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

[Marek Boym]

Strange to have the Ellington band described as "too loose."  In my
opinion, that is impossible (unless it deteriorates into cacophony)!   The
Kenton band, on the other hand, always sounded over-arranged, and hence -
unswinging.  I remember seeing a Kenton LP in a guy'scollection back in
1957 or '58, and envying him.  The envy ended when I heardthe record, with
only a number or two really swinging, and with soloists whose playing was
not "hot."

The only big band I listen to as a band, not for its soloists, is the Basie
band of the '30's, which played mostly "head" arrangements and sounds
really loose, like a small band.  All the other bands were only asgood as
their soloists; the arranged ensembles never sounded very interesting to
me, even though some were really swinging!  But it were the Godmans and the
Shaws and the Lester Youngs and the Claytons that made listening to big
bands interesting, if you were not interested in dancing.
Cheers



On 26 October 2013 22:27, <vaxtrpts at aol.com> wrote:

>
>  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
>
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