1. Alert! There's video of Elvin Jones w/Duke Ellington. I've heard audio of Elvin's brief post-Coltrane stint w/ Duke in 1966, but I've never seen video until today. Now, where the hell is the rest of this concert? (Skeets Marsh is the second drummer.)
2. There's a backstory (natch). Elvin's experience with Duke was not a happy one. Elvin spoke about it with Whitney Balliett of the New Yorker for an essential profile in the magazine in 1968, published under the title "A Walk to the Park."
3. "I joined him in Frankfurt, and my stay with him lasted just a week and a half, through Nuremberg and Paris and Italy and Switzerland. I was new. It was difficult for the band to adapt to my style and I had to do everything in a big hurry, trying to adapt to them.
4. "Then the bass player started playing games with me by lowering and raising tempos to make it look like I was unsteady, and finally I had to speak to him and he stopped. Hodges and Cat Anderson and Gonsalves and Mercer Ellington knew what was going on, but Duke didn't.
5. "And I guess I didn't connect with the anchormen, because they complained about my playing to Duke. I don't know whether Cootie who kept giving me the fisheye, wanted me to call him Mr. Williams and shine his shoes or what.
6. "Also, Duke had a second drummer in the band and he was an egomaniac. So Duke and I talked at Orly Aiport and I told him to send a telegram to Sam Woodyard and tell him to get himself over there, because he knew the whole book.
7. "I saw Duke later, after he'd found out what had been going on, and everything was fine -- no sweat. He told me I could come back with the band any time I wanted.
8. "He's such a great man. Given more time under different circumstances -- being left alone and all -- it might have been a beautiful thing for me."
9. Must have been such a drag for Elvin -- who left Trane when Rashied Ali joined as a second drummer -- to now also find a second drummer on the bandstand when he showed up to play with Duke.
10. Here's 52 minutes of audio of Elvin w/the band from Paris. The highlight for me is "La Plus Belle Africaine" at 20:45 mark -- the marriage of Elvin's groove and the music's exoticism show the potential had Elvin been able to stay with the band.
11. Here's another audio track of Elvin with the Duke that shows what might have been. "Ad Lib on Nippon."
Coda: Ask and ye shall receive: From Ronan Guilfoyle comes a link to the entire Ellington performance in Milan with Elvin.
m.youtube.com/playlist?list=…
m.youtube.com/playlist?list=…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
