Foreword: Further Conversations with Duke, by Robert E. Johnson
2. Ellington: Origins and Early Development
6. Ellington Meets Chicago, 1931
10. Golden Age
11. A Crooked Thing
13. Nadir
14. Resurrection
15. Alice Babs, 1983
16. Duke's People
17. Stanley and Helen Dance, 1982
18. Coda
Appendix: recommended reading, recordings and filmography
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA
I was a child of the '60s and therefore came of age during the golden age of rock and roll. Three currents at once drew me to jazz at the age of eighteen: a school friend with a little collection of jazz recordings; my brother, an aspiring jazz trumpeter; and, in my freshman year at Indiana University, the tutelage of Dr. David N. Baker (later to become director of the Smithsonian Institution's jazz program). It was in David's class I first heard Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-oo," and my term paper on jazz bassists inevitably led me to Jimmy Blanton; hence, my first Ellington album was Things Ain't What They Used to Be, a compilation of Ellington small groups led by Johnny Hodges and Rex Stewart in 1940 and 1941.
David Baker
My early jazz education was backwards, in the sense that my first jazz heroes were contemporary masters of "free jazz": Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, John Coltrane, and Archie Shepp, among others.
I was fortunate, in 1972-- my senior year at Indiana
University-- to attend a performance on campus of Duke Ellington and His
Orchestra. I didn't really know what I
was hearing: I spent the first half of
the show anxiously checking my wristwatch and left during intermission to make
a political speech. This was, after all,
the impending revolution.
The process by which I arrived at Duke
was a circuitous one, a rather strange and involved one, as it would have to be
for someone my age. In the late 1960s, I began a gradual transition from
rock 'n' roll to the likes of Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman, and Sun Ra.
From there, it has been a case of looking back ward, where Duke Ellington could
hardly fail to attract my attention. There is a seductive quality in his
work that is hard to resist.
Nevertheless, it was unlikely then that a person of my age would take to Ellington's music, nor is it likely that it will become any easier for generations following mine. You might call this the musical miseducation of youth; in the United States particularly, the laws of economics in the music business, or just the inevitability of change in styles.
CHICAGO
Stanley Dance: "Look in your own back yard."
The
Chicago chapter of the Duke Ellington Society (dubbed the "Ray Nance Chapter" by our leader, Don Miller). As far as my
listening was concerned, Don was indispensable; he had a sizeable collection of
Ellington records and was happy to make cassette copies for me. Beyond this, Don was a sparkplug for Ellington gatherings, locally and internationally, including one in Chicago in 1984. He used to tell me,
\
a
It was also my great fortune to meet and forge a long friendship with Adrienne Alyce Claerbaut (nee Morris), who was the niece of Billy Strayhorn. Over a great part of her life, Alyce has devoted herself to the cause of Strayhorn's music.
When I first met her at her home, I briefly acquainted with her twelve-year-old daughter. on a subsequent visit, she laid a pearl of wisdom on me: "If you want to know Ellington, listen to the music; if you want to know Strayhorn, listen to the words," which were nearly always about longing and loss. At one point, after I'd learned the tune, I rehearsed "Lush Life" with her for an occasion that did not materials. But Alyce did take the time to talk about her famous uncle to an honors class I taught in the 1990s, to my eternal gratitude.
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Chicago DE Society, cont.
1981 CHICAGO JAZZ FESTIVAL IN GRANT PARK: Bellson & Clark Terry were interviewed after their performance (by Neil Tesser?); after another performance in Grant Park, listened to Al Hibbler say that, early on, Sonny Greer passed leadership of the band to Duke.
CA. 1979, I SPOKE WITH LOUIS BELLSON AT RICK'S CAFE AMERICAINE AT THE LAKE SHORE HOLIDAY INN. GEORGE DUVIVIER WAS IN HIS TRIO. BELLSON'S STORY ABOUT PASSING FOR "ALBINO" IN THE DEEP SOUTH.
