Duke (86 page)

“The thing that was wrong”:
Henry Whiston, “Reminiscing in Tempo,”
Jazz Journal,
Feb. 1967.
“Nobody could understand”:
DE, Harman interview, 1964.
“The party’s just starting”:
Hajdu, 104–5.
“That show meant a lot to him”:
Ibid., 101.

“No jazz admirer denies Ellington’s greatness”:
Mike Levin, “Ellington Pleases Concert Crowd,”
Down Beat,
Jan. 14, 1948.
“Ellington is not as good”:
Ted Hallock, “Duke’s Chicago Date Lacks Flair,”
Down Beat,
Jan. 28, 1948.
“Each year, the critics . . . commence”:
M.W. [Marshall] Stearns and Patricia A. Samson, “Critic Rapped; Crowds Pleased,”
Down Beat,
Feb. 25, 1948.

“You just grow and grow and grow”:
DE, Harman interview, 1964.
“All the booze had gone”:
Jimmy Jones, oral-history interview.

“Isn’t it about time”:
Michael Levin, “Reputation Shredded, Duke Should Disband, Mix Claims,”
Down Beat,
June 17, 1949.
“You’re right that Ellington sounds dispirited”:
Charlie Barnet, “You Made a Bad Error, Mix—Barnet,”
Down Beat,
July 15, 1949.

“If I didn’t like the way”:
Pat Harris, “I Like Way Band Sounds—Duke,”
Down Beat,
Aug. 12, 1949.

“Visionary”:
Schuller,
The Swing Era,
154.
“A freely atonal harmonic language”:
Schuller, liner notes for
Mirage: Avant-Garde and Third-Stream Jazz.
Most listeners fail to notice that “The Clothed Woman” is a blues:
See, for example, the liner notes to
Mirage: Avant-Garde and Third-Stream Jazz,
in which Gunther Schuller makes no mention of the underlying blues structure of the piece’s opening section. For a more comprehending analysis, see Scott Healy, “Revealing Ellington’s ‘The Clothed Woman,’”
Professorscosco,
professorscosco.wordpress.com, Sept. 9, 2011. (Healy’s posting also contains a transcription of the piece.)

“They are, on the whole”:
Alec Wilder, “A Look at the Duke,”
Saturday Review,
Aug. 28, 1948, in
Reader,
259–61.

“I had carte blanche”:
Cohen, 292.

“Coleman Hawkins was
it
for me”:
Dance,
The World of Duke Ellington,
169.
“He knew all of Ben’s solos”:
MM,
163.
Gonsalves discovered heroin during his tenure with Gillespie:
Heath, 64.
“He wants to be liked by everybody”:
MM,
221.

BS’s contribution did not become known until long after his death:
van de Leur, 117.
Harlem
was commissioned by NBC:
“Six Composers to Collaborate on NYC Portrait,”
Down Beat,
Oct. 20, 1950.
A fully scored version of
Harlem
was premiered:
“C.H.,” “Ellington Group in Benefit Concert,”
The New York Times,
June 21, 1951. Contrary to countless incorrect statements published in later years, Arturo Toscanini never conducted
Harlem,
nor is he known to have had anything to do with the work’s commissioning.

Harlem
opens with a two-note motif:
It is more than likely that this motif was borrowed, consciously or not, from Max Steiner’s musical score for the 1932 film version of
The Most Dangerous Game,
in which it figures prominently. The similarity between the opening measures of the two pieces is palpable. DE said in a 1935 newspaper interview that Steiner’s score for
the film,
which he saw in a theater where the band was playing a week-long stage show, was “the best he has ever seen and heard. . . . Everyday during the entire week, he sat in the audience to see it over and over” (Frank Marshall Davis, “Duke Ellington, Who Goes to the Movies Between Shows, Wrote Song Hit ‘Solitude,’ Three Years Ago,”
The Pittsburgh Courier,
Jan. 26, 1935). I thank Steven Lasker for bringing this hitherto unknown interview to my attention.
“It is Sunday morning”:
MM,
189.

The program concocted by Deems Taylor for
An American in Paris:
Compare, for instance, this passage from Taylor’s
American in Paris
program: “And now the orchestra introduces an unhallowed episode. Suffice it to say that a solo violin approaches our hero (in the soprano register) and addresses him in the most charming broken English; and, his response being inaudible—or at least unintelligible—repeats the remark. This one-sided conversation continues for some little time.”

“What on earth would I want”:
“Duke Readies New Works for Met Opera House Bow,”
Down Beat,
Jan. 26, 1951.
“He wanted me to legitimize him”:
Barry Singer, “Bridging the Worlds of Broadway and Jazz, Outside the Limelight,”
The New York Times,
Sept. 24, 2000.
“Writing for the symphony orchestra”:
DE, Harman interview, 1956.

“Something important and vital”:
Mike Levin, “Duke’s Concert ‘Best in Years,’”
Down Beat,
Feb. 24, 1951.
“Cootie [Williams] and I always sat near the drums”:
Stewart, 193.
“Greer’s 30-year association”:
“New Drummer Joins Ellington,”
Down Beat,
Feb. 23, 1951.

