EKE BBB

That´s a nice one!

Another great for Joue Bud Powell !!! I don´t have any more discs with Urtreger as a leader, but you can find him as a sideman in a lot of Jazz in Paris discs, such as -The real cat (René Thomas) -Modern jazz au Club St. Germain (Bobby Jaspar) -Clarinettes à Saint-Germain des Prés -Kenny Clarke´s sextet plays André Hodeir -Le dernier message de Lester Young -Stuff and Steff (Stuff Smith and Stephane Grappelli) ...

Is that what's on the new "Centennial Edition"? any new Blanton is good news! I´m afraid I don´t know. Anyone who has it? Looking at the contents of the Centennial Collection 1 Black and Tan Fantasy Ellington, Miley 3:12 2 East St. Louis Toodle-O Ellington, Miley 3:39 3 The Mooch Ellington, Mills 3:34 4 Old Man Blues Ellington 3:09 5 Mood Indigo Bigard, Ellington, Mills 3:10 6 Rockin' in Rhythm Carney, Ellington, Mills 2:56 7 Stomp Jones Ellington 3:04 8 Solitude Ellington 3:31 9 Jack the Bear Ellington 3:17 10 Ko-Ko Ellington 2:43 11 Concerto for Cootie Ellington 3:21 12 Dusk Ellington 3:22 13 Perdido Tuzol 3:12 14 Are You Sticking? [#] Ellington 3:48 15 Chelsea Bridge [#] Strayhorn 4:38 16 Love Like This Can't Last [#] Strayhorn 2:40 17 Moon Mist [#] Ellington 3:26 18 It's Square, But It Rocks [#] Sigman, Slack 2:13 19 In a Mellow Tone [#] Ellington 2:42 20 Sepia Panorama [#] Ellington 2:42 21 Paramount Headliner As-3: Symphony in Black 22 Paramount Pictorial P7-2, Pt. 3: Record Making With Duke Ellington and... 23 Hot Chocolate (Cotton Tail) Ellington 24 I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good Ellington, Webster 25 Flamingo Anderson, Grouya 26 Bli-Blip Ellington, Kuller 27 Jam Session: C Blues/C Jam Blues Ellington 28 Jamboree #7 29 Interview With Duke Ellington [#] [#]means previously unissued DVD starts on number 21 and reading Jazztimes (on-line) review: I´d say it is!!! FOOTNOTE: I hate all these f*****g labels releasing compilations of previously issued material, and including a few unrealeased tracks for the collectors to jump in. I hope they will rot in hell!!!

Some Taylor, maybe? Anything added is welcome...

Is that what's on the new "Centennial Edition"? any new Blanton is good news! I´m afraid I don´t know. Anyone who has it?

I still haven´t received the discs. Maybe the Spanish Postal Service has made it again! I will wait a few more days and, in case I don´t receive them... could anybody at this side of the pond kindly send me a copy? Thanks in advance!

Reading Sjef Hoefsmit´s comments on the Ellington Conference 2004 that took place in Stockholm 12-16 May, I´ve found some exciting news: -Frank Büchmann Moller has finished cataloguing the private collections of Timme Rosenkrantz and Ben Webster, recently moved from Copenhaguen to Odense. He found 2 acetates from 1941, privately made by Ben Webster in California with Ray Nance and probably Fred Guy and Sonny Greer. There are seven selections, of which three are undoubtedly with Jimmie Blanton ("I never knew", "The sheik of Araby" and "I can´t believe that you are in love with me"). Ben played piano, clarinet and tenor. There´s also a five minute version of "Body and soul" with a vocal part, Most probably by Sonny. All selections will be issued by Anthony Barnet in England as part of a series dedicated to Jazz Violinists. -Storyville has already released a small part of the material from the Danish Radio, but there´s still an awful lot of unreleased stuff: at least enough material for 10 high quality CDs. -The broadcasts from the Casa Mañana (Feb 20, 1941) and the Ellington-Blanton from Jun 1941 will be coming out in the coming months (when???) on BMG as part of a package of one DVD and one CD. The DVD will have "Symphony in Black", the five Soundies, the 1943 RKO short and as a bonus the eleven minute radio interview for Radio Newsreel of Jan 28, 1941. We´re lucky to have so much recorded music by Duke Ellington, and there´s still a lot to be issued for the first time!

