Duke Ellington orchestra & Ella Fitzgerald Trio in Milan (1966)

In January 1966 Duke Ellington, in tournée in Europe, had some concerts in Italy with his orchestra, including some of the most famous “ellingtonians“, as you can see in the line-up below. These very rare recordings were taken during the afternoon concert at Teatro Lirico in Milan january 30, 1966. The performance of the orchestra was followed by a set of Ella Fitzgerald and her trio and was closed by a meeting of Ella and the orchestra in Cotton Tail with a very exciting duet between the “scat“ of Ella and the sax of Paul Gonsalves. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Herbie Jones, Mercer Ellington (tp); Lawrence Brown, Chuck Connors, Buster Cooper (tbn); Paul Gonsalves (ts), Johnny Hodges (as), Harry Carney (bs,bcl), Jimmy Hamilton(cl,ts), Russell Procope (as); Duke Ellington (pn), John Lamb (bs), Skeets Marsh, Elvin Jones (drm) 0:00 Theme: Take the “A“ Train (B. Strayhorn) 0’43 01:15 Medley: a) Black And