Duke: how did he keep all those great musicians

[king ubu]

I have a recording from the Sixties, where it seems Gosalves was late on stage. As soon as he did show up, Duke called two numbers that heavily feature him...

Probably a Ducal punishment

Seems he was not the only one with this tactic - Basie applied it, too...

One of the funniest Ellington moments is on ALL STAR ROAD BAND VOLUME 2, I think it is, where Hodges is most likely waaaaaay drunk. Duke calls on him to play these ballads, snd the poor guy is WOBBLY like a mofo. Not enough for the spectators to notice, but if you know Rabbit, you can hear that he's struggling just to stay between the lines, much less drive straight.

Sounds funny! Is this one around?

ubu

[jazzbo]

Yes, the original Columbia Special Products cd of the Road Band may be gone, but Collectables put one out that should still be in print.

There may have been a time that Cab paid better, but his band effectively disappeared by the early fifties and the Ellington continued on. . . .

[JSngry]

Money aside, would you rather play "Minnie The Moocher" every night or "Mood Indigo"?

Egos and such aside, I'd think that nearly every musician who played in Duke's band knew that it was a special thing, not just another gig. Maybe even a blessing, if you believe in such things. Those kind of work situations are incredibly rare, so I'd think that everybody put up with all the extramusical bullshit for as long as they could (and for some it was longer than others) just to be a part of that blessing.

[jazzbo]

And hey, I've heard that "Oh, I play in Duke's band. . ." got you lots of phone numbers! -_-

[JSngry]

Yeah, many of them attorneys!