[Dixielandjazz] The Genius of Duke Ellington - "You'll Know."

[Stephen G Barbone]

On May 29, 1996 trombonist Milt Bernhart was the guest of the "West  
Surrey Big Band Society" in the UK. Derek Edwards hosted the evening  
and interviewed Milt.

Derek: Did you play with Murray MacEachern? (This is the only time he  
spoke.)

Milt: Oh yes, and Murray stands very high, and here's a sideline;  
Murray was very thick with Duke Ellington, they knew each other quite  
well, and for a good reason. Murray played saxophone as well as he  
played trombone, and was one of the few who could approximate to  
Johnny Hodges. There were a lot of people who tried. But only Johnny  
Hodges played like Johnny Hodges! But Murray came very close, and  
Ellington really admired him for this.

I did a call once for Duke Ellington, I'll never forget it. Most of  
the Ellington band were there but, for whatever reason, his trombones  
weren't. Murray MacEachen was first call, and then I got a call, and  
then George Roberts, bass trombone player, and Vern Friley, who was an  
excellent player. This was for a movie and Duke Ellington wrote a solo  
for Murray, it was in this movie. (Three Coins in the Fountain?)  It  
was a picture long forgotten, with Frank Sinatra, and it was a  
beautiful solo; I'll never forget, just before they turned on the red  
light and it began, Duke said, and it's important (I can understand  
why playing with Duke made all the difference) he leaned towards  
Murray and said "Break their hearts"! And all these things sank in,  
indeed.

On one other occasion Duke said something to me; he came in one day  
and passed out eight bars of music to each guy, just eight bars on a  
scrap of paper, and it was a riff. There was never a rehearsal for  
Duke Ellington. This band never rehearsed, it's well known. So Duke  
said to the official there "How much music do we need?" And the guy  
said "About eight minutes of music, Mr. Ellington". We had eight bars  
of music, it was going to last about eight seconds! Duke, and only  
Duke would say a thing like this, I was thrilled to be there - "Let's  
make it".

So we're all looking at each other, and even Murray and he looks  
quizzically at me and then at Vern Friley. So just because I had to,  
and because here was my chance, I walked over to the piano, just  
before the red light went on, and I looked down at those baggy eyes  
and said "What are we going to do?" I said it very quietly, and Duke  
looked up at me. and in words I'll always remember, said "You'll know".

And this was the essence of Duke Ellington -"You'll know". That's why  
that band was that band. And you know something, it did work. We  
played the first eight bars and instinctively we realized we had to  
repeat those eight bars, so we did, and this was the entire band; then  
Duke played a bridge on piano, an Ellington bridge (I almost stopped  
playing) and then we went back to the first eight bars, and finished  
the thirty-two bars. At the end of that one of the guys stood up, as  
if someone had told him to, and played two choruses of pure jazz, and  
on the second chorus we made up a background with the trombones, it  
was just happening.

Then Duke played a few choruses of his own, and Cootie Williams was  
there and did some wah wah, and then we went back to the first thing  
we had done and did that. The tempo wasn't too fast and when we had  
done that it had taken about eight minutes. Duke finished it off with  
a few passages on the piano, and in the studio were a couple of  
arrangers, Bill Holman was one of them, Bill was there because it was  
Duke, and he was rolling around on the floor. But he couldn't believe  
what he'd heard, nor could anybody. There was no point in doing it  
again; Duke wouldn't have permitted it anyway, he was out the door.

Murray played a solo on the opening music of the film Three Coins in  
the Fountain. Maybe this is the solo referred to here. - Ron Simmonds