Well, it looks like there´s clear evidence that it´s WHETSEL. From DEMS 2002/2-5: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whetsel vs. Whetsol Plus Sundry Whetseliana "Steve Voce wrote (DEMS 01/3-27, 1503): "I am well aware of the discussion that took place over the spelling of Whetsol. In the absence of any proof one has to come down in favor of one or the other when using poor Arthur's name. I'm simply using the most convenient until all the literature is corrected and republished." Contrary to his assertion that in this matter there is an "absence of any proof"... 1. Two examples of Whetsel's signature are reproduced above. The second specimen (courtesy of Dennis Dimmer) is from an autographed copy of the printed program distributed at Ellington's 18 June 1933 Melody Maker concert; the first is from a photo of the Alvis-Whetsel period Ellington band inscribed to one "Babe." Ray Butler, a fellow member of the board of our DES chapter here in southern California, kindly made the photo available and informs that in the 1920s, Babe was briefly Mrs. Arthur Whetsel. (Marguerite Lee became Whetsel's widow upon his death on 5Jan40.) Ray adds that Babe stayed in touch with Whetsel after their divorce and is today in a New Jersey nursing home, with a sharp memory despite her 96 years. More to follow I hope. 2. Misty Mornin's co-composer's name is spelled "Whetsel" on the song's copyright deposit and sheet music, also on the labels of OKeh 8662 and Victor V-38058-A. (The Path,/Cameo version credits "Ellington-Mills.") I'm not aware of any other compositions credited to Whetsel. 3. Movements of union musicians in the 1920s and 1930s were often reported in The International Musician, the official monthly publication of the American Federation of Musicians. The August 1924 issue, for example, notes that "Arthur P. Whetsel" of Washington D.C. local 710 had recently withdrawn his transfer to New York local 802. In the issues of September 1934 through December 1937, I found eight references to "Whetsel" (who was by then a member of New York local 802), two to "Wetsel," and one each to "Whetzel," "Whitsel" and "Whitzel." No references to Whetsol were found. Conclusion: If seeing is believing, Arthur spelled "Whetsel" with two e's. To spell it differently would be wrong and to do so knowingly would be presumptuous. Whetsel is correct, and, however inconvenient, one simply must learn to deal with it. (The earliest appearance of Whetsol that I've found is in the 1931 advertising manual for Ellington's orchestra prepared by the Mills office, probably by Ned Williams. The various manuals are discussed in DEMS 01/2- 15/1.) Voce added that Whetsol would "no doubt be sad to learn" that those who remember him in the 21st Century would be "discussing the spelling of his name rather than his music, particularly since his real name was Arthur Parker Schiefe (see Grove)." Rebuttal: Scholarship isn't a zero-sum game whereby attention lavished to the spelling of Whetsel's name and other matters that elucidate the historical record results in a reciprocal lack of attention to the music. Indeed, it is likely that each person involved in the discussion of how to spell Whetsel's name is not only acquainted with and respectful of his music, but has probably discussed (or written about) it in the past and will do so again in the future. I should like to think that Whetsel, who by reputation was a perfectionist almost to the point of annoyance, would be pleased that so many people continue to appreciate and discuss his vital musical legacy, also that after all these years, his name is not only remembered, but spelled correctly, too. (Incidently, Ruth Ellington pronounces "Schiefe" Shah-fé.) Mark Tucker (Duke Ellington: The Early Years, p293) notes that Dennette Harrod searched the records of Howard University for mention of Whetsol in vain. One can't but wonder if Harrod looked under Whetsel as well. (Rather than attending Howard University in the fall of 1923, Whetsel may instead have returned to Armstrong High; see A Cotton Club Miscellany, p22.) [see for A Cotton Club Miscellany page 1 of this Bulletin.] In any case, researchers looking for Whetsol but not Whetsel will likely be unsuccessful in any attempt to locate his birth, baptismal or death records, school transcripts, entries in city, telephone or union directories, passport applications, marriage licenses, divorce decree, census data, etc. When locating public records, accurate spelling matters. Readers of A Cotton Club Miscellany will note that the Jolson Broadway production that employed Whetsel is identified on p22 as "Big Boy." This detail was mentioned in the 1933 advertising manual for Ellington's orchestra. An item reportedly taken from the 15Nov24 issue of Billboard (reprinted in Vintage Jazz Mart #92, p8) notes "Vincent Lopez ... is placing a ten-piece colored combination in Al Jolson's new show 'Big Boy.' [...] Unlike other jazz orchestras booked for musical comedy, it will not work in the pit." The show opened in Pittsburgh on 24Nov24, and then moved to Cleveland, Buffalo, Cincinatti and Detroit before opening on Broadway at the Winter Garden, where it played 7-24Jan25 and 9Feb to 14Mar25 before touring widely. The devices that enabled Whetsel to obtain his haunting, ethereal sound when muted were a pair of wooden "Solotone" conical mutes, one glued inside the other. My informant is Brooks Kerr, who heard it from the trumpeter Francis Williams in 1969, when both were bandmates at the Ali Baba Club in New York City. Like Whetsel, Williams also used wooden "Solotone" mutes, which he recalled buying in 1929. Williams lamented that manufacturers of conical mutes had by the 1960s switched to using plastic, which in his opinion produced an inferior tone compared to wood." Steven Lasker** --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At Origin Jazz Library it still appears as "Coming in Summer 2004":

