Vol 52 No. 1 September 2010 -...

Vol 52 No. 1 September 2010

The Newsletter of the Duke Ellington Society, Chapter 40, Toronto, Canada is mailed prepaid to members in good standing.

Further information pertaining to the Society’s activities may be obtained from the Editor.

1791 Pattinson Crescent, Mississauga, ON., Canada, L5J 1H6; Phone 905-823-1086; e-mail:[email protected]

Minutes of the September 14 General Meeting

President Alan Shiels opened the meeting at 7:35

p.m. to 30 members and guests. There were

several announcements from the floor.

Jean Griffiths requested volunteers for providing

refreshments for the meeting for the 2010 – 2011

season. She passed around a sign up sheet for the

volunteers.

Alan announced that the Holiday Party had been

arranged for Tuesday, December 7th at the Arts &

Letters Club – See below.

The Scholarship Concert has been booked for

Saturday, April 30th at Walter Hall in the

University of Toronto. The Dave Young/Terry

Promane band is confirmed for the evening. The

ticket price had not yet been set.

John Hornsby is looking for a volunteer to carry

the audio equipment to our meetings and to look

after the equipment between meetings. Please

talk to John if you feel you can help.

Bill Wilson announced that the 16th season of Jazz

at Royal York would commence on Sunday

November 7th with a performance by pianist Dave

Restivo. Bill told us that he had been able to

donate $2500 from the proceeds of Jazz at Royal

York to neighbourhood charities, in spite of

declining attendance due to the economic slow

down in 2010.

Irene Barton then introduced the speaker for the

evening, Jim Galloway. Irene briefly outlined

Jim’s international career and accomplishments.

We were indeed fortunate to have Jim speak to us

once again. He has always been a great friend to

our society.

Jim Galloway opened his presentation with the

happy news that Anne Page’s health was now

recovering though she was sorry that she was

unable to attend this evening’s presentation.

Jim said that his topic for the evening was

“nicknames” of the Duke Ellington band

members. He started with the maestro himself

who was given the nickname “Duke” by his friend

Edgar McEntree in 1913, for his aristocratic

bearing and natty dress. Jim illustrated Duke’s

playing by presenting Carolina Shout, instead of

the Kinda Dukish introduction to Rockin’ in

Rhythm from the 1965 Paris Concert. He also let

us hear Duke on the piano accompanied by Aaron

Bell and Sam Woodyard on I Can’t get Started

recorded in March 1961.

Jim then moved on to Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton

who got his nickname during his early years with

Ellington. There are two versions of how he

earned his nickname, neither having anything to

do with his trombone technique. One story has it

that Nanton consistently beat his colleagues at

cards and was known as “tricky with a deck of

cards”. The other was that Toby Hardwick

always saw him “doing with one hand what

anyone else would do with two.” To illustrate

Tricky Sam’s playing Jim selected Jungle Nights

in Harlem from June 1930 and Double Check

Stomp recorded in April 1930. This number was

one of the very few in which Ellington included

and accordion player, Joe Smeiser, in the band.

We then moved onto Johnny Hodges who had

earned at least two nicknames, “Jeep’’ and

“Rabbit” or sometimes “Rab”. According to

Harry Carney, Hodges was called Rabbit for his

2

love of lettuce and tomato sandwiches. Another

story has it that the nickname was due to his quick

trips to a room at sporting houses! According to

Johnny Griffin, Hodges earned his nickname

because he looked like a rabbit with no expression

on his face while he was playing all his beautiful

music. From October 1940 we heard Warm Valley

featuring Johnny Hodges on Soprano Sax and

Taffy from a recording done in Atlantic City in

August of 1966 with Wild Bill Davis and

Lawrence Brown, who had the nickname of “The

Deacon” due to his puritan behaviour.

Barney Bigard was next on Jim Galloway’s list.

He had the name “Creole” which, because of his

Creole background he looked almost white.

According to Sonny Greer, Bigard and Welman

Braud were sent into a restaurant on one occasion

when the band was touring The South to get food

for the band. They were chased out of the

restaurant by the owner while Bigard shouted

“I’m Creole, I’m Creole!” The owner shouted

back, I don’t care how old you are, you can’t eat

in here!” To illustrate Bigard’s clarinet, Jim

played Harlem Airshaft from a NYC July 1940

recording and Bojangles of Harlem recorded in

1945 with Joe Thomas t, Johnny Guanieri p, Billy

Taylor b and Cozy Cole d.

We then took a short break. Alan Shiels thanked

Norma Humphries for supplying the evening’s

refreshments.

After the break Jim described Ben Webster whose

nicknames were “Frog” and The Brute” He was

known as Frog because of his somewhat bulging

eyes which caused him to look like a frog from

some angles. Jim played Lafayette recorded in

1932 while Webster was with the Bennie Moten

Orchestra, featuring a young Count Basie on

piano, Hot Lips page on trumpet and Eddie

Barefield on clarinet. We also heard Ben Webster

on tenor playing After You’ve Gone recorded in

NYC in March of 1944 with Sidney de Paris, Vic

Dickenson, James P Johnson, Jimmy Shirley,

John Simmons and Syd Catlett. Jim Galloway

said that he had to play a ballad by Ben Webster

since he was unsurpassed in playing them. Jim

played Time on My Hands from October 1957

with Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Herb Ellis

and Stan Levey.

When he heard a musical performance as a child,

Charles “Cootie” Williams was asked what is

sounded like. He said “cootie, cootie, cootie” and

the name stuck. We heard Tootin’ Through the

Roof recorded on October 14 1939 featuring both

Rex Stewart and Cootie Williams who traded

solos throughout.

His multiple talents of playing the trumpet and

violin and singing and dancing well earned Ray

Nance the nickname “Floorshow”. He was the

only violinist featured in the Ellington Orchestra.

He was hired to replace Cootie Williams in 1940.

He was given the trumpet assignment on the first

recorded version of Take the A Train and his

solo, one of the most copied and admired in jazz,

was copied by Cootie Williams almost note for

note twenty years later! Jim played Lay By from

Suite Thursday recorded October 1961 to

illustrate Nance’s trumpet playing.

William “Cat” Anderson was sent to live in

Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston S.C. where he

learned to play the trumpet. Classmates gave him

the nickname “Cat” based on his fighting style.

Anderson was a high note specialist in Ellington’s

band but, Jim explained, he was much more than

that. He was a wonderful trumpet player with

great range and nuance as Jim learned from his

own experience in playing with him. From Such

Sweet Thunder, Jim played Madness in Great

Ones recorded in May 1957.

Jimmy Woode was given the name Herr Fix It by

Lester Young. Apparently, during an overnight

train ride from New York to Boston, whenever

Lester had a problem Jimmy always managed to

come up with a solution. He joined the Ellington

band in 1955 and left in 1960. Jim Galloway

played Sonnet in Search of a Moor again from

Such Sweet Thunder which featured Woode on

Bass.

3

Mumbles, the nickname given to Clarke Terry

was given to him when he was making the album

Oscar Peterson Trio Plus One. The assignment

was completed but there was time left on the date

so Clark Terry wanted to make a personal party

record for his own use. Oscar gave him an

introduction and Clarke Terry imitated the

vocalists of his youth by singing unintelligibly.

Oscar thought it so amusing he cut Clarke Terry

off and insisted that he record it properly and

included the resulting tune in the album. We

heard the unintelligible and very amusing

Mumbles recorded in Toronto in 1964.

Jim concluded his review of the Ellington band

members by remembering Paul Gonsalves. He

was named “Mex” since band members thought

he was Hispanic but he was actually from the

Cape Verde Islands. He was also called

“Strolling Violins” because he sometimes walked

through the audience while soling on tenor.

Gonzalves loved to play ballads but had the

Newport Jazz Festival thrust upon him which he

had to reprise for the rest of his career. We heard

Body & Soul which featured Gonzalves ballad

playing as well as an up tempo passage. It was

recorded in April of 1958.

Alan Shiels moved the official vote of thanks

which was seconded by warm and enthusiastic

applause from the audience. Jim had interspersed

his presentation with anecdotes of his direct

knowledge of the players that he featured which

were enlightening and amusing. Thank you Jim.

The Editor thanks Jim Galloway for allowing him

to use his notes freely in the preparation of this

newsletter

*** Upcoming Events

Koerner Hall – Stanley Cohen informed the group that a series of concerts, Three Aspects of Oscar were

scheduled for the upcoming season at Koerner hall.

Concert dates were Oct 30, Dec 11, Jan 29, 2011, March 5 and April 2. In addition there is a concert

schedule to be played on Dec 17 by The Manhattan

Transfer. I suggest you go to The Royal Conservatory of Music’s web site for details. www.rcmusic.ca

University of Toronto has a series of concerts for the

2010 – 2011 season. Concerts presented by the Jazz Faculty and by the 10 o’clock jazz orchestra as well as

vocal and small jazz ensembles. Again, I suggest you

visit their website for details. www.music.utoronto.ca

Upcoming TDES 40 Meetings

October 12 – AGM & Martin Loomer will make

a presentation.

November 9 – To be announced.

December 7. The 2010 Holiday Party will again

be held at the Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street,

Toronto. Doors open at 6:00 p.m., dinner will

commence at 7:00 p.m. and the music at 8:00 p.m.

PLEASE NOTE: This is the first Tuesday of

December. Tickets are now available for sale to

members. The price is $70.00 for members and

$75.00 for one guest. Ticket sales will be open in

October to non-members so that members have

the first opportunity to purchase tickets. A quartet

led by Richard Whiteman will present the musical

entertainment.

April Fundraising Concert – The Dave

Young/Terry Promane Big Band will play on

April 30, 2011 at Walter Hall. Please see Alan

Shiels for tickets.

Society News Alan Shiels and John Hornsby have selected for the

society a compact stereo system to replace the aging

and cumbersome equipment that has been in use at our

meetings. It is a Denon CD Player/Receiver RCD M 37 John Hornsby will provide a carrying

case for this equipment.

TDES 40 Welcomes New Members:

Meetings of the Toronto Duke Ellington

Society, Chapter 40, are held on the 2nd

Tuesday of each month 7:30 pm – 10:00pm

Montgomery’s Inn 4709 Dundas St. W

Visitors always welcome

Plenty of Free parking

http://www.rcmusic.ca/

http://www.music.utoronto.ca/

4

Annual Dues:

The TDES 40 financial year runs from September 1st through August 31st of the following year. In order

to meet the Society’s obligations for Montgomery’s Inn, rentals, postage, printing and expenses in a

timely fashion, it is imperative that annual dues be paid as early in the year as possible. Those who joined

the Society subsequent to the annual concert in April 2010 are exempt from dues payment for the current

year.

