DEMS BULLETIN
DUKE ELLINGTON MUSIC SOCIETY
01/3 December 2001-March 2002
FOUNDER: BENNY AASLAND
HONORARY MEMBER: FATHER JOHN GARCIA GENSEL
EDITOR: SJEF HOEFSMIT
ASSISTED BY: ROGER BOYES
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THE INTERNATIONAL DEMS BULLETIN DUKE ELLINGTON MUSIC SOCIETY 01/3 December 2001-March 2002 FOUNDER: BENNY AASLAND |
Voort 18b, Meerle, Belgium
Telephone: +32 3 315 75 83
Email: dems@skynet.be
In the light of the tragedy in New York and Washington, our efforts to assist Ellington collectors to organise their collections seem rather trivial. We were trying to write some lines, when we found in the Fall 2001 Newsletter of the Duke Ellington Society, Southern California Chapter "In a Mellotone", the following words of the president Charles Stewart, which express exactly what we feel. DEMS**
"September 11th caused us to stop and reflect and evaluate what is important in our lives. In that regard we are very fortunate as we consider music to have a definite place and we also are familiar with one of its masters, Duke Ellington. We as members of DES can help others to regain their perspective by sharing Duke's music." Charles Stewart, President**
In the same edition Bill Hill wrote an article that ended like this: "The Ellington band played in a polo field on the perimeter of Kabul September 18th, 1963 and Duke 'Loved Them Madly' as also did they Love Duke and the Music and the Musicians. Sometimes people just don't understand what we mean by the Good Olde Days." Bill Hill**
Marsha Rose Joyner and the Hawaii Academy of Performing Arts are organising a Duke Ellington Festival in Hawaii, culminating in a week of cultural events centred around Duke from Monday 22Apr to Monday 29Apr02. The Festival will be closed with a Conference from 26 to 29Apr:
Beyond Category, The Genius of Duke Ellington.
The Conference explores Ellington's life and music in the context of the social and cultural history of his times. The tentative agenda right now is:
26Apr. Registration & Orientation, noon- 4pm. Opening event 7pm - 9pm, Ellington Revue at Honolulu Hale.
27Apr. Morning session 9am-12:30pm. Dr John Hope Franklin "A Harlem Renaissance". Afternoon Duke Ellington Music & Shoebox Festival at Covic Center.
28Apr. Morning session 9am-12:30pm. Lunch speaker. Two Afternoon sessions. 2pm Concert on the beach.
29Apr. Morning session 9am-12:30pm. Panel discussion. Afternoon free. Film & Closing Reception at Academy of Arts.
For more information contact Marsha Joyner, 1088 Bishop Street, Suite 2506, Honolulu HI 96813, tel (808).533.3015, fax (808).524.3313, web-site www.hapa2.com/duke/, e-mail mrjoy@hawaii.rr.com
David Palmquist**
"Something to Live For" The Music of Billy Strayhorn by Walter van de Leur, will be published in Jan02, list $30.--, by Oxford University Press. Walter compared hundreds of compositions by both Duke and Billy and analysed the differences and strengths of each (Strayhorn more complex harmonically, etc.) The review in Publishers Weekly of 5Nov is favourable. Jack Heaney**
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We thank you for your questions, your answers, your contributions, donations and support.
There is not a lot to celebrate at the end of this tragic year. There are, however, still many beautiful things to be enjoyed in life, like Duke's music. I hope you like the selection I made from Duke's unissued recordings for this DEMS cassette CA-29.
A discussion about the unissued version of Mood Indigo in one of the two dance dates at the end of Mar52 can be found on page 24 of this Bulletin under Page 180. When I compared it with the issued version on the Folkways double LP 2968, I was so impressed by Duke's Monkish piano solo, that I decided to use it as the start of this cassette.
My friend Tony Faulkner has sent me this year a recording of the very rare Concerto for Klinkers, one of the seldom-heard Ellington compositions for "Jump for Joy". Tony's "Duke Ellington Repertory Orchestra" plays it. Solos are by David Boraston (t.), Caroline Owen (v.), Paul Conroy (t.s.), Ben Drouet (cl.), James Sturdy (p.) and Andy Hillier (tb.). When I tried to verify the spelling of their names in the 1997 programme of the Leeds conference, I saw that they were all "new". This is not surprising because it is an orchestra of students at the City of Leeds College of Music. If you take that in account you will agree with me that Tony has done a terrific job. You will have no problem to identify the second theme as The Blues from "Black, Brown and Beige" and to hear some references to Boy Meets Horn later in the piece.
I continue with recordings of "The Combo Suite" session, which were included in broadcast #27 of the Danish Radio. Second Line is taken from broadcast #30. In broadcast #28 was a selection from the pre-recordings for the soundtrack of the picture "Change of Mind". I must admit that this mysterious music can be more appreciated if heard when watching the film. It is, however, pure Ellington.
