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Newly released on DVD, Memories of Duke is a documentary of concert footage that was filmed in color by Gary Keys during performances of the Duke Ellington Orchestra on its 1968 Mexican tour and originally released in 1980. Most of the 90-minute release happily consists of footage of the band's performances.
The DVD also has some short interview segments with musicians Cootie Williams and Russell Procope. Trumpeter Cootie Williams joined the band in 1929, stayed until 1940 and then eventually rejoined the band from 1962-1974. Alto saxophonist and clarinetist Russell Procope was with the band from 1946-1974. Both speak of their pleasure in being chosen to join the band and their delight in playing with Duke. Williams is featured on several tunes, including "Take the 'A' Train," "Satin Doll" and "The Mooch." He has a great plunger mute solo on the latter piece. And Procope is featured on "Black and Tan Fantasy," "Creole Love Call" and "Mood Indigo."
In the interview, Procope mentions that Duke kept things fresh by introducing new arrangements. We get to hear and see an example of this with the inclusion of a small bit of vintage footage of "Mood Indigo." Procope plays clarinet on both a 1950s version filmed for television and the 1968 version. In the 1950s version, the introduction is done by a trio of two trombones and a bass clarinet (Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, Harry Carney), then Procope enters for his solo, followed by a Willie Cook muted trumpet solo, a piano solo, and finally the trio again. The 1968 version starts with a trio of one trombone (Lawrence Brown), clarinet (Procope) and bass clarinet (Carney) that goes into Procope's clarinet solo and then to Duke's piano solo.
The new piece on the program is the twenty-minute long "Mexican Suite" (which evolved into parts of the Latin-American Suite). The suite emphasizes ensemble playing. The main soloist is Duke himself and there's a lot of piano—it's a good opportunity to hear Duke's individualistic, stride-based, harmonically interesting playing.
The other performances are mostly of well-known pieces: John Hodges has some typically delightful sax solos on "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" and "Things Ain't What They Used To Be." Harry Carney is featured on "Sophisticated Lady"—at the end of the tune, Carney circular breathes one long baritone sax note over Duke's piano.
One oddity is that footage from several performances are edited together. (It's amazing to see Duke's jacket change color in the middle of a song.) However, since they haven't edited the actual music, the edits aren't too distracting.
There are numerous audio recordings of Duke Ellington out in the world, but not many videos, making Memories of Duke a welcome addition to Duke's recorded legacy.
Release Date: 19 November 2002
Duke Ellington:
Memories of Duke - DVD (MVD/Quantum Leap)
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last update 24 December 2002