Dues are $35 for a single membership and $50 for a family membership for payments made on or before

October 12th 2010. Payments made after that date are subject to a $5.00 surcharge to offset bank

penalties for late deposits. If you have not already made your payment, please mail your cheques:

Chris McEvilly,

Treasurer, The Duke Ellington Society,

10 Edgemore Drive,

Toronto, ON.,

M8Y 2M8

Be sure to include your name, address, home phone number and email address.

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

In accordance with its By –laws, the Annual General Meeting of the Duke Ellington Society, Toronto

Chapter 40 will be held at 7:30 PM, Tuesday October 12 th, 2010, in the meeting room at Montgomery’s

Inn 4709 Dundas Street West, Ontario, Canada.

The purposes of the meeting are:

(1) To elect a slate of new officers of the Society for the upcoming year,

(2) To receive reports of the President and Treasurer in respect of the Chapter’s 2009 – 2010

fiscal year and

(3) To deal with any business carried over from prior meetings, or properly introduced at this

time.

Any paid up member may bring before the meeting any matter of business properly pertaining to the

manner on which the affairs of the Society are conducted or suggest ways of improving the Society

for the benefit of all.

Vol 52 No.2 __________ October 2010




Minutes of the October 2010 meeting.

Alan Shiels opened the meeting at 7:35 p.m. to 26

members and guests. The first part of the meeting

was the Annual General Meeting. Alan started with a

review of the 2009/10 activities. In September 2009

Vivienne Muhling offered her “Reminiscences of

Duke including video clips of Ruth Ellington’s

Apartment. In October Ron Woods gave us “Billy

Strayhorn’s Music”. Dr. Robert Tiegrob, History

Professor from Ryerson University talked about

“Ambassador Duke Ellington: Jazz and the Cold War

– Cultural Exchange Programmes 1956 – 1973” In

December we held the Holiday Party once again

organised by Judy Shiels and held at the Arts &

Letters Club in Toronto. Jim Galloway’s Quartet

(Don Vickery drums, Neil Swainson bass, and John

Sherwood piano) provided the music for the evening.

Moving on to 2010, in January Chris McEvilly talked

about “Duke Ellington and Contemporaries in 1959”.

Jack Chambers once again took the February meeting

and described “Accidental Suites – Ellington’s

Hollywood Soundtracks”. In March John Hornsby

gave us all a challenge with the “Metronome and

Downbeat Blindfold Test”. Bill Wilson gave us

another of his excellent presentations on the theme of

“Duke Ellington Played by Others”. Also in April we

held the Scholarship Fundraising Concert, ably

arranged by Alan Shiels, where we were treated, to a

concert played by Martin Loomer’s Orange Devils,

returning by popular demand. Stan Schiff made an

excellent presentation in May, “Duke Reborn – The

Ellington Band August 1955 – September 1959”.

The Final meeting of the year, Members Choice saw

13 members play their favorite selections for the

benefit of the whole group. At this meeting Greg

Elgstrand demonstrated the new TDES 40 web site

that he had prepared –

www.torontodukeellingtonsociety.com.

Alan then talked about the TDES 40 Scholarship

programme. Seven $1000 scholarships were awarded

in the 2009/10 year, two to U of T, two to York and

three to Humber College. In no case was an

acknowledgement received from any of the recipients.

Alan had received guidance from a previously held

Executive meeting to write a new letter to these

institutions outlining our requirements for

acknowledgement.

Alan finished his President’s Report by thanking all

of those who had contributed to the continued success

of the society. Specifially, Tim Elliott for another

year of wonderful programming, Chris McEvilly as

Treasurer, Jim Northover as Secretary and editor of

the newsletter, Martin Loomer for his concert

presentation and aiding and abetting Alan’s

participation in the Society by being a music

consultant and energetic member, Irene Barton and

Jean Griffiths who co-ordinated the refreshments for

the monthly meetings, John Hornsby for keeping the

meetings running and skills as D.J. and Matt Wood

and his telephone committee of Barry Tisdall, Norma

Humphries and Al Basian.

Alan also wanted to thank Judy Shiels for arranging

another successful Holiday Party and signing up 90

members and guests.

Alan thanked all of the members for attending and

contributing to the meetings and particularly to those

who brought guests.

Chris McEvilly gave his Treasurer’s report which is

included with this Newsletter.

Jim Northover indicated that about half of the

distribution of the Newsletter was now done

electronically which was more convenient and saved

the Society considerable amount of money. The cost

of the newsletter was now about half of the original

http://www.torontodukeellingtonsociety.com/

2

wholly mailed version. Jim also asked for a couple

more volunteers to take notes of the meetings to cover

for him should he be absent.

There was some business that arose from the floor.

Stan Schiff said that at the last AGM he has enquired

about the large reserve of money that the society had

at its disposal and wondered if anything had been

decided, subsequently, as far as its disposition. There

was much discussion from the floor as to legitimate

uses for the money – funding Jazz Safaris to New

York or Chicago for members and perhaps students,

sponsoring a concert at the Toronto Jazz Festival,

reduced membership costs, elimination of the fee for

refreshments at the meetings, purchasing several sets

of the new Mosaic set, The Complete 1932-1940

Brunswick, Columbia, and Master Recordings of

Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra,

sponsoring a concert by each college or university for

which we provide scholarships. All of these

suggestions had merit and we should take careful note

of them for future decisions. It had previously been

discussed at the previous AGM and at Executive

Meetings that the money be allowed to grow and be

“topped up” when appropriate, to be used to provide

an endowment fund for scholarships in the future. It

was unlikely that the Scholarship Fundraising Concert

would be able to be organised and continue

indefinitely and an alternative source for the

scholarships would be needed. Bruce Barton pointed

out that we should follow the guidance of our

constitution which calls for us “to preserve the

musical legacy of Duke Ellington …” It was then

decided to instruct the Executive Committee to

examine the issue and to recommend specific action.

At this point Alan pointed out that next year’s

fundraising concert ticket price would be $35 prior to

March 31 and $40 thereafter.

Alan then turned the meeting over to the Past

President, Bruce Barton, who had been charged with

the responsibility of preparing a slate of candidates of

officers for the coming two years. He offered the

following:

President – Martin Loomer.

Past President – Alan Shiels. Alan kindly offered to

help Martin in chairing the general meetings should

he be working on meeting evenings.

Vice President - Open

Secretary & Newsletter Editor – Jim Northover

Treasurer – Chris McEvilly

Program Chair – Irene Barton

Telephone Committee - Matt Wood

Refreshments – Jean Griffiths

It was moved by Stan Schiff and seconded by Stephen

Cohen that the slate of candidates be adopted as

presented. The motion was carried unanimously.

It was then moved by Chris McEvilly and seconded

by Bruce Barton that the AGM portion of the meeting

be closed to allow us to move on to the evening’s

presentation by the new President, Martin Loomer.

Martin entitled his talk – “Duke Ellington Plays the

Music of Others” The early Ellington oeuvre

consisted of stock arrangements, focusing on Duke’s

original work and relying heavily on the stars of the

orchestra. The first example of Ellington’s Orchestra

playing the music of others selected by Martin was

Rose Room, written in 1917 by Harry Williams and

Art Hickman. Ellington recorded this version for

Brunswick in Feb 11 1932. Ellington used the chord

progression of “Rose Room” for his standard “In a

Mellotone”. Will Hudson’s Moonglow was next,

again recorded for Brunswick, September 12 1934.

The introduction’s opening few notes from this

arrangement was subsequently used in “Serenade to

Sweden” and material from the fully scored bridge

was later used in “Concerto For Cootie” illustrating

how long Ellington could hold onto an idea before

fully developing it in the time honoured way that all

composers have “borrowed” from themselves. Martin

then played for us When My Sugar Walks Down

the Street, originally written by Gene Austin, Irving

Mills & Jimmy McHugh, recorded by Ellington for

Brunswick, June 7 1938. Martin called this a “real”

arrangement including a vocal by Ivie Anderson.

Martin said though this recording was not from the

Cotton Club era it illustrated the complex

arrangements that were used for the seven to eight

3

minute floor shows which were heavily edited and

reduced in length for the typical three minute

recordings such as this.

At this point we took a short break to socialize and to

enjoy the refreshments provided by Jean Griffiths.

In the 1940’s Billy Strayhorn joined the band and

started to contribute significantly to the book. The

flip side of the Dec 28 1940 Victor recording of

“Take the A Train” was The Sidewalks of New

York, originally a waltz and written in the 1890’s by

Charles B Lawlor and James W Blake. This

recording featured Barney Bigard, Tricky Sam

Nanton and Ben Webster. From the same recording

session Martin selected Flamingo, written by Ted

Grouya and Edmund Anderson in a classic Billy

Strayhorn arrangement which became a popular hit.

The vocal is by Herb Jeffries and the piano, in this

case, played by Strayhorn himself. From Music is

My Mistress, Ellington is quoted as saying that

Flamingo was “a turning point in vocal background

orchestration, a renaissance in elaborate

ornamentation for the accompaniment of singers”

Ellington paid tribute to W.C. Handy in the next

selections made by our presenter Martin Loomer.

From an August 26 1946 recording session for Victor

we heard Beale Street Blues with Shorty Baker

featured on a muted trumpet solo and Ray Nance on a

plunger solo. From the September 3 1946 recording

session, again for Victor, we heard Memphis Blues

and St. Louis Blues with a vocal by Marion Cox

followed by yet again another recording from the

September 3rd session, Royal Garden Blues, written

by Clarence and Spencer Williams. Martin instructed

us to listen for the luxurious and harmonically

sophisticated reed arrangement by Billy Strayhorn.

Moving onto the 1950’s Martin selected another

Strayhorn arrangement, Deep Night with the score

originally written by Charles Henderson and the lyrics

supplied by Rudy Vallee. Interestingly there is no

piano on this recording for Columbia made on August

8th 1951. Billy Strayhorn arranged Kurt Weil’s

September Song for the Ellington Orchestra which

was recorded in Chicago October 8th 1954 for Capitol

though issued on Pickwick Records. It was a

dramatic arrangement with dark trombones and rich

reed voicings.

