Duke Ellington at the "400" Restaurant (N.Y.)

Here's another piece of Ellington memorabilia.

From ebay, this is a program signed by Duke Ellington from an engagement at the "400" Restaurant (5th Avenue at 43rd Street, N.Y.). The auction states that it is from June, 1949 but, according to the current version of the Duke Ellington Itinerary, that month the orchestra was coming from a Canadian tour (starting on May 23 in Belleville and ending on June 4 in Peterborough), playing in cities such as Detroit, Wilberforce, Indianapolis, Toledo, Windsor, South Bend, Peoria and Madison, and ending with an engagement at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee (June 23-29).

So, despite the handwritten note at the bottom left of the second photograh, you can infer that the auction text is wrong, which is confirmed by the fact that, by 1949, Joya Sherrill and Rex Stewart had long left the band (1946 and 1945, respectively). This program must be from 1945, as the Duke Ellington orchestra had an engagement at the "400" Club/Restaurant from April 4 to April 30 and then a few concerts on May).

Ellington & Nance rare photograph

Offered on ebay is a photo album from an African American family containing 50 photos of various sizes, dating from 1940-1945. The majority of them document a young man's life first as a high school student hanging out with his friends and then as a military man.

But there's a hidden treasure: one of the 5" x 7" photos pictures Duke Ellington and Ray Nance with a group of injured soldiers at Mayo General Hospital "Reconditioning Section" in Rochester, Minn. on July 25, 1944.

Thanks to Carl A. Hällström for pointing me to this photo.

Leonard Feather on Duke Ellington (NYT, Dec. 1944)

Between May and December 1943, a series of articles on Ellington's Carnegie Hall debut was published in the American magazine Jazz.

John Hammond fired the controversy up with his article "Is The Duke Deserting Jazz?", published in the May 1943 issue, where he criticized Ellington's music (particularly Black, Brown & Beige) for having lost connection with its original function for dancing, and for having become too complex. Hammmond had previously criticized Ellington's Reminiscing In Tempo in his article "The Tragedy Of Duke Ellington", published in the November 1935 issue of Downbeat, for not showing any commitment to social causes.

Leonard Feather, acting both as a critic and as Ellington's press agent, responded to Hammond with a ferocious rebuttal in the May 1943 issue, suggesting possible personal reasons behind Hammond's criticism of Ellington.

Jazz's editor Bob Thiele took a more moderate possition in the July 1943 issue, with an article called "The Case Of Jazz Music". Three other articles were added to this debate: Jake Trussell's "Ellington Hits The Top, And The Bottom" (May 1943) and "In Defense Of Hammond" (July 1943) and Jim Weaver's "Jazz And Ellingtonia" (December 1943).

The following article by Leonard Feather, "The Duke And His Place In Jazz History", was published in the New York Times twelve months after this controversy.

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