I was going to say something about Hank Mobley and Tina Brooks, but I´d better shut up my f*****g mouth...

Maybe I could ask them in the Duke-lym mail list.

"Whetsol" is how I´ve seen it spelled in all "Names Index" pages in the Duke-related books on my shelves (Music is my mistress, the Mercer Ellington book, Mark Tucker´s The Duke Ellington Reader, Lambert´s Listener´s Guide, Beyond category...). I don´t know why Steven Lasker (and I´m afraid some other DEMS Bulletin contributors) spell it "Whetsel".

There has been tough and hot discussion in the Duke Ellington Mail List (Duke-lym) lately on this topic. Steven Lasker´s research has been criticised and it has been suggested that Danny Baker could have been a pseudonym for Shorty Baker due to contract reasons.

Only for Ellington nuts , taken from the DEMS Bulletin (2004/2-55), and written by Steven Lasker:

Now seriously. Maybe it´s just my ignorance on technical musical affairs, but I find OP a highly capable player, with a very good sense of swing. And I like the 15 CDs I have under his name, and the 25 CDs more I have with him as a sideman. Yes, maybe it´s just my ignorance. Well, he is no Tatum: -OP lacks the harmonic complexity of AT -OP is technically skilled, but no one has ever been as technically skilled as AT -OP sometimes shows the exhibicionist and flashy side of AT, that some people don´t like (not me) And I agree with deus62 in most of his assertions. There´s a strong tendency here to overrate each and every Blue Note musician and underrate every non Blue Note (and specially if he´s Verve-related) musician.

Hey, Volkher, you DO LIKE OP, don´t you? I do

And what´s more, I dare affirm Hicham El Gerrouj has been greater than other legends like Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Sebastian Coe, Said Aouita & Nourredine Morceli. History of 1500m world record:

Yeah, the great Paavo Nurmi. In fact he won a total of nine gold and three silver Olympic medals: three golds and one silver at Antwerp in 1920, five golds at Paris in 1924 and one gold and two silvers at Amsterdam in 1928. And he set altogether 25 world records at distances from 1,500 metres to 20,000 metres. A true legend of Athletics.

This is one of the best runners in Athletics history: (and I´m not pointing at Bernard Lagat) And this is said for one of the most passionate fans of Fermín Cacho, who was defeated many times by El Guerrouj... je, not in Barcelona (El Gerrouj was 18 at that time) nor in Atlanta! This photo was took in one of the best 1.500 races I´ve ever seen. 1997 World Championships: El Guerrouj won the race, but Fermín was second, with an incredible 52.8 for the last lap. Just one week later, at the Weltklasse meet in Zurich, Cacho's fast time finally came when he finished second over 1.500m behind El Guerrouj in a time of 3min 28.95sec, which moved him to third on the all-time world list behind Morceli and El Guerrouj. Oh, but those were the times....

Thanks for the tips, John! And welcome back from your vacation! Much beer? Guess so!

ENHORABUENA, ARGENTINA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gold medal for an unbelievable generation of basketball (basquebol as they call it) players! I always keep a place in my heart for Argentina!

Tom, email sent today. Cheers, Agustín

Happy Birthday, Prez!

I solemnly affirm that, with your current Mosaic collection, they can count themselves lucky! But, if you´re not happy with any of your OOP boxes due to tracking order, I would generously offer you a few bucks for them (say, four or five dollars for each CD)!