From the 1956 album “Duke Ellington Presents”,

issued by Bethlehem Records, we heard Indian

Summer, recorded 7th or 8th February. The song was

originally written by Victor Herbert as a piano piece

in 1919.

Martin then changed gears and played Artistry in

Rhythm recorded by the Stan Kenton Orchestra in

1946 as a comparison to a version of the same song

arranged by Billy Strayhorn for the Ellington

Orchestra recorded January 3 1963 for the album

“Will the Big Bands Ever Come Back”. The Kenton

version was the usual florid and bold arrangement

while Strayhorn’s was a slow ballad.

To conclude his evening’s presentation Martin played

three selections of tunes recorded in the 1960’s by the

Ellington Orchestra, Sentimental Journey, written

by Les Brown, Bud Green and Benjamin Homer and

recorded Dec 13 1962 again for the album “Will the

Big Bands Ever Come Back”, The Masquerade is

Over recorded May 19 1964 and written by Allie

Wrubel and Chim Chim Cheree written by the

Sherman Brothers and recorded by Ellington

September 6-8th 1964 for the “Mary Poppins Album”

for Reprise. For his conclusion Martin selected

Goodbye, the Benny Goodman closer with words and

music by Gordon Jenkins recorded by the Ellington

band November 29 1962 for “Will the Big Bands

Ever Come Back” in which, in the words of Eddie

Lambert, “Hodges once more weaves his melodic

spells.” It was a slow and moving piece and a fitting

end to the evening

Alan Shiels made the formal thanks to Martin Loomer

for his enlightening presentation. It was always

interesting to get the insights of a musician on

Ellington’s music.

In writing up these notes I stumbled across an

interesting web site www.jazzstandards.com which

gives detailed descriptions of many jazz standards.

New Mosaic Ellington Release.

Mosaic has announced that they are working on an 11

CD collection, The Complete 1932-1940 Brunswick,

Columbia, and Master Recordings of Duke Ellington

and His Famous Orchestra. It is expected that the set

will be available by Christmas 2010. The price is

http://www.jazzstandards.com/

4

announced as U.S. $179. The code number for this

limited edition of 5000 is MD11- 248.

Addenda:

In the October edition of WholeNote, Jim Galloway

has written a column briefly describing the history of

the Toronto Duke Ellington Society and a small

review of his presentation to us on the Nicknames of

Duke Ellington’s band members as he described to us

a the September 2010 meeting . Thanks Jim!

Ted O’Reilly pointed out a correction from the

minutes of the September meeting that “before that

Toronto recording session Clark was already called

Mumbles by friends, for that blues-parody singing he

used to do even on the Tonight Show band. You may

recall that Johnny Carson used to work the audience

with Stump The Band contests (Win a canned ham!)

and whenever the guys couldn't come up with the

right song, Clark would always say "I know that

one!" and go into the mumbling. The recording of it

with OP was, as Jim Galloway said, done just to

document the fun as a private joke”. Thank You Ted.

Newsletter update

The editor receives electronic copies of Duke

Ellington Society Newsletters from the New York,

Southern California and Washington chapters. It will

be my practice to forward these newsletters to all

TDES 40 members electronically. If you would like

to receive these very interesting newsletters please let

me have your e mail address.

Upcoming Events

Jazz at RY opens its 16th season on November 7 at

2:00 p.m. with a concert by Dave Restivo (piano)

accompanied by Jim Lewis (trumpet), Artie Roth

(bass) and Morgan Childs (drums). Net proceeds

from the concert support the Royal York’s Church

local outreach charities. Tickets are $20 and $17 for

seniors and students.

Upcoming Meetings

November 9 – Video evening presented by Bruce

Barton. There is a chance that Dr. Robert Teigrob

will be able to make a presentation.

December 7 – Holiday Party at The Arts & Letters

Club. Doors open 6:00 p.m. dinner will be served at

7:00 p.m. and the music at 8:00 p.m. If you do not

have your tickets yet please contact Judy Shiels.

Last Post Joya Sherill – Died on June 28 2010 aged 83.

Joya Sherrill was a vocalist in the Ellington/Strayhorn

piece "A Drum Is A Woman" as well as "Hey Buddy

Bolden", "Rhumbop" and "Caribee Joe” Sherrill was

briefly with Duke Ellington in 1942, and then became

a member of his orchestra from 1944 to 1946. She

had a hit with Ellington's tune "I'm Beginning to See

the Light". Subsequently, she worked as a soloist,

performing with Rex Stewart and Ray Nance, and

others into the 1960s. She returned to Ellington in

1959 for A Drum is a Woman.

Annual Dues

The TDES 40 financial year runs from September 1st

through August 31st of the following year. In order to

meet the Society’s obligations for Montgomery’s Inn,

rentals, postage, printing and expenses in a timely

fashion, it is imperative that annual dues be paid as

early in the year as possible. Those who joined the

Society subsequent to the annual concert in April

2010 are exempt from dues payment for the current

year.

Dues are $35 for a single membership and $50 for a

family membership for payments made on or before

October 12th 2010. Payments made after that date are

subject to a $5.00 surcharge to offset bank penalties

for late deposits. If you have not already made your

payment, please mail your cheques:

Chris McEvilly,

Treasurer, The Duke Ellington Society,

10 Edgemore Drive,

Toronto, ON.,

M8Y 2M8

Be sure to include your name, address, home phone

number and email address.

GUESTS WELCOME Meetings of the Toronto Duke Ellington Society,

Chapter 40, are held on the 2nd

Tuesday of each month

7:30 pm – 10:00pm

Montgomery’s Inn

4709 Dundas St. W



Vol 52 No. 4 _______________________ _________ January 2011




Web Site: torontodukeellingtonsociety.com

Minutes of the January 11 2010 General Meeting President Martin Loomer opened the meeting at 7:35

p.m. to 27 members. He welcomed everyone and

thanked them for coming especially in view of the impending weather. Martin especially wanted to thank

Judy Shiels for arranging the 2010 Christmas Party at

the Arts & Letters Club in December. The meeting

showed the appropriate appreciation by warm applause. Many Thanks Judy. Judy Shiels told us that

next year’s Holiday party will be held on December 6th

2011 again at the Arts & Letters Club in Toronto. Members are asked to make suggestions regarding the

selection of the band.

There were a few announcements from the floor.

Bill Wilson said that his long running series of jazz concerts at Royal York United Church continued with

a Salute to Basie and The Duke presented by a band

led by Martin Loomer himself. He would be accompanied by Merlin Williams and Tom Skublics

on reeds. There would a bass but the player has yet to

be announced. The date of this concert is Sunday March 20th at 2:00 p.m. The next concert date is

Sunday May 1st with a band led by P.J. Perry and with

Neil Swainson on bass and Mark Eisenman on Piano.

Alan Shiels told us that ticket sales for the Scholarship

Concert scheduled for April 30th continue to sell

steadily though there remained about a hundred tickets still unsold. We were exhorted to strongly sell the

remaining tickets as soon as possible. Please speak to

Alan for any information regarding ticket sales.

Program Director Irene Barton said that there were

opportunities to make presentations to the group in

March and in April this year. Anyone interested in making a presentation should speak to her right away.

Martin Loomer then introduced the presenters for this evening, Mel Manley and Harold Swartz. These two

members of TDES 40 had known each other for the

past six years since they both attended a senior’s

program at Ryerson University on Jazz appreciation. They presented a video – Duke Ellington at the Cote

D’Azur with Ella FitzGerald and Joan Miro. If time

permitted at the end of the video, Mel and Harold would present some music from some CD’s. The

video material was from a concert recorded live at the

Antibes-Juan Les Pins Jazz Festival between June

26 and July 29, 1966. Originally the concert was

presented on a series of Verve LP’s but Norman

Granz intended to make a movie of the concert

too.

The video opened with a brief explanation by

Ellington himself of the concert and the music

was led off by a rousing version of The Opener

by the full band. Ellington then introduced Such

Sweet Thunder from the suite of the same name.

Ellington then introduced the medley, this time of

Black & Tan Fantasy, Creole Love Call and

The Mooche.

A trio of Duke Ellington, John Lamb on bass and

Sam Woodyard, drums played two pieces in a

http://www.jazzbooks.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/d345.jpg

2

sculpture garden. Joan Miro gave Ellington a tour

of the sculptures and then watches as the three

musicians play Kinda Dukish and The Shepherd

while the camera contrasts the music to the stark

modern sculptures.

We were then returned to the full band in a

rehearsal performance of The Old Circus Train

Turn - Around Blues a very simple number but

one that swung hard with help from Johnny

Hodges. From the rehearsal it switched

seamlessly to the concert version for a very

satisfying performance indeed. Ellington then

introduced La Plus Belle Africaine in which

John Lamb bowed a solo and Jimmy Hamilton,

Harry Carney and Sam Woodyard featured.

Ella FitzGerald then joined the Ellington band on

stage with her own musicians, Jimmy Jones on

Piano, Grady Tate drums and Jim Hughart bass.

The Ellington band accompanied Ella with her

trio on Satin Doll, I want Something to Live

For and Jazz Samba.

The movie of the concert on The Cote D’Azur not

generally released. Perhaps in part due to the fact that shortly before the concert Ella Fitzgerald had leanrned

of her sister’s death and was understandably under

some stress and was distraught. Though it did not

appear to affect her performance, she was not able to participate in the concert finale as scheduled. Duke

Ellington closed the concert with Things Ain’t What

They Used To Be and used it as a vehicle for his Finger Snapping routine.

The band consisted of Cootie Williams, Cat

Anderson, Mercer Ellington, and Herbie Jones

Trumpets, Lawrence Brown, Buster Cooper and

Chuck Connors trombones. Featured throughout

the program was Johnny Hodges, with Paul

Gonsalves, Harry Carney, Jimmy Hamilton and

Russell Procope Reeds, Sam Woodyard drums,

John Lamb bass and the Duke himself. We then took a short break. Refreshments were

generously provided by Bill and Mary Wilson and

Gary Vivian.

After the break Mel and Harold introduced several

Ellington related numbers. They started with another short video of Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center with

Willie Nelson singing Don’t Get Around Much Any

More. This was followed by Jo Stafford singing Day

Dream and Just Squeeze Me from the 1961 album Jo & Jazz. She was backed by a band containing several

Ellington Alumni including Johnny Hodges and Ben

Webster. From the Sing a Song With Mulligan

album of Annie Ross sang

Bing Crosby and Duke Ellington did not record much together but from 1932 we heard The Louis Blues, “a

somewhat pretentious arrangement” but demonstrating

Crosby’s strong voice. The Boswell sisters were next

singing Mood Indigo with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra including Bunny Berigan from 1933.

