A wonderful memory of Cootie Williams. Thanks, Marc.
There's a fantastic concert from November 8, 1969, at the Berlin Jazz Days, featuring the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Cootie Williams has a solo right from the first song, "Take the A Train." There are excerpts of the concert on YouTube, but the technical quality isn't great. However, the complete concert isn't available in its entirety, unless I'm mistaken. Some time ago, the French-German cultural television channel ARTE added this concert to its media library. The picture and sound quality is perfect, and the concert itself is excellent. This concert, along with many others from the Berlin Jazz Days, was recorded by the then-public broadcaster SFB for later television broadcast.
Here's the link to the concert, but I don't know if it's accessible in the US. If not, try using a VPN connection. It's worth it.
Always good to see Cootie get some love. A couple of corrections: the iconic trumpet solo on A Train was played by Ray Nance, Cootie’s replacement in the Ellington band. The cornet is not higher pitched than the trumpet. Both instruments are pitched in Bb. The principal difference between the two is that the cornet has a conical bore (the tubing gradually widens through most of the length of the tubing) while the trumpet has a cylindrical bore (the tubing stays the same circumference for most of the instrument’s length.)
Hi Dan. Re “A Train,” forgot to remove that last night after checking a friend suggested I include. And I’ve tweaked the trumpet/cornet description so it’s accurate from listener’s standpoint. Thanks for the flags!
Steve Bowie recently published a very good bio, "Concerto for Cootie". Highly recommended.
A wonderful memory of Cootie Williams. Thanks, Marc.
There's a fantastic concert from November 8, 1969, at the Berlin Jazz Days, featuring the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Cootie Williams has a solo right from the first song, "Take the A Train." There are excerpts of the concert on YouTube, but the technical quality isn't great. However, the complete concert isn't available in its entirety, unless I'm mistaken. Some time ago, the French-German cultural television channel ARTE added this concert to its media library. The picture and sound quality is perfect, and the concert itself is excellent. This concert, along with many others from the Berlin Jazz Days, was recorded by the then-public broadcaster SFB for later television broadcast.
Here's the link to the concert, but I don't know if it's accessible in the US. If not, try using a VPN connection. It's worth it.
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/128110-001-A/duke-ellington-orchestra/
And here is a selection of some other great concerts from the Berlin Jazz Days.
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/RC-027322/berliner-jazztage/
Always good to see Cootie get some love. A couple of corrections: the iconic trumpet solo on A Train was played by Ray Nance, Cootie’s replacement in the Ellington band. The cornet is not higher pitched than the trumpet. Both instruments are pitched in Bb. The principal difference between the two is that the cornet has a conical bore (the tubing gradually widens through most of the length of the tubing) while the trumpet has a cylindrical bore (the tubing stays the same circumference for most of the instrument’s length.)
Hi Dan. Re “A Train,” forgot to remove that last night after checking a friend suggested I include. And I’ve tweaked the trumpet/cornet description so it’s accurate from listener’s standpoint. Thanks for the flags!