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About Duke Ellington And His Orchestra
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
The Duke Ellington Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943
by Chuck Lenatti
Duke Ellington was one of the most popular and successful jazz musicians of the first half of the 20th century and according to composer Gunther Schuller and musicologist and historian Barry Kernfeld, “the most significant composer of the genre." Radio broadcasts from his residency at New York's Cotton Club beginning in 1927 extended Ellington's orchestra's national exposure and a parade of hit records, from “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" in 1926 to “C Jam Blues" in 1942, among many ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington And His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows Vol. 25
by Chris Mosey
Storyville Records, based in Copenhagen, have now completed the Herculean task of re-releasing all the Duke Ellington Treasury Show albums on CD. These are recordings of broadcasts made for the US Treasury Department from 1945 to 1953, to promote the sale of war bonds, often with plugs by Ellington himself, a staunch patriot. Volume 25 is the last 2-CD set to be issued. In addition to featuring the last-known Treasury broadcast from the Blue Note Club in ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington And His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Vol. 24
by Chris Mosey
The early 1950s were a worrying time for Duke Ellington. Musical tastes were changing and big bands were going out of business. Ellington was nervous. “I like to keep a band so I can write and hear the music next day," he said, “The only way you can do that is to pay the band and keep it on tap 52 weeks a year. By various little twists and turns, we manage to stay in business." In ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington And His Orchestra: Duke Ellington's Treasury Shows - Vol. 21
by Chris Mosey
This volume of the Duke Ellington Treasury Shows commemorates the death on July 20 1946 of Joe “Tricky Sam" Nanton, one of the founding fathers of the band's early “jungle" sound that helped make its name at the Cotton Club. Nanton was the first musician to die with Ellington and the leader--a highly superstitious man--took it as a bad omen. As indeed it was, heralding an end to stable line-ups and an extended period of “musical chairs" ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington And His Orchestra: Rotterdam 1969
by Chris Mosey
Right up to the end Duke Ellington maintained an ability to surprise lesser mortals with his impish wit. In 1969 he visited the White House to celebrate his 70th birthday and kissed President Richard Nixon on the cheek four times. When Nixon asked why four times, Ellington replied, “One for each cheek." Tricky Dicky was--as they say nowadays--totally gobsmacked but regained his composure in time to present Ellington with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington And His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Vol 20
by Chris Mosey
What makes this album stand out among the welter of Treasury Show releases is that most of the tracks feature Oscar Pettiford on bass. Duke Ellington hired many excellent bass players but only two who were great. The first was Jimmy Blanton. In the short time he was with the band--from 1939-1941--he transformed the bass into a front line instrument, changing its role in jazz forever. When he died, aged just 23, from tuberculosis, Duke searched despairingly ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington And His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Volume 19
by Chris Mosey
In 1946 the uneasy truce between industry and organized labor in the U.S.A which had persisted for the duration of World War Two came to an abrupt end. Coal miners and railroad workers came out on strike and jazz bands were banned by the American Federation of Musicians under its autocratic boss James C. Petrillo from broadcasting live. In such acrimony, the swing era was over. The big bands of Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Tommy ...
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