From Ellington’s 1953 album Piano Reflections we heard Reflections in D and Retrospection. The

evening was rounded off by Ellington playing Billy

Strayhorn’s Passion Flower.

Matt Wood proposed the formal vote of thinks in

which he complimented Mel Manley and Harold

Swartz for providing a very enjoyable evening of music.

*****


February 8th – Jack Chambers will present.

March 8 – TBA April 12 -TBA

April 30th – Fundraising Concert. The band will be the

Dave Young/Terry Promane Big Band and will include Gary Williamson on Piano, Terry Clark

playing drums, Kevin Turcotte, Chase Sandborne,

Brian O’Kane and John MacLeod on trumpets, John Johnson and Perry White on Reeds. The band will be

enhanced by students from the Jazz Faculty of U of T.

Upcoming Events

Quotes Bar & Grill – 220 King Street East will be presenting every Friday evening during the winter The

Canadian Jazz Quartet with a different guest artist

each week. The web site has all of the details and it

3

looks like a great deal to me. There is no cover

charge, Fridays 5:00 to 8:00p.m.

www.barootes.com

The Rex Jazz & Blues Bar will be presenting in February The Dave Young Octet with Terry Promane

– an opportunity to see much of the band that will be

playing at the TDES 40 Scholarship Fundraising Concert. Please check the web site for the date of this

performance.

www.jazzintoronto.com

Mezzetta Restaurant & Tapas Bar is presenting

Concert Wednesdays with shows at 9:00. and 10:15

p.m.. People such as Dave Young, Mike Murley and Lorne Lofsky will be appearing. I suggest visiting

their web site for more details:

http://www.mezzettarestaurant.com

Last Post

Jack Towers passed away Dec 23 2010 at 5:10 A.M.

He had been ill with Parkinson’s Disease at the time of

his death. He had recently turned 96 on November 16.

On Nov. 7, 1940, Jack Towers and his friend Dick

Burris arrived early at the Crystal Ballroom in

Fargo, N.D., to set up their recording equipment.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra, their favorite jazz

band, was scheduled to play that night. Mr.

Towers and Burris were young radio broadcasters

and engineers who, in the days before tape

recorders had been invented, hauled bulky tape

recording equipment from the trunk of their car

into the ballroom. Duke Ellington allowed them to

record the evening's performance, a dance for

more than 600 young people, as long as it was not

sold commercially.

It was one of the first live jazz recordings and

captured Ellington and his band at their artistic

pinnacle. Before the performance at the Crystal

Ballroom in Fargo, Ellington told Mr. Towers that

his trumpet section was in "rough shape." Ray

Nance, who became a longtime mainstay in the

trumpet section, was making his first appearance

in the band that night.

At the time, 78-rpm commercial recordings could

contain only about three minutes of music on a

side. Mr. Towers's discs could capture 15 minutes

of music per side. It revealed the Ellington band

in its full glory, stretching out in extended solos

on 45 tunes that sometimes reached nearly seven

minutes.

Billy Taylor, one of the musical treasures of

Washington and the world, died Dec. 28, at a hospital

in New York City. He was 89 and died of a heart

attack.

Dr. Taylor was a first-rate jazz pianist who grew up in

Washington and moved to New York in the early

1940s and was present at the birth of bebop, the new

vernacular of music that transformed jazz. He played

alongside Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles

Davis and became a protégé of the great Art Tatum.

In the 1950s, Dr. Taylor began to branch out into

broadcasting with a television series, "The Subject Is

Jazz," and with radio programs. He appeared on CBS

over the years, particularly on "CBS Sunday

Morning," interviewing and performing many of the

great artists in jazz.

For several years, he was the host of an NPR series,

"Billy Taylor's Jazz at the Kennedy Center," and many

people considered him the foremost jazz educator of

his time.

Dr. Taylor received every award there is in jazz and

the arts, including the National Medal of Arts in 1992,

and was designated a Jazz Master by the National

Endowment for the Arts in 1988.

The Editor acknowledges the Washington Post from

which this was extracted.

New & Interesting

In spite of the fact that we have JAZZ-FM in Toronto

it is often necessary look for jazz elsewhere. Since many of us have computers, it is possible to give

ourselves some alternates by listening to remote radio

http://www.barootes.com/

http://www.jazzintoronto.com/

http://www.mezzettarestaurant.com/

4

stations around the world. Jazz programming may be

found at the following web sites. If any member listens to any not mentioned please let me know and I

will list them in upcoming newsletters.

CIUT – www.ciut.fm University of Toronto community radio. Colin Bray plays jazz from the 20’s

& 30’s. Thursdays at 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. There is also a

link to the most recent program so that you can listen at your convenience.

CIXX – www.1069fm.ca. Fanshawe College London.

Al Burton of the London Jazz Society has a Sunday morning jazz show from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

CHRY – www.chry.fm. York University community

radio. Some Experiences in Jazz programmed by Rob

Fogle on Friday evenings 9:00 pm. to midnight. WBFO – www.wbfo.org The closest NPR station in

Buffalo has a variety of jazz and blues programming

throughout the week. WFCR – www.wfcr.org Massachusetts college station

featuring jazz programmed by Tom Reney, Monday

to Friday 8:00 – 11:00 p.m. WCDB – www.wcdbfm.com Albany University

station. Bill McCann hosts a jazz program Saturday

mornings 9:00 a.m. to Noon.

A new CD from John Lamb

John Lamb has made a CD with some Canadian musicians - Conversations North of the Border. The

CD includes Mark Eisenman, piano, Brain Barlow,

drums, Michael Stuart, tenor, Russ Little, trombone,

with additional help from Scott Alexander, bass, on one track.

From the liner notes by Tim Elliott - “Jazz is a

conversation. Here we have five musicians one May

day in Toronto having conversations with each other.

This recording was done with no rehearsal and only a few charts. What you’re hearing is mostly the first or

second takes. This is a rarity to hear “live” undoctored

music these days. And what a treat it is to hear bassist

John Lamb in conversations with his Canadian friends north of the border”.

The Johnny Hodges/Wild Bill Davis Project. In a Mellotone, the newsletter of the Southern

California Chapter of the Duke Ellington Society there

is an excellent review of four CD’s from Lonehill Jazz in the of recordings made by Johnny Hodges and Wild

Bill Davis. Between 1961 and 1966 Johnny Hodges

and Wild Bill Davis teamed up to record nine LP

albums. All of these have now been released by Lonehill Jazz in four CD’s three single and one double

CD package.

In fact Lonehill Jazz has twenty one CD’s featuring Johnny Hodges. They may be obtained directly from

the distributor Absolute Distribution:

This review appears in the Fall 2010 issue of In a

Mellotone. If you have trouble accessing this issue,

please let me know and I can get you a copy.

www.freshsoundrecords.com

Newsletter Update.

The Editor of this newsletter welcomes and

encourages any and all comments. If any member

has a suggestion or contribution please let me

know.

Toronto Duke Ellington Society

Chapter 40

Meetings are held on the 2nd

Tuesday of each

month.

7:30 pm – 10:00pm

Montgomery’s Inn

4709 Dundas St. W



http://www.ciut.fm/

http://www.1069fm.ca/

http://www.chry.fm/

http://www.wbfo.org/

http://www.wfcr.org/

http://www.wcdbfm.com/

http://www.freshsoundrecords.com/

Vol 52 No. 5 _______________________ February & March 2011




Web Site: www.torontodukeellingtonsociety.com

Minutes of the February 8th

2011 General Meeting

President Martin Loomer opened the meeting at 7:35

p.m. to 38 members and guests. Among the guests we were pleased to welcome Jim Galloway.

Ted O’Reilly announced that he and Jim Galloway had

produced a limited edition CD of music he had

recorded in 1973 of Jim Galloway and Vic Dickenson playing at Daniel’s in Toronto. During the course of

the evening Jim sold many copies. Further copies may

be obtained, while supplies last, directly from Jim Galloway at www.jimgalloway.ca

Martin introduced the speaker for the evening, Jack

Chambers. Jack’s topic was – Not Ben, Not Mex –

Ellington’s Other Tenor Sax. Players.

Jack explained that he was not going to focus on Ben

Webster or Paul Gonzalves as Tenor soloists but on the other tenor soloists used by Duke in his Orchestra.

Jack opened with a rousing version of How High the

Moon from the recently released album Live in Switzerland recorded in 1950. At that time Don Byas

was Duke’s solo tenor player who joined the band for

a limited time in 1950 for Ellington’s tour of Europe.

Ellington was, at that time trying to update the sound of his band by bringing in bebop influenced players, of

whom Byas was one. How High the Moon was, of

course, widely used in bebop compositions.

The most prominent tenor player that Ellington

employed was Ben Webster who joined the band in 1940. Ellington waited almost 15 years before he

hired a tenor sax soloist. He had many tenor players in

the band who were ensemble players but no soloists

He did use Prince Robinson occasionally in 1925 - 1927 but essentially as an ensemble player. Robinson

played with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, Roy Eldridge

and Louis Armstrong and Claude Hopkins. Coleman Hawkins regarded Robinson as among the keenest of

his early rivals (Eddie Lambert). Jack selected I’ve

Found a New Baby from a McKinney’s Cotton

Pickers record of April 1929 to illustrate Robinson’s solo work on the tenor sax.

Barney Bigard was in the Ellington orchestra for 25 years and was highlighted on the clarinet. He was

though, used as a tenor soloist infrequently. Ellington

was slow to adopt the tenor as a solo instrument. To

illustrate Barney Bigard on the tenor we heard Bugle

Call Rag from a 1928 recording which can be found

in The Okeh Ellington album.

Joe Garland replaced Barney Bigard on one record

session for three tracks he arranged for Ivie Anderson.

His hot tenor solo predates Ben Webster by seven

years. We heard Happy as the Day is Long, recorded by the Ellington Orchestra May 1933. Jack said that

this hot solo was the only one recorded by Ellington in

the 1925 – 1940 period during which the tenor sax was becoming much more widely and expertly played. As

an example of how the tenor was being played at that

time Jack played a piece recorded by the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra featuring Coleman Hawkins.