Much easier is listening to the leftovers of the pre-recordings for the picture "Racing World". There are three selections, earlier partly used for the soundtrack, which is released on Volume 5 of the Private Collection. I have copied the complete versions. From 6857c, only the first 16 bars are used for the soundtrack and accounted for in the New DESOR. They form the second Piano Pastel in the soundtrack. As one can hear, track (04) of the first set of recordings (6857) has 50 bars.
Introduction-Opening Titles on the soundtrack is edited from the first 4 bars of (14) 6857m and the first 32 bars of (49) 6858ae. As you will hear and can check in the New DESOR, 6857m has 5 bars and 6858ae is described as having 37 bars. That is what you will find on the cassette.
I feel very fortunate that none of my Ellington friends has been directly involved in the crash of the World Trade Center or the attack on the Pentagon. There is, however, an Ellingtonian, Betty Farmer, who worked at the 105th floor of the North building in her third week of a new job. Betty appeared on stage during the Newport Jazz Festival in Carnegie Hall and she sang St. Louis Blues with the Ellington orchestra and guest Barney Bigard. Duke announced Betty as the lady from New Orleans. The recording I have is rather poor, but it is unique.
In MIMM (p.145) you can read about the recording session in Paris where Billy Strayhorn's piano-playing friends made a tape for him when he was severely ill. Duke played three selections on this tape. It seems a nice conclusion of this unusual cassette. Sjef Hoefsmit
Side A
Mood Indigo......................22Mar52..........5205t Concerto for Klinkers.....-3......6Mar01 The Intimacy of the Blues........15Mar67..........6741a .........................S-2..........................d Tell Me 'bout My Baby....S-2..........................k ..........................-4..........................m Kentucky Avenue, A.C......-2..........................o ..........................-3..........................p Soul Country..........................................u ......................................................v .....................................................ab ..........................-3.........................ac ..........................-4.........................ad .....................................................ae .....................................................-- ..........................-5.........................ag Second Line......................23Jul70..........7061d Change of Mind...................23May69 ..."A"...Reel 1, Cue 3....-4......................6916b .................Cue 4....-3..........................e .................Cue 6A...-4..........................l .................Cue 8A...-3..........................o .........Reel 2, Cue 1................................s ..."B"...Reel 2, Cue 7....-3..........................u .................Cue 7A...-2..........................w ..."D"...Reel 6, Cue 4....-4.........................bn ..."B"...Reel 2, Cue 3...............................ac .................Cue 3....-3.........................ad .................Cue 9....-4.........................ah .................Cue 7...............................aa ..."C"...Reel 3, Cue 6X...-2.........................-- .................Cue 6X...-3.........................az
Side B
06. Race................(01)......6Nov68..........6857a ........................(02)..........................b ........................(03).........................-- ........................(04)...complete...............c --. Galloping sounds...................................-- 01. Opening Title.......(14)...complete...............m 12. Prat................(23)......................6858p 13. Pastel..............(42).........................ab 03. Race................(46).........................ad 01. Opening Title, A.C..(49)...complete..............ae 11. Sonnet..............(52).........................-- ........................(53).........................ah 03. Race................(55).........................ai ........................(56).........................aj 05. Improvisations......(60).........................-- ........................(61).........................al Race....................(02).....23Nov68..........6860i St. Louis Blues...................8Jul72..........7229u Meditation.......................10Mar67..........6738a T.G.T.T...............................................b Little Purple Flower..................................c
Each DEMS member may order up to 3 copies of this latest DEMS cassette Azure CA-29. The price is 8.50 Euros a piece including mailing expenses and will be subtracted from your DEMS deposit. DEMS
DEMS asked Earl Okin for the latest news about the two Adelaide Hall biographies mentioned in DEMS 01/1-5. This is his answer: Firstly, the little 60-page pamphlet about Adelaide Hall is not generally on sale but only from the local Council, I believe, in Hammersmith in London and is written by Stephen Bourne. It is already out, I believe, though I've not seen it and have no contact with its author. The main book is a much more 'heavyweight' rigorous academic work.
It is written by IAIN CAMERON-WILLIAMS and is called . "UNDERNEATH THE HARLEM MOON The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall". It contains lots of freshly-discovered information AND very rare photographs some of which I've seen and I think are astounding, but my lips are sealed!!! It will be published by CONTINUUM INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING CO. as part of a new Jazz Series and should be launched early in 2002 both at their New York and London offices.Earl Okin
Also Bill Egan was so generous as to add more information: Earl's summary is essentially correct. The 60-page pamphlet was funded by The Ethnic Communities Oral History Project of the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Adelaide lived in the Hammersmith/Fulham area for much of her life and starred at the famous Hammersmith Palais even before she lived there, so they wanted to commemorate her association with the area.
