Don Brown

Lester Young

Right. There was also a show featuring the Charles Mingus Quintet with a ballet company. If I recall correctly someone had choreographed Mingus' "Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk". I believe John Handy was on reeds.

Bob Brookmeyer's "Gloomy Sunday and Other Bright Moments".

Hey, Noj, whatever you do don't miss "Anatomy of a Murder". It has the music Ellington wrote for the soundtrack of Otto Preminger's classic film.

Not me!

Hi Chuck. I didn't realize that Hal McIntyre and Jack Teagarden were "Canadians".

I became an Ellington addict in 1947. That was the year I bought my first Ellington 78 - a British coupling of Harlem Airshaft and Sepia Panorama It was also the year I learned the title of the recording that CBC announcer Dick McDougall used as his theme on Jazz Unlimited It was the wonderful Cotton Tail. It wasn't long before that one too became part of my collection. The flip side of that 78 was a piece called Never No Lament. An alternate title - Don't Get Around Much Anymore was shown underneath the original title in brackets. As such a longtime Ellington lover it's still somewhat shocking for me to discover that even now there are musicians out there who find the Duke overrated. Years ago I recall reading that bandleader Hal McIntyre admitted to liking Duke's compositions, but said he couldn't listen to the Ellington orchestra's recordings because they were always "out of tune". Jack Teagarden apparently felt the same way about Duke's music and his recordings. Recently, I discovered that at least two well-known Canadian jazz musicians - one a world-famous valve trombonist/arranger/bandleader, the other an excellent piano player, feel the same way about Ellington. One of these gentlemen even went so far as to say he found Ellington's compositions "pretentious". I was wondering if any other Ellington admirers have encountered these kinds of reactions among musicians of their acquaintance.

Just occurred to me that a much later Ellingtonian, saxophonist Harold Minerve, also had a nickname that originated in Elzie Segar's brilliant comic strip. Minerve was known as "Geezil". Geezil was a regular member of the cast of "Thimble Theater".

Another character in Popeye (Thimble Theater), the Goon, was forever memorialized in a Johnny Hodges composition, and wonderful small group recording, titled "The Dance of the Goon".

"Jeep", the nickname given to Johnny Hodges - probably by his bandmates - was most definitely taken from the character in Elzie Segar's comic strip. (Actually, the strip's correct name was "Thimble Theater", but most people referred to it as "Popeye" since Popeye the sailor man was eventually to become its principal character.) Most newspaper readers at the time were totally addicted to "Thimble Theater" (aka "Popeye") and the members of the Ellington band were certainly among the fans. Billy Strayhorn also got his nickname from Segar's strip. Swee-Pea was an infant Popeye adopted, and the Ellingtonians thought the diminutive Billy Strayhorn looked like Popeye's new ward, hence, forever after, he was known as Swee-Pea.

I just learned that former Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode died this past Friday. No other details as yet.

I've never owned an automobile. I got a driver's license in 1965 but that was the very last time that I've been behind the wheel of a car. I do keep my license renewed (it's good I.D.) but I'd never risk actually driving. Fortunately, Toronto has excellent public transportation. My wife owns a car so we are able to get out of the city if necessary. Amusingly enough, my brother-in-law is half owner of a car dealership here. He came to Canada from Trinidad and couldn't believe it when he met his first North American who didn't drive. But jeez, there are all kinds of people who don't. Two of them are/were science fiction writers - Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.

Illinois Jacquet used to introduce himself as "Jean-Baptiste "Eely-nwah Zha-kay" from Broussard, Louisiana". Quinichette, I believe pronounced his name "Kwin-i-shett", but the name would be pronounced Kin-i-shett in the French-speaking world.

Actually, you were. But even Illinois himself gave up, and "Jack-ett" has become the accepted pronunciation.

People are truly perverse when it comes to pronunciation. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of the French language knows that "Jacquet" should be pronounced "Ja- kay", which was how Illinois Jacquet himself pronounced it. But, of course, everyone else said "Ja- kett", and Illinois decided to accept that. But then there was Paul Quinichette. Most folks tended to pronounce his name "Quin-i-shay", but as Paul explained in a Down Beat Magazine interview, there were two "T"s in his name and it should actually be pronounced to rhyme with "cigarette".

I recall one time doing a monthly "new releases" edition of the Jazz Scene with Ted O'Reilly on CJRT-FM here in Toronto. Ted handed me a Clark Terry CD to introduce. When the selection we chose came to an end I did the extro. I pointed out that there was a second trumpet player on the date and that his name was Greg Gisbert. Now, in Canada, a bilingual country (French and English are both official languages), that surname would be pronounced "Zhee-bair", which is the way I pronounced it. Well, Ted interrupted me, reminding me that Greg Gisbert was an American and that he apparently pronounced his name "Gizz-bert". Migawd!!! So I guess it really depends on where one happens to live.

I remember many years ago hearing Jimmy Giuffre's name pronounce Jimmy GWIFFER. Guess the wannabe announcer didn't notice that that the "I" came before the "U". But then don't forget all those musicians who gave up after hearing their names mispronounced so often that they changed the spelling to accommodate the great unwashed. The brother Candoli - Pete and Conte - replaced the "E" at the end of their names with an "I" so people would pronounce it correctly. Charlie Ventura replaced the "O" at the end of his name with an "A". I guess folks thought he had a Spanish background and not an Italian one! Johnny Hodges gave up and added the "S". His real name was "Hodge". Then there was Buddy DeFranco. His name should be spelled DiFranco. He was Italian-American.

It's probably not the recording you heard but you might find it interesting to know that the suite Ralph Burns wrote and arranged for Woody Herman's First and Second Herds - "Summer Sequence" - is based on Beethoven's "Fur Elise". The suite was recorded for Columbia in the 1940s and was most recently reissued by Mosaic on their Complete Columbia Recordings of Woody Herman set. Three of the suite's four parts were recorded by the First Herd while part four, recorded later, is by the Second Herd. Part four has a snippet by Stan Getz which provided Burns with the idea for his later composition "Early Autumn".

I'm not sure that Concord still has the rights to the Richie Kamuca albums. They'd originally been issued on Kamuca's own Jazzzz label and were later leased from Kamuca's estate for release on Concord. Not long ago I transferred my LP copies to CDR.

Like a one-eyed cat in a seafood store.

Man, he could read flyshit!

Bruce Turner Engelbert Wrobel Russell Procope Hilton Jefferson

I forgot Tab Smith and Bunky Green.

Earle Warren Bernie McGann Hal McKusick Louis Jordan Joe Harriott

I think that's Chris Albertson second from the left.