Queer Notions recorded in August 1933 showcased

Hawkins’s talent and ability. Ellington did not appear

to catch on or feel that he needed the tenor solo’s dimension in his colour palette. There were many

expert players of the tenor at that time including Lester

Young but Ellington did not employ a tenor soloist which, for him was unusual since he kept on top of or

led most musical developments at that time.

Al Sears was hired as essentially Ben Webster’s

replacement. Skippy Williams was Webster’s direct

replacement but only for a few moths in 1943 – 44.

After Ellington Al Sears managed Johnny Hodges Band and then became a music publisher. We heard a

1945 recording of Carnegie Blues featuring Al Sears

on tenor. Carnegie Blues was originally titled The Blues and was taken from the Black, Brown and Beige

Suite. Al Sears stayed with Ellington for five years

and was widely used as a hot soloist. We then heard

http://www.jimgalloway.ca/

2

Riff Staccato recorded in May 1945 with Sears

playing a hot tenor. Sears said that he was a salesman for Duke. He played two or three notes and stomped

his foot and stopped the show for Ellington every

night. – quoted by Joe Goldberg in the liner notes for

Swing’s the Thing.

As further example of Sears’ work we heard Swamp

Fire recorded in 1946 and Castle Rock from the Johnny Hodges led band on March 1951. This number

was a great success and almost became a hit for the

Hodges band but interestingly Sears played the only solo and Hodges was not featured as a soloist.

At this time we took a short break with refreshments

kindly provided by Sonya Taylor and Helen Paul.

After the break Jack introduced Harold Ashby who

played in his native Kansas City after serving in the U.S. Navy and then moved to Chicago for a while,

playing R & B before he moved to New York City

where he was mentored by Ben Webster. He subbed for Ellington from 1960 and then joined the band on a

permanent basis in 1968. Ashby joined the Ellington

band as a replacement for Jimmy Hamilton but not as

a clarinet soloist, Russell Procope became the principal clarinet soloist. With Ashby and Gonzalves

the band has two tenor soloists. To demonstrate

Harold Ashby’s talent Jack played B.P. Blues, recorded one year after Ashby joined the band,

November 26 1969 for the album, Duke Ellington’s

70th Birthday Concert. We then heard Fajista recorded

in 1958 from the Soul of Ben Webster album. This number demonstrated how similar Ashby and

Webster’s styles were, though Harold Ashby was very

early in his career compared to Webster and he sounded a little tentative in comparison..

Eddie Lambert claimed that Ashby was the last man to join the band whose personality Duke used in the old

way as a specific element within his compositions.

A much more confident Ashby was presented in Thanks for the Beautiful Land from The New

Orleans Suite album recorded in April 1970. From the

Private Collection Vol. 9 Just Squeeze Me was played as an example of Ellington using Ashby,

playing in a relaxed and confident mood as the only

soloist even though Paul Gonzalves was in the band. The final tenor soloist that Jack Chambers introduced

was Jimmy Hamilton. Hamilton played with a number

of bands before he joined Ellington in 1943 as a replacement for Chauncey Haughton who had replaced

Bigard the previous year. His “conservatory” clarinet

sound drew criticism at first but he was featured for 25

years. However, Duke told Hamilton that he would have to play tenor. Hamilton’s formal clarinet sound

was completely different to his more relaxed tenor. To

demonstrate, we heard Hy’a Sue from the Cornell University Second Set album recorded December

1948. Hamilton played the longest tenor solo for

Ellington, five choruses, until the Gonzalves 27 choruses at Newport. As a further example of his

playing Jack played for us Gone with the Blues

recorded in 1961 by a Hamilton led small band in the

Album, It’s About Time.

Jack ended his excellent presentation with a tenor

extravaganza, In Triplicate, featuring three Ellington tenors, Paul Gonzalves, Norris Turney and Harold

Ashby from Duke Ellington’s 70th Birthday Concert. It

was symbolic of the strong place that the tenor soloist had finally achieved in Ellington’s band.

Jack Chambers’s final comment was that Duke

Ellington had a strange history with tenor soloists. During 1925 – 1940 there was no tenor soloist in the

band at all. In the 1940’s the band had some

wonderful tenor soloists namely Ben Webster and Al Sears. Finally, from 1950 to 1974 when Ellington died

the orchestra included at least two tenor soloists.

Once again we were treated to an excellent presentation from Jack Chambers, entertaining,

enlightening and offering, once again, fresh insights

into Duke’s music. Martin Loomer made the vote of thanks official.

The editor wishes to thank Jack Chambers for the generous use of his notes and his review of the

minutes in the preparation of this piece.

***

Minutes of the March 8th

2011 General Meeting Martin Loomer opened the meeting at 7:40 p.m. to 24

members. There were a few announcements from the

floor. Alan Shiels happily announced that the Scholarship Concert to be held on April 30 at Walter

Hall was now fully sold out. As usual, there was a

waiting list so Alan asked members to make sure that

3

they were going to attend. Alan would like any tickets

that would be unused to be returned to him for resale. Alan also announced that The Toronto Duke Ellington

Society, Chapter 40 will be holding an “Open House”

at the Toronto Reference Library on Friday November

18th 2011 at 7:30 p.m. This will replace the regularly scheduled meeting of November 8th. The intention of

the Open House is to attract new members to the

Society. There will be a short presentation describing the

Society and its goals and objectives followed by a

concert played by The Jim Galloway Quartet. Everyone is invited. Please make a note in your

calendars and join us for a great evening of Jazz.

Martin Loomer shamelessly mentioned Bill Wilson’s Jazz at R.Y series in which he will be performing in a

quartet with Merlin Williams, Tom Skublics and Jack

McFadden playing a Salute to The Count and Duke. To be held Sunday march 20 at 2 p.m. at Royal York

United Church. For tickets, please contact Bill Wilson

at 416-231-1207. All of the proceeds, after expenses, go to local charities.

Bruce Barton then introduced the speaker for the

evening’s presentation, David Basskin, who is well known to JAZZ-FM listeners as the presenter of

“Stolen Moments” a weekly jazz show on

JAZZ-FM 91 heard on Fridays between 10:00p.m. and 1:00 a.m.. He is also trained as a lawyer and in his day

gig heads up the Canadian Musical Reproduction

Rights Agency Ltd. (CMRRA), Canada's largest music

licensing agency. The topic of David’s talk was “Touring the World for the Department of State.”

David introduced his topic by explaining that the U.S. State Department sponsored tours by jazz musicians

was relatively unknown story in the history of jazz.

David explained that the reason the State Department sponsored the Jazz Ambassador’s Tours was that the

U.S.A.’s image around the world was suffering due to

the increasing civil rights struggle that started in the

1950’s. There were many race related incidents in the U.S.A. during the 1950’s – 1970’s period and the rest

of the world did take notice. Of course, during the

Cold War, the USSR took full advantage, criticizing the USA for their poor domestic race relations.

The Eisenhower administration decided that steps had to be taken to counter the effect of TASS and The

USSR propaganda and present the U.S.A. in a positive

light. Louis Armstrong and his All Stars Band made their

first unofficial ambassadorial trip to the British Gold

Coast in 1956, soon to become the newly independent

nation of Ghana, where they were sponsored by Edward R. Murrow and CBS. We heard “When it’s

Sleepy Time Down South” played by Louis

Armstrong which was the first piece of music he played on this tour. Though they did not sponsor this

tour the State Department was very pleased.

In March of 1956, bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie

and his racially integrated band embarked for Southern

Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia on the first

U.S. State Department jazz tour and the U.S. State Department was delighted with the result.

David played a video of Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong playing Umbrella Man to show two of the

State Department’s stars in action.

David explained that the State Department wanted the

tours and concerts targeted at elites and opinion

shapers in foreign lands. The musicians wanted to

play for a broader audience and so tensions started to develop.

The 1958 State Department tour of Dave Brubeck and his integrated Quartet, with saxophonist Paul

Desmond, drummer Joe Morello, and bassist Eugene

Wright, marked the first foray of the Jazz

Ambassadors across the Iron Curtain. Keen observers of the State Department jazz tours and first-hand

participants, Dave and his wife Iola later celebrated

and satirized these trips in their 1961-1962 musical The Real Ambassadors, a collaboration undertaken

with Louis Armstrong. As writer and lyricist Iola

emphasised, “the entire American jazz community was elated with the official recognition of jazz and its

international implications.” Yet as the charismatic

ambassadors, many of them African Americans,

returned to the United States, the country’s racial problems had not been resolved. Within this context,

the Brubecks wanted to honor Armstrong’s

contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, and also to emphasize his key role as a musical diplomat. The

Real Ambassadors was performed at the 1962

Monterey Jazz Festival to great critical acclaim, and the recorded album and subsequent CD continue to be

4

widely appreciated. It was never presented n

Broadway, the intended destination, since it was viewed as too controversial. We saw the Dave

Brubeck Quartet playing Blue Rondo a la Turk in a

contrived video from a July 1962 broadcast.

In 1963 Duke Ellington became a Jazz Ambassador

when the civil rights struggle was intensifying. Many

ugly scenes depicting the struggle that were broadcast during this time damaged the image of the U.S.A.

many musicians were sent abroad during this period

by Duke seemed to have the most impact. Duke Ellington toured for the State Department more than

any other musician. He began with his orchestra’s

three month tour through the Middle East and South

Asia in 1963 and ended with performances in Eastern Europe, Ethiopian and Zambia in 1973. Ellington did,

of course, tour in Europe in 1933 and later,

introducing American Jazz to new audiences.

There were State Department appearances in 1966 to

Senegal and tours of Latin America and Asia in the early 1970s, but Ellington’s greatest diplomatic

triumph came in 1971 when his orchestra toured the

Soviet Union. Subsequent to this trip and during the

last three years of his life, Ellington’s activities for the State Department accelerated. The seventy-two-year-

old Duke immediately followed the Soviet tour with

performances in Eastern Europe and a tour of Latin America in late 1971. He visited Asia in 1972,

including concerts in Vientiane, Laos, while the

Vietnam War unfolded around them. In late 1973, he

made his final State Department appearances in Zambia and Ethiopia.

Duke’s tours had a great influence too on his music,

The Far East Suite and The Afro Eurasian Eclipse albums being two of the best known results. David

showed for us a video of Billy Strayhorn’s

composition, Isfahan played by the Ellington Orchestra with Johnny Hodges’s exquisite solo.

The jazz tours were an important channel for

expressing jazz to the rest of the world and created a

market for jazz. Many jazz musicians though were unhappy with presenting the U.S.A. in such a positive

light when the reality at home was so at odds with the

image the State Department wanted to portray.

