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DUKE ELLINGTON and his world A BIOGRAPHY DUKE ELLINGTON and his world A.H.LAWRENCE ROUTLEDGE NEW YORK • LONDON Published in 2001 by Roudedge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 Published in Great Britain by Roudedge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4 4EE Roudedge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group. This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Copyright © 2001 A.H.Lawrence All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lawrence, A.H. Duke Ellington and his world: a biography/A.H.Lawrence. p. cm. Includes list of compositions (p.), bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 0-415-93012-X (alk. paper) 1. Ellington, Duke, 1899–1974. 2. Jazz musicians—United States—Biography. I. Title. ML410.E44 L39 2001 781.65′092–dc21 [B] 00–051711 ISBN 0-203-48631-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-58021-4 Adobe e-Reader Format ISBN 0-415-96925-5 (Print Edition) To Natalie Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction ix Prelude xii Chapters One through Forty-five 1 Epilogue 337 Chronology 338 Biographies 353 Band Members 365 Compositions by Duke Ellington 379 Bibliography 393 Source Notes 395 Index 405 Acknowledgments This book never would have been written had Luis Russell not hired a seventeen-year-old high school graduate who was bound and determined to earn a living playing in a dance band. A decade later when our paths crossed again, he encouraged me to do the study of Harlem musicians that ultimately turned into this book. It was Russell who made the critical telephone call to Sonny Greer that gained me entree to members of the Ellington band and the Harlem musicians whom I subsequently interviewed. I owe a debt to the Ellington musicians, friends, and family members all of whom were most generous with their time: MacHenry Boatwright, Ruth Ellington Boatwright, Lawrence Brown, Harry Carney, Benny Carter, Willie Cook, Mercer Ellington, Frank Galbreath, Fred Guy, Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Holmes, Manzie Johnson, Walter Johnson, Sy Oliver, Wilbur DeParis, Russell Procope, Billy Strayhorn, Fredi Washington, Bernice Wiggins, Cootie Williams, and Joe Williams. This book is also, in part, a product of my professional training and education at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, from September 1967 to January 1974. I acknowledge my great debt to Dr. Lester Grinspoon, who supported and encouraged my application for a staff position at that institution; to the late Dr. Julius Silberger, who along with his colleague Dr. Jose Barchilon, introduced me to the concept of a psychobiography; and Dr. John Mack, who gave me a model of how to write one. I must thank my close friends and professional colleagues, Dr. Clifford Briggin, Dr. Sara Cooke, Ms. Joanna Donovan, Dr. Stuart Feder, Dr. Kendra Schecter, and Dr. Richard Sens who read this manuscript in whole or in part and offered valuable comments and feedback. Also, many thanks to Jim Smith and the staff of the Cambridge Center for Adult Education who graciously provided a space to finish this book; to my son Daniel W.Lawrence, whose laser printer churned out the many revisions of this manuscript; to the gang at Giannono’s, especially John Nesbitt, for whose support at a critical point during the production of this book, I shall forever be grateful. Thanks to my agent, Dick McDonough, who stuck with this project for close to fifteen years. And last but not least, to my editor Richard Carlin, who took a mountain of data and organized it into a book that I am proud to have my name on. Introduction “WHERE YOU GOING?” I was standing at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 50th Street in New York City when I heard a familiar voice call out. Where you going? It was a question I had been asking myself all day. I turned and found myself face to face with my new boss, the Harlem band leader Luis Russell, and the current woman in his life. It was August 1944, and earlier that day I had become a member of his orchestra. I told him I was meeting some old high school pals who were waiting to hear the results of that morning’s audition. Taking me firmly by the arm, Russell said, “They can wait. Come on with me and Evelyn. We’re going over to the Roxy. I’ll introduce you to Duke Ellington.” I tried hard to stifle my anxiety about meeting the man who had been my musical hero since 1940. That was when I first heard his 1926 recording of the “Black & Tan Fantasy,” complete with the tuba underpinning of “Bass” Edwards. From that day on, I was a fervid Ellingtonian. “Black & Tan Fantasy” is still one of my favorite recordings. As we walked, I thought about the events that were bringing me to meet Duke Ellington. Two months earlier, I had graduated from a suburban high school and moved to the city, firmly expecting to find work as a musician in a dance band. Soon after arriving, I called Russell and told him I was looking for a job. It was the hubris of adolescence and the fact that I had gone to school with his son that impelled me to approach him. Russell mentioned that he was thinking about adding a third trombone to his band, but he was leaving town the next day for engagements in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. He told me to look him up when he got back. I later learned that in Chicago, his son had put in a good word for me. And when Russell returned to New York, I was invited to audition for a chair in his band. And here I was, backstage at the theater where Duke Ellington was playing. I saw faces that I had known only from newspapers, magazines, and films. The elegant, light-skinned man sitting with a white towel on his left leg and oiling the slide on his trombone was Lawrence Brown. Short, portly Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton was talking vigorously about the allied invasion of France to bald-headed saxophonist Otto Hardwick. Fellow saxophonist Johnny Hodges sauntered by, saw Russell, and asked about his close friend and fellow Bostonian, Charlie Holmes, who held down a saxophone chair in Russell’s band. “Sonny” Greer, pipe-stem thin, his trousers sporting a knife-edge crease, was holding a deck of cards. Greer suggested that Russell join in a game of cards so that Greer could win back the money he had lost to Russell in Chicago. As I stood there absorbing the scene, I heard a voice behind us exclaim, “Ah, Luis— and the beautiful Evelyn, how nice of you to come by.” I turned around and there stood Ellington, clad in a white silk shirt, gold cuff links, fawn-colored slacks, and brown suede shoes. Because of the heat, he was tieless.