The details of the book are on the excellent web-site
The material in this web-site is just a small part of that which appears in the 60 page biography of Adelaide Hall. It uses original interviews with her and is illustrated with many photographs. To Order a Copy: Send a cheque for 4.00 (UK and Ireland only), made payable to ECOHP, to: ECOHP, The Lilla Huset, 191 Talgarth Road, London W6 8BJ, UK e-mail: ecohp@hotmail.com web-site: www.hfusc.org.uk/ecohp
The Ethnic Communities Oral History Project (ECOHP) is a non-profit making organisation set up in 1987 to provide local people with a voice. It has produced many publications over that time. There is also of course the double CD AVID AMSC 720 (again info from the web-site): "Adelaide Hall A Centenary Celebration" (see also page 18 of this Bulletin). Compiled by Hugh Palmer with sleeve notes by Stephen Bourne, this is available from all good record shops or direct from AVID at 11.49 including postage. For orders, further details or enquiries please contact: AVID, 10 Metro Centre, Dwight Road, Tolpits Lane, Watford WD18 9UF, telephone 01923 281281, fax 01923 281200, e-mail: info@avidgroup.co.uk web-site: www.avidgroup.co.uk
I don't know any more than Earl about the content of the foreshadowed 'heavyweight' rigorous academic work (Continuum's site didn't help) but I can say from my personal contact with the author that he does have access to significant material either originally belonging to, or pertaining to, Adelaide, and that he is generous in sharing his knowledge, so we can await the outcome with interest.Bill Egan
Arthur Newman has sent us this message:
"I have in stock: THE WAX WORKS OF DUKE ELLINGTON by Benny Aasland $35.00, small paperback book from Sweden (1954).
JAZZ RECORDS 1942-1980 Volume 6 DUKE ELLINGTON by Ole Nielsen $50.00 hard cover, issued without a dust cover (see DEMS 92/1-4).
DUKE ELLINGTON STORY ON RECORDS by Luciano Massagli, Giovanni Volonté and Liborio Pusateri. I have 9 of the 16 booklets 1923-1931 (1966), 1939-1942 (1967), 1943-1944 (1968), 1946 (1971), 1947-1950 (1972), 1951-1952 (1974), 1953-1955 (1975), 1956-1957 (1976), 1958-1959 (1977). $25.00 each.
THE NEW DESOR by Luciano Massagli and Giovanni Volonté 1924-1974 Revised in 2 volumes, hard cover, no dust covers (1999). $200.00 for the set (see DEMS 99/2-7)."
Arthur L. Newman, 10325 Elk River, Fountain Valley, CA 92708, USA, tel (714) 968.3706, fax (714) 968.3921, e-mail: artnewman@earthlink.net and web-site http://home.earthlink.net/~artnewman DEMS**
Re "Essay by Marcello Piras", see DEMS 01/2-12/3. In the review by Stefano Zenni of John Francechina's book "Duke Ellington's Music for the Theatre", Mr. Zenni makes reference to the essay by Marcello Piras at a named web-site. I checked out this site and found that Piras' essay was part of a series of essays, presented to a conference "Ellington: Beyond Categories of XX Century" held on 22Feb99 in Prato, Italy, organized by Mr. Zenni. I don't believe that I have found any previous reference to this conference in DEMS Bulletin before. In addition to the Piras paper there are papers by many other writers including Andrew Homzy and Walter van de Leur. All are available to be downloaded and all are in English except one.
Andrew's essay is particularly enjoyable because it is an expansion of the talk he gave at the Conference in Oldham in 1985 entitled "Battle of Swing; a miniature Concerto Grosso". Those who were there will recall that he transcribed parts of the recording to piano to illustrate his points. What made it so interesting was that when he slowed down the tempos for his piano illustrations, we could all see clearly where Thelonious Monk came from. It still amazes me that when he slowed down the tempo of a 1938 recording by Duke, the result was a sound that could have easily come from one of America's more avant garde composers from 1965! The web-site is http://www.metastasio.net/jazz99/jazz99.html Bill Morton
Indeed, we have not published an announcement of this conference in the Bulletin. We learned about this Italian conference on 26Jan99, too late to have it published in time. We should however have mentioned these brilliant papers. We are grateful to you for having done it so eloquently. Here is a list of the papers (all in English):
- Marcello Piras, "Character/Environment, Male/Female in Ellington's Writing"
- Giampiero Cane, "Duke Ellington A Folk Artist between Futurism and Exotism"
- Andrew Homzy, "Battle Of Swing: Duke Ellington's Miniature Concerto Grosso"
- Luigi Onori, "Jungle and Africa in Ellington's Music. Myths, metaphors, imaging and reality"
- Walter van de Leur, "Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn. A Veiled Collaboration"
- Riccardo Scivales, "Ellington's Piano. A Long Way"
- Wolfram Knauer, " 'Things Ain't What They Used To Be' Duke Ellington's Disciples Come to their Own".
DEMS
Daedalus Books is selling the paperbound edition of "The
Duke Ellington Reader" by Mark Tucker for $6.95. (Item
#11947,