David concluded his discussion by saying that there

was a great deal more to learn about the State Department tours. Good sources for material were a

book by Penny M von Eschen, Satchmo Blows up the

World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War and a web site www.meridian.org/jazz ambassadors/ from

which I obtained additional material.

Bruce Barton offered the group’s thanks to David Basskin for his excellent presentation. We then

adjourned for a break with refreshments kindly

provided by Brad and Lee Perkins.


April 12th

– Dr. Mike Daley of U of T’s Living & Learning educational series.

April 30th

– Annual Scholarship Concert. Walter

Hall, University of Toronto. Dave Young/Terry

Promane Big Band. May 10

th – Not Yet announced

June 14th

– Member’s Choice.

Upcoming Events

April 30th

– Saturday. Fortieth Annual Canadian

Collectors’ Congress. A conference specifically planned for record collectors and

discographers/researchers interested in ragtime,

vintage jazz, blues, gospel, hot dance music and

Canadiana. Please contact Gene Miller for more details.

Last Post It is with great regret that we note the passing of

Eileen Ward, long time member of TDES 40,

previously holding the position of treasurer of our

society as well as being Conference Coordinator for the Ellington Conferences held in Toronto in 1987 and

1996.

George Shearing passed away February 14, 2011 in

New York City aged 91. He was the first postwar

British jazz musician to move permanently to the US to build a solid career there, effectively clearing the

way for a host of other players to follow the same

path. This was in 1947. He was knighted in 2007.


Tuesday of each

month.

7:30 pm – 10:00pm

Montgomery’s Inn

4709 Dundas St. W


Plenty of Free Parking

http://www.meridian.org/jazz%20ambassadors/

Vol 52 No 6. ________________________________ March &April 2010




Minutes of the April 12, 2011 Meeting

Martin Loomer opened the meeting at 7:35 p.m. to 28

members. There were a few announcements from the floor. Alan Shiels announced that, once again, the

Scholarship Fundraising concert was sold out. We are

also organising an event to be held on November 18, 2011. As part of our outreach efforts in 2011 our

regular November meeting will be moved to

November 18 for this special event. Together with the Toronto Reference Library, we are presenting “Duke

In Canada”, featuring Jim Galloway’s Quartet.

7:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Toronto Reference Library, 789

Yonge Street, at Asquith. Bloor is the closest subway station. More details to follow closer to the event.

Our goal is to attract 150 attendees to the meeting.

Alan also announced that five former TDES 40 Scholarship winners would be playing a couple of

numbers in the upcoming Scholarship Fundraising

concert on April 30.

Irene Barton introduced the speaker for the evening,

Dr. Michael Daley, a music educator who teaches

regularly at Innis College (U of T), George Brown College, Glendon College (York) and the Harris

Institute for the Arts, among others. In addition Mike

plays both the guitar and banjo and worked with Jeff Healey. Mike’s PhD was in Ethnomusicology. Mike

told us that his theme for the evening’s presentation

was The Ellington Guitarists and Banjoists. Mike

said that he had researched several discographies in order to identify those guitarists and banjo players who

had recorded with Duke so he was likely to have

omitted some players who had played with Duke but not recorded with him.

The role of the guitarists and banjo players was almost

exclusively supportive in the band, not generally heard as soloists. Originally, guitars were used in early jazz

bands but were superseded by the banjo, probably

because, as bands got bigger the banjo was able to be

better heard and could cut through the sound of the band. When the new electrical recording technology

was introduced in 1925, it was possible to hear the

instrument on recordings since the guitar could be

played directly into the microphone.

The first banjo player who Duke Ellington used was Sterling Conaway, a teenager who played with Duke

in the 1918 – 1919 period in Washington. Conaway

went on to play with Carroll Dickerson in 1925, Eddie South in 1930 and Noble Sissle in 1931.

Elmer Snowden played the banjorine, a short necked

banjo, and led the Washingtonians before Duke took over. He was born in Baltimore in 1900 and moved to

New York City in about 1923. They recorded together

in July 1923 though the recordings were lost. Mike

showed us a video of Elmer Snowden from a 1933 clip entitled Smash Your Baggage. Snowden originally led

the Washingtonians but when he left after a

disagreement with the musicians Duke Ellington took over the leadership of the band. Snowden moved to

California in 1963 and taught music. From 1967 we

saw a video clip of Elmer Snowden playing Up a Lazy

River with a trio. He moved back to Philadelphia in 1969 and died in 1973.

The next banjoist was the most obscure – George

Francis. He played with Duke's band briefly in 1924 and appeared on a few recordings of that year. We

heard Choo Choo from a November 1924 recording by

The Washingtonians. The definitive Ellington banjoist and guitar player was

Fred Guy. He was born in Georgia but moved to New

York City and joined the Ellington band in the spring

of 1924. He started with the band playing banjo then began to incorporate guitar in 1931, then switched

altogether to guitar in 1931. Fred Guy stayed with

Ellington for 24 years, typifying the sort of loyalty Ellington inspired in his players. He essentially never

took a solo and was used as a rhythm player only. He

was never replaced. He remained with Ellington most importantly to keep time since Sonny Greer tended to

rush the time. With the arrival of Jimmie Blanton,

Fred Guy’s time keeping role was minimized.

Though not soloing per se, he can be briefly heard on a couple of recordings, Echoes of the Jungle recorded in

2

June 1931 and taking a break in The Sergeant Was Shy

recorded in August 1939. He left the band in May of 1949 though Ellington remained a friend until Fred

Guy committed suicide in 1971. He was the last

guitarist to hold a permanent place in the Ellington

band. Many other guitarists did play with the band but were session players only. Those that recorded with

Ellington were:

Lonnie Johnson, born in 1899 and went to Europe 1917 – 1918. He recorded with many people in the

1925 – 1930 period including Louis Armstrong, Bessie

Smith and Eddie Lang. Eddie Lang’s pseudonym when playing with Lonnie Johnson was Blind Willie

Dunn. He first recorded with Duke Ellington in 1928

The Mooche with, incidentally, Fred Guy on banjo.

Mike Daley played this number for us. Regretfully, Lonnie Johnson was lost in obscurity for many years

until rediscovered in the late 1950’s but subsequently

played in many jazz and blues festivals. He was videoed in a 1963 American Folk and Blues Festival

playing Another Night to Cry which Mike played for

us. Lonnie Johnson moved to Toronto and opened a club, Home of the Blues. He was severely injured in a

road traffic accident in 1969 and died in 1970 as a

result.

We took a short break at this point with refreshments kindly provided by Laurence and Heidi Buchanan and

Norma Crawford.

After the break Mike Daley continued with Duke Ellington’s session players. Teddy Bunn, born in

1909 in Freeport, Long Island, made his recording

debut with Ellington’s band on September 16 1929,

with four tunes including Swanee Shuffle which Mike played for us. Bunn went on to be one of the busier

session guitarists and played with a wide variety of

bands including Bechet, Mezz Mezzrow and Lionel Hampton. He toured throughout the 1960’s and died

in 1978. During the 1940’s Ellington had several

guitarists play in the band, in 1945 with Al Casey and in 1946 Django Reinhardt the gypsy guitarist. He

played in the night clubs of Paris with the Quintet of

the Hot Club of France. His playing is still of

significance today and in Toronto there are several Django inspired groups playing the music in the style

of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. In the Fall of

1946 he toured the United States as a special guest

soloist with Duke Ellington though he played

accompanied by the rhythm section only, not with the whole band. Apparently his tour was not well

publicized and only one session was recorded, that of

the Chicago concert of November 10, 1946. Mike

Daley played from that concert A Blues Riff. Django Reinhardt played in Toronto during this tour at the

Mutual Street Arena. He returned to France and died

at the age of 43 in 1953 of a brain hemorrhage.

Several minor appearances by guitarists were made, Malcolm Mitchell recorded with Duke, Ray Nance

and Kay Davis in 1948. He claimed to be the first

Englishman to play with Ellington and be paid! Les Spann, 1932 – 1989, recorded with Ellington and

Johnny Hodges and Jimmy Gourley 1926- 2008,

recorded with Ellington in Paris but the recording remains unissued. The last guitarist to record with

Ellington was Freddy Green of the Basie band in the

album The Count Meets the Duke for the First Time

recorded in July of 1961. Mike Daley ended the evening with a lively question

and answer session. The first question posed was

“Will you play for us?” Mike responded by playing a delightful short guitar solo of In a Sentimental Mood.

It was asked if Ellington ever recorded with Joe Pass.

Of course all of our memories failed us but Jack Chambers was the first to research the answer and

pointed out that indeed Joe Pass did record with Duke

in The Duke’s Big Four, with Ray Brown and Louis

Bellson in 1973. That brought the evening to a close. Martin Loomer

made the formal vote of thanks which was

enthusiastically endorsed by us all. Ed.-Many thanks to Mike Daley who reviewed these

notes and corrected my errors.

*****

2011 Scholarship Fundraising Concert Martin Loomer made the opening announcements to a

sold out audience in U of T’s Walter Hall and

introduced the band for the evening, the David Young/Terry Promane Big band. Proceeds of the

concert, after the band has been paid go to funding the

seven scholarships that The Toronto Duke Ellington Society funds for Jazz students at The University of

Toronto, York University and Humber College. Terry

Promane told us that the band was composed of staff

and students of the University of Toronto jazz faculty and one of its mandates was to perform music

composed and arranged by Canadian composers.

Since this evening’s concert was to be of music composed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, he

was using arrangements made by Canadian arrangers

only. The band members were Co Leaders Dave Young on Bass and Terry Promane on trombone with

3

Gary Williamson on Piano; Terry Clark, Drums;

Kevin Turcotte, Chase Sanborn and John MacLeod Trumpets; John Johnson, Mike Murley and Dave

Neill Reeds with U of T Students Shannon

Graham,Tenor Sax, Taylor Cook Alto Sax, Paul

Tarrusov Trombone, R.J. Satchithananthan, Trombone, Alex Duncan, Bass Trombone and, called

up from the audience at the last minute to fill the

place of one of the trumpeters who could not make it, Benjamin Promane . The band kicked off with a Phil

Nimmons’ arrangement of In A Mellotone followed by

Andy Ballantyne’s arrangement of In A Sentimental Mood featuring Fourth year student Taylor Cook on

Soprano. The band then played Prelude to a Kiss

arranged by John McLeod. He has his own big band,

The Rex Hotel Orchestra which plays at the Rex Hotel on the last Monday of each month. This band recently

won a Juno for the best Traditional Jazz Album of

2011. Terry Promane was featured in his own arrangement of Mood Indigo. The set closed with

John McLeod’s arrangement of It Don’t Mean a

Thing… featuring Second Year student R.J.