“Why don’t you give up the band”:
Granz, oral-history interview.
“When Pop turned some of their songs into hits”:
Ellington,
Duke Ellington in Person,
110.

“Duke and Johnny Hodges had long periods”:
Steve Voce, “Rabbit,”
Jazz Journal,
Jan. 1997.

“He was incredibly
égoiste
”:
Jewell, 90.
“Even when he’s playing a harmony part”:
Dance,
Johnny Hodges,
3.

“The next time I saw him”:
Hajdu, 120.
“That was the first time”:
Ellington,
Duke Ellington in Person,
121.

“Money wasn’t quite the problem”:
Hajdu, 122.

At least sixty of his vocal charts:
van de Leur, 96.
The
New York Times
review:
“M.A.S.” (Mark Schubart), “Ellington Concert at Carnegie Hall,”
The New York Times,
Dec. 20, 1944.

“He drank just constantly”:
The friend was Marion Logan (Hajdu, 187).

“During our first 1951 tour”:
Marc Myers, “Interview: Louie Bellson (Part 2),”
JazzWax,
www.jazzwax.com, Sept. 11, 2007.

“The epitome of perfection”:
MM,
226.
“Duke gave me full credit”:
Don Heckman, “Louis Bellson: The Go-To Guy,”
JazzTimes,
Nov. 2007.

“For some reason or other”:
Dance,
The World of Jazz,
105.

“A powerful, rocking, enthusiastic bunch”:
Jack Tracy, “Ellington Crew ‘Powerful, Thrilling,’”
Down Beat,
May 18, 1951.

“A fine, high-class genius”:
“Joe Glaser Praises Duke, Satchmo as ‘Geniuses,’”
Jet,
Jan. 19, 1967.
“That crazy nigger Duke Ellington”:
Wein, 168.
DE was in debt to the agency:
For a discussion of DE’s financial relationship with Associated Booking, see Cohen, 357–58.

“No one could convince me”:
Ted Hallock, “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be with Ellington’s Band,”
Down Beat,
May 21, 1952.
“Vicious and certainly unwarranted”:
Charles Mingus, letter,
Down Beat,
June 18, 1952.
“After about six months”:
Dance,
The World of Jazz,
105–6.

Gonsalves took to falling asleep:
Steve Voce, “Perchance to Steam,”
Jazz Journal,
Dec. 1981.

“I don’t understand it at all”:
Gleason, 160.
“You have certain responsibilities”:
Nat Hentoff, “The Incompleat Duke Ellington,”
Show,
Aug. 1964
. “I seldom have the urge”:
MM,
454.

DE was quoted as saying that blacks “ain’t ready yet”:
Otis N. Thompson, “‘We Ain’t Ready,’ Duke Declares,”
St. Louis Argus,
Nov. 16, 1951.

“What has been published”:
DE, “Duke Ellington Says He Didn’t Say It: The Duke Says . . . ,”
The Baltimore Afro-American,
Dec. 15, 1951.

“The only ‘Communism’ I know”:
DE, “No Red Songs for Me,”
The New Leader,
Sept. 30, 1950.

“You know why he was anti-Communist?”:
Mercer Ellington, oral-history interview.
“When people behind the Iron Curtain”:
Quoted in Cohen, 261.
DE insisted that his musicians fly first class on his Russian tour:
Harvey G. Cohen, “Visions of Freedom: Duke Ellington in the Soviet Union,”
Popular Music,
Sept. 2011.

An issue containing pieces:
“Ellington’s Silver Jubilee,”
Down Beat,
Nov. 5, 1952.
“It’s going to be awfully difficult”:
Don Freeman, “‘Only One Bellson,’ Sighs Wistful Duke,”
Down Beat,
June 17, 1953.

“I signed with Capitol”:
“Duke Switches Record Labels,”
Down Beat,
May 6, 1953.
“They need me more than Columbia does”:
Cohen, 295.

“Satin Doll”:
Evie claimed to have been the mystery woman of the song’s title (Ellington,
Duke Ellington in Person,
97). DE liked to call her “Dearest Doll” and “Darling Doll” and painted a canvas called “Satin Doll” that hung in the music room of the Upper West Side apartment that they shared. DE pointed out the painting to Edward R. Murrow when he appeared on
Person to Person,
Murrow’s televised celebrity talk show, in 1957. (Its present whereabouts are unknown.)

“Though Strayhorn’s [immediate] response . . . is not known”:
van de Leur, 116.

“It’s tough to have to compete”:
Ralph J. Gleason, “‘It’s Tough to Compete with Yourself’: Duke,”
Down Beat,
July 15, 1953.
“It’s getting to be more a business”:
Simon, 36.
“Would you consider yourself an actor?”:
What’s My Line?

“I want to tell you”:
DE, “Sex Is No Sin,”
Ebony,
May 1954.