Hillard Brown interview; he briefly replaced Sonny Greer in 1944
Irving Bunton interview
phone interviews: R.D. Darrell, 1983; Joya Sherrill, 198? (Ellington was "larger than life.")
Correspondence: John Hammond, Stanley Dance,
Steiner: 7/21/1908, Milwaukee - 6/3/2001, Milwaukee
John
Steiner, 91, widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on early Chicago
jazz, Died Saturday, June 3, 2001...Born in Milwaukee and trained as a chemist at the University
of Wisconsin in Madison, Mr. Steiner nourished his emerging passion for jazz by
spending weekends in the nightspots of Chicago's South Side. Early on he
came to know key figures such as pianist Earl Hines and drummer Baby Dodds, and
befriended members of the fabled Austin High Gang (including cornetist Jimmy
McPartland and saxophonist Bud Freeman.
It was through his contacts with so many musicians he was able to begin to build his collection, and he was doing it in the 1930s, when most people were not interested in this music and its history in Chicago, He was the seminal figure in documenting the history of Chicago jazz."
In 1946, he dragged a portable recording machine to the Civic Opera House, climbed the catwalk above the stage, dangled a microphone below and captured the DE Orchestra on recordings that would not have existed without such efforts. As self-styled oral historian, he taped hundreds of hours of interviews, but the exact contents of this will not be known for years, since U. of C. archivists will have to catalog two truckloads of material. In the 1940s, Mr. Steiner promoted concerts featuring McPartland and Freeman, among others, and with Hugh Davis started S&D Records to issue Chicago jazz recordings. By leasing and, in 1949, purchasing the catalogue of the old Paramount record label, Mr. Steiner was able to reissue historic recordings of Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, among others.
Steiner
was present at one of our Ellington Society gatherings when he gave me a
copy of Duke Ellington's "Jig Walk" on an ancient-looking 78 rpm record; he held the
rights to that transcription of a piano roll from the 1920s. I recall
Dick Buckley being there, too, along with Henry Quarles, all the way from
Pewaukee, Wisconsin. Henry handed me a copy of an Index
to Music Is My Mistress, an eighty-two-page
pamphlet by H. F. Huon, which was packed with useful information. I
wish it were still in print.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, JULY-AUGUST 1982
 |
| Duke with Sid Kuller, 1941 |
The following transcription represents the first of a round of interviews of people connected with Duke Ellington I conducted on a family vacation in Southern California in the summer of 1982. These interviews were intended to supplement my 1980 M.E. thesis with the turgid, but accurate, title The Entertainment Industry as Exploiter of Black Musical Talent, as Reflected in the Career of Duke Ellington.
Of the seven interviews I managed, only three recordings remain in my possession, the other two being Henry Blankfort, the producer of Jump for Joy in 1941, and authors/ confidantes Stanley and Helen Oakley Dance. Of the others, I have a vivid memory of author and critic Leonard Feather’s anger when I approached the subject of Ellington’s politics, at which point I was nearly thrown out of his Studio City apartment. My main recollection of Maurice Zolotow, the author of an excellent article on Jump for Joy, at a bistro on Sunset Boulevard is that he left me stuck with the bill. Of Irving Mills, I recall his sorrow at losing important documents to poor storage conditions.
One interview I recorded, but somehow lost, was the one I conducted with Sid Kuller, a writer for Jump for Joy. After sharing his thoughts about the show, Mr. Kuller unexpectedly produced a tape recording of songs created for the 1958 revival of the show in Miami Beach, starring Barbara McNair. From that tape, I recorded directly the songs “Walk It Off,” “The Natives Are Restless Tonight,” and an updated version of the title song, none of which have been released. Kuller went on to relate his experiences with Ellington on his 1971 tour of the U.S.S.R. Of course, I regret very much the loss of this recording.
David Baker
I was fortunate in 1972, my final year at Indiana University, to attend a performance on campus of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. I didn't really know what I was hearing, however: I spent the first half of the show anxiously checking my wristwatch and left during intermission to make a political speech. The revolution could not wait, and besides the important music was being created by Miles, Trane, Ornette, and their cohorts.