Satchithananthan’s trombone. The band took a short

break after which we were entertained by a Quintet

composed of previous winners of the scholarships that The Toronto Duke Ellington Society funds for Jazz

students at The University of Toronto. The band

members were: Mark Laver Alto Sax, Gordon Hyland Tenor Sax, Chris Donnelly Piano, Brendan McElroy

Bass and Max Roach on drums all of whom were

now professional musicians. They played Isfahan and

Caravan. The full band then returned to the stage and played two Phil Nimmons’ arrangements, Band Call,

featuring Gary Williamson on piano and Paul Tarrusov

on trombone and All too Soon featuring Paul Tarrusov again. The set and the concert concluded with a

rousing version of Take the A Train arranged by Rob

McConnell and featuring one of his alumni, Mike

Murley on Tenor. The band received a well deserved standing ovation to conclude a wonderful evening of

jazz. Terry Promane performed most of the evening’s

emceeing in a style and with the humour clearly learnt from the master of such things, the late Rob

McConnell.

Many thanks are due to Alan and Judy Shiels who arranged the evening and to the ticket purchasers who

once again provided a full house and an appreciative

audience.

***

Upcoming Events May 28th. At Hugh’s Room, the Dave Young/Terry Promane Octet will present an evening of jazz.

This year’s Toronto Jazz Festival will run from June

24 to July 3. Tim Elliott advised that Brian Barlow's big band with

Heather Bambrick will be playing selections from

Duke's Sacred Concerts on Sunday July 3 at 4:30 p.m. at Jazz Vespers at Christ Church Deer Park 1570

Yonge St. as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival.

September 15 2011, Thursday.

Ken Page Memorial Trust Fundraising Gala and Jazz

Party at The Old Mill, Toronto.

2012 Ellington Conference.

An Ellington Conference in London is in the

conception stage. Tentative dates are 17-23 May 2012. Organizers say that details will follow in due

course.

*****

Last Post

Drummer Joe Morello, one of jazz's under-sung

heroes, has died. He was best known as the rhythmic

timekeeper of multiple times in Dave Brubeck's famed quartet, when the quartet made some of its best-known

recordings. Joe Morello, born July 17, 1928, in

Springfield, Massachusetts and died on March 12, 2011, at his home in New Jersey. He was 82 years old.

After a period playing in Marion McPartland's trio,

Morello declined invitations to join both Benny

Goodman and Tommy Dorsey's band, favoring a temporary two-month tour with the Dave Brubeck

Quartet in 1955. Morello remained to play with

Brubeck for well over a decade—helping the Brubeck quartet score its biggest hits, including the well-known

“Take Five" from the 1959 album Time Out—only

departing in 1968.

Renowned jazz guitarist, Herb Ellis,88, died at his

home in Los Angeles on March 28 2011. he had

Alzheimer’s disease. Herb Ellis was a member of the Oscar Peterson Trio in the 1950’s which recorded

many classic albums and accompanied many of the

contemporary jazz greats.

*****

4


May 10th Jim Kidd, a life time jazz collector and

enthusiast will give an illustrated talk on the Harlem of

yesterday and today.

June 14th

– The ever popular Member’s Choice.

Please bring music or videos to entertain your fellow members.

Friday November 18, 2011.

The Toronto Duke Ellington Society together with the Toronto Public Library invite you to “Duke In

Canada” featuring Jim Galloway’s Quartet, 7:00 –

9:00 p.m. at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street at Asquith. This meeting will replace the

regularly scheduled November 8th meeting.

December 6th

Annual Holiday Party.

The Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, Toronto Doors 6:00p.m.

Dinner 7:00 pm

Music 8:00pm Nancy Walker and a trio will provide the music for the

evening.

This event is always sold out so please contact Judy Shiels for tickets promptly at 416-239-2683

April 28 2012. Annual Scholarship Concert.

Once again, a sell out in 2011! To make sure that you

have the best seat selection for the 2012 concert call Alan Shiels, after the Thanksgiving Holiday 2011 at

416-239-2683

New & Interesting During April there are many celebrations of Duke

Ellington’s birthday, including our own concert.

Several radio stations have jazz programming devoted

to Ellington’s music. This year KUCR – FM. 88.3, the radio station of the University

of California, Riverside had two hours of Ellington’s

music from Noon to 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday April 25.

The stream can be reached at: www.kucr.org. They

have extensive jazz programming on Tuesdays from

Noon until 7:00 p.m. EST but please be careful since their schedule is, of course, PST. I listened to an

excellent interview on a previous programme by the

host of the Jazz Exploration program at Noon, Lee Farley, of Steven Lasker who made significant

contributions to the new Ellington Mosaic set, The

Complete 1932 – 1940 Brunswick, Columbia and Master Recordings.

Other Ellington birthday Celebration “radio

broadcasts” may be heard at WKCR, the Columbia

University radio station 89.9 FM which provides a full day of Ellington music and WCDB the university

at Albany, New York station at 90.9 FM which

provides four hours of Ellington music and comment on the Saturday prior to April 28th from 8:00a.m. to

noon. The commentary and background information

provided in these programs is first rate and well worth

listening to. Of course, all of this broadcast material is accessible to us on the web.

***

The U.S. Postal service pays tribute to jazz and the

musicians who play it with a new postage stamp. The

U.S.P.S. had art director Howard Paine design the stamp to showcase the work of Paul Rogers, an artist

living in Pasadena Ca. Rogers explores the way in

which images can become visually equivalent to jazz

music. He was inspired by the cover art from vintage jazz record albums. The stamp was issued March 16

2011.

This jazz stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp which retains the value of the current First Class Mail

one ounce rate.

***

Some members of The Toronto Duke Ellington Society attended Bill Wilson’s latest Jazz at R.Y.

Concert on Sunday March 20th. Martin Loomer,

President of the society, Tom Skublics and Merlin Williams on reeds with Jack Mc Fadden bass, played a

tribute to The Count and The Duke. This was a very

enjoyable and worthwhile concert and everybody had a great time.


Tuesday of each

month.

7:30 pm – 10:00pm

Montgomery’s Inn

4709 Dundas St. W



http://www.kucr.org/

Vol 52 No. 7 _______________________ May & June 2011




Web Site: www.torontodukeellingtonsociety.com

Minutes of the May 10th


Alan Shiels opened the meeting at 7:35 p.m. to 26

members and guests, in the absence of our President, Martin Loomer, who sent his apologies. Alan thanked

those members who had made the Scholarship fund raising

concert such a success. Guests at tonight’s meeting were

Joan Landry, introduced by Sally Shaw and Jack Livesley, introduced by Judy Shiels. Jack Livesley had attended the

concert and had been so excited by what he had seen and

heard he was moved to compose a short piece of poetry to celebrate the occasion. Jack read the poem “Slice” for us

with verve and élan. We hope that Jack will be able to

allow us to reproduce it here sometime in the future.

Bruce Barton introduced the speaker for the evening,

James Kidd. Jim had a long career in broadcasting in

Toronto, Montreal and The West Indies and had interviewed many jazz luminaries including Ella Fitzgerald

and Duke Ellington. He grew up in Manitoba and

developed a love for jazz as a teenager. He became a dedicated record collector and musicologist and is now

involved in many activities including involvement in

record collectors conferences and as a member of the

obscure but active Mississauga Jazz Muddies. Jim explained that he had devoted many years to research into

the locations and current state of the old recording studios

and jazz clubs of Harlem which was once a dark, dirty and dangerous place. It is now, bright, clean and safe thanks to

enlightened New York City management and well worth a

visit by jazz enthusiasts. Jim showed us pictures of many of the old jazz clubs in Harlem: The Apollo Theater, The

Alhambra Theater, Small’s Paradise, Connie’s Inn and The

Lafayette Theater from old photographs in their original

state. Many of these locations had been torn down and replaced by schools, churches or left to deteriorate and

were now used for a variety of purposes. A couple of

interesting locations that he showed were Baron Wilkins’s Exclusive Club where Duke Ellington first played when he

went to New York. He played from 11:00 p. m to 10:00

a.m. the following day! Jim also showed us photographs

of The Nest where Ellington first heard Barney Bigard and offered him a job on the spot! Jim showed us photographs of

the Cotton Club, The Savoy Ballroom, Minton’s Playhouse ,

the home of be bop. All of the photographs that Jim Kidd showed us of the current state of the buildings he had taken

himself. Jim Kidd explained that he was only a foreign

white guy showing interest in these historic and interesting

old buildings. He explained that there does not seem to be the appropriate level of interest in the U.S. A. in preserving

their jazz heritage or even marking the locations with

plaques.

We then took a short break with refreshments provided by

Irene Mottadelli, Harold Swartz and Colin Brown.

In the second part of his presentation, Jim Kidd reviewed

some of the old recording studios in New York including the

Vocalion recording studio where Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra made its first recordings in 1926.

Jim also showed us images of the R.C.A. recording studios,

the Brunswick and Victor studios and the Liederkranz Hall and Webster Hall (which is where the Wilshire Apartment

building now stands). Many fine recordings were made at

these locations and Jim thought it a pity that there is little or

no recognition of their contribution to the fabric of American life.

Jim concluded his valuable and interesting review by presenting three short videos, Record Making with Duke

Ellington, featuring Ivie Anderson, a Johnny Hodges medley

and wrapping up with the full Ellington Orchestra playing, appropriately, Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.

Mel Manley moved the vote of thanks to Jim Kidd and was

soundly supported by the audience members.

Jack Chambers has pointed out that TDES members will be

interested to know that there is a Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival, May 9 – 15, 2011 which tours many of the

locations that Jim Kidd covered. Go to

www.harlemjazzshrines.org for details.

http://www.harlemjazzshrines.org/

2

Minutes of the June 14th


President Martin Loomer called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m. and welcomed everyone to the final meeting of

the 2010 – 2011 season, Members’ Choice. Brad Perkins

opened the proceedings with Blood Count from the

Album …And His Mother Called Him Bill. He followed that with Don’t Get Around Much Anymore from The

Complete Louis Armstrong - Duke Ellington Sessions.

