Late Ellington

Just wanted to say I enjoyed your post on Late Ellington--an epoch of DKE that I also really like, and in fact we had originally scheduled a Night Lights show for this April called exactly that (it's been rescheduled for either later this year or early next). What an interesting period! In addition to the deservedly touted New Orleans Suite, there's the Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, The River (one of the Private Recording volumes has a full band treatment of it), And His Mother Called Him Bill (if one marks this period as beginning in '67 after the death of Strayhorn), the album of duets with Ray Brown... thanks for calling attention to the final chapter.

Amazing. And also sad. Because I'm from Viareggio, and I was born just 6 years after this concert. Great artists performed at La Bussola (Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald once came here), and my zone was a very vital one. Now it's all dead, nobody does anything to revive Viareggio, and everything is so stale (if you don't consider state assisted wannabe festivals featuring the same musicians over and over). Back then, Ellington came to Viareggio. Now, if Terence Blanchard or Jason Moran or Greg Osby or [choose among today's greats] would show up, he'd play in some shitty room with me and a few casual listeners who came in just because they got free tickets since they know the barman.

Excuse me Doug, for this useless detourment! :) It's just that I love your blog and I've been surprised to read my town's name in here in a post regarding my favorite musician (Ellington of course).