 1970, found Duke Ellington and his Orchestra at National Recording Studio, new York to record the four portraits of New Orleans celebrities which would comprise the balance of his latest album.
The day before, Ellington tells us in his autobiography Music Is My Mistress, he was wondering how he could persuade Johnny Hodges to take up the soprano sax again in tribute to his one time mentor Sidney Bechet. But Hodges was gone.
Solo responsibilities in Portrait of Sidney Bechet, then, went to Paul Gonsalves on the tenor saxophone, honouring both Bechet and his friend and colleague Johnny Hodges.
The recordings are presented here in the order in which they were laid down at the session. A reminder, that the full album may be enjoyed here.