George Davis explained that his previous selections in

other years had been based on connections to our society.

This year he wanted to go for a more obscure recording and played Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’ from a 2010

release, A Handful of Stars by Adam Schroeder on baritone

sax and John Clayton playing bass. An interesting duet

recording.

Jim Northover stepped up to play, once again, music from

the 1920’s since, he said we hear this music from Duke infrequently but it is still so good and sophisticated even

though from such an early period in Duke’s career and

indeed in the history of jazz. He played Flaming Youth

from January 16 1929 and Black Beauty recorded March

26 1928.

Bruce Barton took from his new Mosaic acquisition of The Complete 1932 – 1940 Brunswick, Columbia and Master

Recordings of Duke Ellington & his Famous Orchestra,

two selections, I Can’t Give You Anything but Love and Porgy recorded December 22 1932. Ethel Waters took the

vocal assignments in both cases. These two tunes were

originally written by Dorothy Fields and Jimmie McHugh

for the musical revue, Blackbirds. This was the only occasion where Ellington recorded with Ethel Waters.

Irene Mottadelli gave us a change of pace with her selection of Sunday played by Ben Webster and Oscar

Peterson from the Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson

album of 1959.

Colin Brown had two selections for us from the Concert in

The Virgin Islands 1959 album Strayhorn’s Chelsea

Bridge and Ellington’s Big Fat Alice’s Blues. Eddie Lambert explains that several of the tunes on this album

reflected Duke’s interest in the Broadway season of 1965.

The title, Big Fat Alice’s Blues was a word play on the Broadway production of Tiny Alice.

At this point we took a brief break with refreshments

provided by Irene Barton and Jean Griffiths. After the break we started back with selections by Martin Loomer. He said

that he liked the Strayhorn arrangements of insignificant pop

tunes since they developed the unique Ellington sound . He

played The Lady in Red featuring Clark Terry on flugelhorn from the 1958 Bal Masque album. From the

Midnight in Paris album we heard a Strayhorn composition

of the same name. Incidentally, if you would like to obtain a copy of this album, a new copy is available on Amazon for

$195.00!!!

Our disc jockey for this evening and every other evening of

this season, John Hornsby, selected from the 1960 album,

The Unknown Sessions, Something to Live For followed by

Creole Blues, a Duke and Lawrence Brown duet performance, featuring a lovely trombone solo.

To round the evening off, Bruce Barton selected from his Mosaic set, Merry Go Round, Sophisticated Lady and

Drop Me Off in Harlem.

Many thanks, once again, to John Hornsby for his sterling

work in performing the technical work of playing the music

at this and every other meeting. He takes the sound

equipment home, brings it to the meetings, sets it up and repacks it ready for the next meeting. He’d really like some

help. Please contact John if you can provide any assistance.

Also, appropriate thanks are due to the refreshment

committee lead by Jean Griffiths. She organizes the

volunteers for each meeting and arranges the food for our

enjoyment. Thanks Jean.

Matt Wood and his telephone committee of Al Basian,

Norma Humphries and Barry Tisdall are due recognition and thanks for calling to remind members of upcoming meetings.

Irene Barton, in her first year as program chair has done a great job of finding interesting and entertaining speakers and

topics for us. Thanks Irene. The schedule for the 2011 –

2012 season looks exciting too.

Alan Shiels organised the usual sellout at the Scholarship

Concert this year. A great event and not to be missed.

Thanks Alan.

Judy Shiels organized the Holiday Party which again is

always fully attended and provides a first class party with

3

first class entertainment. Thank you Judy. It’ll come

together next year with no problem either.

Martin Loomer was presidential all year, Chris McEvilly

looked after the finances and Jim Northover bent his

inconsiderable talents to the newsletter. Thanks to everyone.

***

Upcoming TDES 40 Meetings The 2011 – 2012 season has been taking shape very well,

thanks to Irene Barton’s efforts. So far it looks like this:

September 13, 2012 – Johnny Hodges – Harry Nerlich October 11 – Tim Elliott and Brian Barlowe

November 18 – Duke in Canada – Jim Galloway, 7:00

p.m.at the Toronto Reference Library. December 6 – Holiday Party at the Arts & Letters Club,

Music by Nancy Walker Quartet with Kieren Overs bass,

Pat Labarbera sax. Tickets go on sale in September. I suggest you reserve a space now, as many already have,

since this event always sells out.

January 10 2012 - TBA

February Jack Chambers – The obscure “Girls Suite” and the famous women it celebrates

March 13 – Jim Northover – Ivie Anderson.

April 10 – TBA April 28 – Scholarship Fundraising Concert – We

anticipate that The Brain Barlowe Orchestra will play for

us. Though the arrangements are not yet finalised we hope

to have the former World Tap Dance Champion David Cox and a vocalist provide part of the entertainment.

May 8 - TBA

June 12 – Members’ Choice

***

Upcoming Events

Summer is the season of the Outdoor Jazz Festivals. Local

to the Toronto area we are lucky to have many festivals

which we can enjoy:

Ottawa Jazz Festival – June 23 – July 3

Toronto Jazz Festival - June 24 – July 3 Montreal Jazz Festival – June 25 – July 4

Beaches Jazz Festival – July 15 – July 24

Oakville Jazz Festival – August 5 – August 7 Brampton Jazz Festival – August 11 - 14

Prince Edward County Jazz Festival –August 16 – 21

Markham Jazz Festival – August 19-21 Guelph Jazz Festival – Sept 7 - 11

Anthony Pepper of the organising committee for the

proposed 2012 Ellington Study Group in London passed on this update of their progress:

They are now exactly one year out from the planned Study Group in London!

The schedule is:

Wed 23rd May 2012: Evening reception & registration.

Thu - Sun, 24th - 27th: Daytime conferencing, evening concerting.

They hope for around 100 delegates, as in '08.

As before, they need your commitment and ask you now to

send a £40 deposit (refundable) to reserve your place. Fees are expected to be £175; they may well be less but will not

exceed £200. But they do need you to pledge £40 as your

expression of intended attendance. This will be returned if

they do not receive sufficient support to enable them to go ahead (our minimum will be about 50). Those responding to

this appeal will become our "founding delegates" and receive

due credit in the programme.

They have yet to finalise a venue. They will have excellent

facilities and accommodation and at a cost less than in

central London, while allowing for easy and quick transport to and from the centre, and with airports and other transport

links.

To reserve your place please send £40 via Paypal to

[email protected] or contact Anthony Pepper directly

if you wish to send a cheque or money order.

***

Newsletter Update

The printed copy of this newsletter may be a little delayed due to the Canada Post lockout. The electronic version has

been sent to those members who have given me their email

addresses. To avoid delays I suggest that you let me have your email address, if you have one. In addition to receiving

the TDES 40 newsletter, members who are on the electronic

mailing list also get emailed to them copies of the

mailto:[email protected]

4

newsletters of the New York, Washington and Southern

California Chapters of TDES.

***

New & Interesting As you may recall, Mike Daley gave us an enlightening

talk at our April meeting. He said that he has a newsletter

which many of you may find interesting. If you are interested in receiving Mike Daley’s newsletter, you may

get on his mailing list by sending him an email at

[email protected].

Jim Galloway, in his Jazz Notes in the May – June issue

of The Whole Note announced that he will be presenting a

series of 13 one hour programs from 4 – 5 p.m. on JAZZ-FM called “Journeys in Jazz with Jim Galloway” starting

Sunday June 5th. He says that he will be playing music

from his own collection and that much of the music will be played by musicians he knows or knew with anecdotes

about some of them. I think it will be well worth listening

to.

On June 5th 2011, the City of Toronto renamed a park in Etobicoke in honour of jazz and blues great Jeff Healey.

Woodford Park, on Delroy Drive in the Queensway and

Royal York Road area, is in the neighbourhood where three generations of the Healey family lived. Healey grew

up in Etobicoke and played in the park, both as a teenager

and as a father with his own young children.

***

Last Post

Snooky Young died on 5th May. He was 92. He was in the Basie Band when it recorded with the Ellington

Orchestra in July 1961 and sat in with an orchestra of

some Ellington alumni when it appeared on the TV programme "Duke Ellington - We Love You Madly"

recorded on 10th January 1973. and broadcast the

following day according to NewDESOR.

Jazz pianist, Ray Bryant, died on Thursday June 2nd.

He was 79. His wife said that he died at New York

Hospital Queens after a long illness. Ray Bryant was

born on Dec. 24, 1931, in Philadelphia, and made his

name in that city during its considerable postwar jazz

boom. Along with his wife, Mr. Bryant is survived by a son,

Raphael Bryant Jr.; a daughter, Gina; three grandchildren; and two brothers, Leonard and Lynwood. Mr. Bryant’s

sister, Vera Eubanks, is the mother of several prominent jazz

musicians: Robin Eubanks, a trombonist; Kevin Eubanks,

the guitarist and former bandleader on “The Tonight Show

with Jay Leno”; and Duane Eubanks, a trumpeter.

Dave McMurdo, one of Canada's top jazz musicians passed

away on Monday, June 13th, 2011 at the age of 67.

McMurdo was born in England but spent most of his childhood in Victoria B.C. After studying music at UBC and

playing in a variety of bands in B.C., Dave moved to

Toronto where he joined Rob McConnell and The Boss Brass, and played lead trombone in Nimmons 'n' Nine Plus

Six. (from JAZZ-FM).

Trumpeter Alan Rubin died Wednesday of lung cancer at

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City,

said his wife, Mary Moreno Rubin. He was 68. He played with the Ellington orchestra in 1970, on the New Orleans

Suite album and other studio recordings . He was in the 1980

Blues Brothers movie along with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, etc. Rubin was born Feb. 11, 1943,

in New York City and took up the trumpet when he was

about 10 and entered the Juilliard School at 17. At 20, he

dropped out of Juilliard to go on the road with singer Robert Goulet. Rubin would go on to record and perform with

Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Blood Sweat & Tears,

Aerosmith, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, and many others

The Editor of this newsletter and the members of the

Executive of TDES40 wish all members and friends a safe

and healthy summer and we look forward to seeing you all next season. The next meeting will be held on September

13, 2011.

Meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.

7:30 pm – 10:00pm

Montgomery’s Inn4709 Dundas St. W


Plenty of Free Parking

mailto:[email protected]

Vol 52 No. 1 September 2010 -...

Documents

Transcript of Vol 52 No. 1 September 2010 -...