The "Sacred" Revisited: A Duke Ellington Memorial

Duke Ellington with Anita Moore at the Rainbow Room, 1972, © Nancy Crampton

Featured here is a great filmed concert whose origins, exact date and the name of musicians are not known to me. Surprisingly, it's not listed either on Jazz on TV filmographies or the discography of the distinguished musicians involved.

This 30-minute-long video assembles songs from Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts, performed in his memory by a superb band which is not Ellington's orchestra or what was left of it at that time. The date, I guess, must be May 1986, when issuing the first postal stamp in Ellington's honor called for ducal festivities and all-star performances of his compositions.

The place? Maybe St. Patrick's Cathedral? If you're familiar with New York City, please go to 16' 12'' for an exterior shot of a church which I assume is the location of the concert.

Also, If you happen to know any of the band members seen in the video, please leave a comment. Those who are more easily detectable are Frank Wess (as), Slide Hampton (tb), Cecil Payne (bs, playing solo on My Love), and Billy Taylor (p). It's quite a line-up!

Vocalists are Priscilla Baskerville, Ellington's brother-in-law McHenry Boatwright, and Anita Moore who was the singer with Ellington Orchestra during the last two years of Duke's life (1972-74) up until the 1980s.

From the repertoire, the songs that I knew are listed below. Two remain unidentified.

Radio Hawkins#7

 عكس از رضا حكيمي

هفتمين برنامۀ موسيقي جاز، راديو هاوكينز

با آثاري از چارلي پاركر، كلارنس لافتن، لني تريستانو، دوك الينگتن، جان كلترين، پل دزموند، جيم هال، هربي مان، بيلي تيلر، ممفيس اسليم، اسكار پيترسن، استفان گراپلي

Billy Taylor (1921-2010)

The year 2010 was a mournful year, as far as piano and last of the great pianist of golden age of jazz is concerned. First we lost Hank Jones, and now Dr. Bill Taylor.

First time I heard Billy Taylor, I was sneaking through my uncle's jazz collection. He had a personal compilation, kind of favorite traveler's mate, with a dozen track from 1954-55 Taylor/Earl May/Percy Brice sessions. Surely I fell in love with him. At that time I had two convincing reason to really dig him: 1) Practically he could play anything and anybody, from smoky ballads to up-tempo bebop pieces, from Basie-type swing manifestations to Ellington oriented tunes. 2) He reminded me of another unsung hero of jazz piano, Hank Jones. Hank is my yardstick for this instrument. Anything close to him, or feel like close to him, worth listener's attention. And of course, a sheer musical joy is always guaranteed.

Later, I returned to his early works (I wrote about it today, just before this post. Read it here) And then my expedition moved me forward to 1960s. At that point one of the best moments I had with Billy's music came with his gospely I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (1967), accompanied with bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Grady Tate.

Marc Myers in his obituary on Jazzwax defines Billy as "the jazz-musician stereotypes found in pulp fiction and film of the 1950s. He was gregarious and courtly, well-spoken and approachable—and oddly devoid of the simmering anger, anti-social behavior, bad habits and hipster persona that made the jazz life at once alluring and dangerous." Read the rest of his splendid piece, here.

Check this old post of a 1958 video of Billy Taylor, performing his own composition Early Bird with Tony Scott on clarinet, Doc Seversen on trumpet, Mundel Lowe on guitar, Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Earl May on bass, and Ed Thigpen on drums. More videos are available here.

Classics 1137: Billy Taylor 1945-1949

Classics 1137
Billy Taylor 1945-1949 Release Date: 2000


Other notable musicians in this CD: Doc Cheatham, Denzil Best, Milton Hinton, Shadow Wilson.
Label(s): Savoy, Prestige, H.R.S, Swing 234
Number of sessions: 6


About this period: "When I first really embraced bop, it was—I had, of course, become aware of Parker and Gillespie, prior to coming to New York, but I was very much into Tatum and that kind of thing. I used to have some knock-down, drag-out arguments with Bud Powell, because I'd run into him frequently at Minton's and other places. This was in '44. I came here in '44, and when I got here I worked with Ben Webster at the Deuces, and the whole transition was really being formalized then because this was just prior to Dizzy Gillespie opening at the Onyx with the first bop band downtown." - Billy Taylor

The Album: A good example of what Billy Taylor calls pre-bop, a period of jazz which is not really swing, nor is bebop, but it had all of the ingredients that formalized by people like Clyde Hart, Sid Catlett, Jo Jones, and others. Of course, there are more swing oriented tracks (5 to 8, for instance), or more bop playing stuff (like Paris date), but the main concept is playing a variety of sounds with a great dexterity. - E. K.

Monk’s Mood (see below for details)

Details:

Billy Taylor Trio
Billy Taylor (p), Al Hall (b), Jimmy Crawford (d)

• New York, March 20, 1945, Savoy

S-5792 Monk’s Mood
S-5793 Solace
S-5794 Night And Day
S-5795 Alexander’s Ragtime Band

Walter Thomas Orchestra:
Doc Cheatham (t), Eddie Barefield/Hilton Jefferson (cl,as), Walter ‘Toots’ Thomas/Teddy McRae (ts), Buddy Saffer (barsax), Billy Taylor (p), Milton Hinton (b), Specs Powell (d).

• New York, June 27, 1945, Prestige

8131 -B Black Maria’s Blues
8132-B Bird Brain
8131-A Dee-Tees
8132-A Back Talk

Billy Taylor:
Billy Taylor (p), Ted Sturgis (b), Buford Oliver(d).

• Paris, December 4, 1946, Swing 234

OSW-435-1 The Very Thought Of You
OSW-436-1 Stridin’ Down Champs-Elysées (sic)

Billy Taylor Quartet:
Billy Taylor (p), John Collins (g), J0hn Levy (b), Denzil Best (d).

• New York, June 1947, H.R.S

1068-2 Well Taylor-ed
1069-2 I Don't Ask Questions, I just Have Fun
1070-3 So You Think You’re Cute
1071 -2 Twinkle Toes

Billy Taylor Quartet:
Billy Taylor (p), Herman Mitchell (g), J0hn Levy (b), Denzil Best (d).

• New York, September 26 1947, H.R.S

1084-2 Restricted
1085-3 Stridin’ Down Champs-Elysées
1086-2 Mitch’s Pitch
1087-2 Mr. B. Bops

Billy Taylor Quintet:
John Hardee (ts), Milt Page (org), Billy Taylor (p), John Simmons (b), Shadow Wilson (d).

• New York, November 20 1949, Savoy

SBT-4450 Misty Moming Blues
SBT-4451 The Bug
SBT-4452 Prelude To A Kiss
SBT-4453 Take The “A” Train

Billy Taylor's Early Bird

"Early Bird" composed by Billy Taylor, featuring Billy Taylor on piano, Tony Scott on clarinet, Doc Seversen on trumpet, Mundel Lowe on guitar, Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Earl May, bass and Ed Thigpen on drums. Recorded Summer, 1958.