{"id":5239,"date":"2013-11-25T14:10:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T22:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=5239"},"modified":"2013-11-25T14:10:26","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T22:10:26","slug":"paul-desmond-take-eighty-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2013\/11\/paul-desmond-take-eighty-nine\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Desmond: Take Eighty-Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every November 25th since Rifftides<\/em> debuted in 2005, we observe Paul Desmond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birthday. He was born in San Francisco on this date in 1924, which, that year, was Thanksgiving. To the left, we see Desmond six \"Desmond,<\/a>months before he died in May of 1977. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s watching Jim Hall carve the turkey that Jim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daughter Devra prepared when she hosted her parents and Paul for a 1976 Thanksgiving dinner at her New York apartment. Longtime recording partners, Desmond and Hall were close friends. One of their rare experiences playing together outside a studio came in 1969 when President Richard Nixon celebrated Duke Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 70th birthday with a lavish tribute at the White House. <\/p>\n

The Voice Of America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Willis Conover put together the band for the tribute. Below you see its members rehearsing in the East Room the afternoon of the party, April 29, 1969. From left to right: Hank Jones, Jim Hall, Milt Hinton, Gerry Mulligan, Paul Desmond, Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, J.J. Johnson, Bill Berry, Urbie Green. Guest artists included Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, Earl Hines and the singers Joe Williams and Mary Mayo. <\/p>\n

\"Ellington<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mulligan,<\/a><\/p>\n

Mulligan and Desmond rehearsed Mulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intricate arrangement of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Prelude to a Kiss.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The performance is included in a recording of that night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music<\/a>, finally released in 2002. From the Desmond biography<\/a>, here is some of the description of that evening\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concert and aftermath: <\/p>\n

It lasted an hour and a half and consisted of twenty-seven Ellington or Strayhorn pieces, several of them worked into medleys. Solos were distributed so that all of the musicians were featured. I was in the audience directly behind Cab Calloway, who was sitting next to Ellington. Duke had been lounging comfortably as he listened. He sat bolt upright when, on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Things Ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t What They Used to Be,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with Brubeck at the piano, Desmond played a stunningly accurate impression of Johnny Hodges, Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s star alto player of forty-one years. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Duke said, and turned to Calloway with a grin, a reaction that pleased Desmond enormously when I described it. <\/p>\n

\tDesmond was not happy about a medley that featured him on Strayhorn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chelsea Bridge.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d When they came to the song\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s middle section, the bassist, Milt Hinton, forgot the complicated harmonic changes and went into an unrelated pattern. Desmond managed to keep his composure and preserve the melody line. It is unlikely that non-musicians in the audience knew anything had gone wrong, but Paul was convinced that it had been a disaster. After the concert, he headed for the open bar and stayed near it the rest of the night, which turned out to be long. The Nixons headed for bed, but the President urged everyone to stay and have a good time. White House staffers sprang into action and cleared the East Room for dancing, and a jam session ensued. Desmond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mood lightened eventually, though he rejected all entreaties to play. I hung out at the bar with him and Urbie Green, but went on to other conversations after the Dewars competition moved out of my league. When the party broke up between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m., I wished Paul and Urbie a good night as they helped one another, unsteadily, through the entrance hall, down the White House steps and into a taxi. Later, Desmond was able to see humor in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chelsea Bridge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d incident, but that night he worked at forgetting it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In conclusion, I quote, not for the first time, what Brubeck told me years after Desmond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Boy, I sure miss Paul Desmond.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

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