[Dixielandjazz] Duke Ellingotn - Steve Voce - and some memories

[vaxtrpts at aol.com]

 Wonderful review, Steve.  
My feelings about Duke are "varied." I has a fan of the man for sure.  I met him a couple of times and he was "bigger than life," and a caring and wonderful human being.  Can you imagine Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton in the same room?  It happened a few times.  I remember once it was as if there were two reception lines.  The guys in Dukes band (even though quite a bit older than most of us on the Kenton band), were lined up to say hello to Stan, and we young "unknown" musicians were lined up just to be able to shake the hand of Duke Ellington.
I was not a huge fan of his band, as it was a bit to "loose" for me much of the time.
Here is a great story from the 1971 Newport Jazz Festival.  The night before the riot that closed it down on Sunday afternoon, was big band night.  It was Duke, Buddy Rich and Stan Kenton.  This was when Stan was sick the first time and Dick Shearer and I were leading the band.  It is weird to hear, but I am the one announcing the band's performance on the recording from that year.  
Well, George Wein had the leaders and managers in his trailer behind stage that afternoon and asked what order we would like to perform in.  (Sort of weird for the producer to do that, but who knows?)  Well, Buddy is standing right next to Duke Ellington (an interesting sight in itself) and says "I don't open for anybody!"  Duke chuckles a bit and says jokingly, "Hey - we will go on first and we can get back to the bar at the hotel earlier.........."  So the order was Duke, Stan's band (without Stan), and then Buddy's band.  Well, Duke's band played the best I ever heard them that night.  And we young upstarts had something to prove for Stan who was back in LA in the hospital, so we really did play our "butts" off.  As we were leaving the stand, I remember some of the guys in Buddy's band saying "Geez - we have to follow THAT???"
I guess you could say that night was one of the most memorable gigs in my 47 years on the road --- and counting.

Mike Vax
Friends of Big Band Jazz, Prescott Jazz Summit, 
Stan Kenton Alumni Band
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com