Timex All Star Jazz Show Celebration Part 2: Rehearsal With Duke Ellington

In the first part of this series, we shared a little of the backstory of the fourth Timex All Star Jazz Show, including some pages of the first draft of George T. Simon’s script, audio of Louis and Lucille Armstrong rehearsing a second draft of the script, and numerous Maynard Frank Wolfe photographs of the first rehearsal, which took place at the CBS Broadcast Center on January 5, 1959.

Today’s post will focus on the first part of the second rehearsal, which took place on January 6, also at the CBS Broadcast Center, 524 West 57th Street, in New York City. Wolfe took nearly 150 photographs on this day alone, later selling the negatives to Jack Bradley. Michael Perisco, Bradley’s longtime friend and assistant–and the current administrator of Classic Jazz Visions–discovered the negatives several years ago and had them sent to the Louis Armstrong Archives, where they were digitized–and where they are being shared for the first time publicly in this series!

To set the scene, here is how the show’s producers blocked out the January 6 rehearsal:

The Tuesday rehearsals took place in the evening and opened with the Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. For those keeping score at home, here’s Duke’s personnel in January 1959: Cat Anderson, Harold “Shorty” Baker, Clark Terry, Ray Nance, trumpet; Quentin “Butter” Jackson, Britt Woodman, John Sanders, trombone; Johnny Hodges, alto saxophone; Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophone; Jimmy Hamilton, Russell Procope, Harry Carney, reeds; Ellington, piano; Jimmy Woode, bass; Gus Johnson, drums.

We’ll kick off with a few Maynard Frank Wolfe photos of Duke and his men in action:

Is that Duke’s longtime copyist Tom Whaley in the background?

Trombonist John Sanders solos in the background, backed up by drummer Gus Johnson and bassist Jimmy Woode:

A few photos of baritone saxophonist Harry Carney, most likely doing his feature on “Sophisticated Lady,” which was performed in the final show (is Paul Gonsalves sleeping?):

Now Johnny Hodges steps up, most likely running through his feature on the telecast, “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be”:

A blurry photo, but here’s the “pep” section on “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” comprised of Harold “Shorty” Baker (in fedora), Quentin “Butter” Jackson, and the plunger-muted hands of Ray Nance:

Angle of Duke from the opposite side, showing just how many folks were in attendence:

Eventually, vocalist Ruth Olay joins Duke, which means we must be in the 7:30-8 p.m. slot, as dictated by the schedule:

Though mostly forgotten today, Olay was having a moment at the time of this broadcast, thanks to her being heavily featured on Jack Paar’s Tonight Show. Her backstory as a one-time secretary for film director Preston Sturges added to her appeal; in researching the publicity for this Timex show, multiple stories ran in multiple papers the week of January 7 with headlines such as “Ex-Secretary Ruth Olay Joins Timex Cast” (here’s a link to Olay’s Wikipedia page).

Here she is rehearsing with Ellington:

Olay’s on the right side of the following photo but our eyes immediately go to the larger-than-life figure on the left: the show’s host, Jackie Gleason:

With “The Great One” in place, Wolfe took several photos of Gleason going over his script with its author, jazz journalist George T. Simon:

Even Ellington got Simon’s attention at one point to go over the script, as captured in these Wolfe photos:

Now, I’m getting away from the schedule a bit, but Wolfe also took photos of some of the artists who were supposed to rehearse on January 5, but they’re on the same roll of film as some photos of Louis Armstrong from January 6. Thus, my assumption is everything wasn’t quite worked out the previous day so with the call for the “full cast” to show up at 8 p.m., some quick rehearsals were done with vocalist Dakota Staton. In an earlier version of this post, I mistakenly assumed this next photo was of pianist George Shearing, but after watching the finished episode, I realized that Staton did her first number with Sam Jones, Les Spann, and Lex Humphries from Dizzy Gillespie’s group….and a mystery pianist. I dug through the internet and figured out that Staton was using pianist Joe Saye during this period and a quick Google search shows that this is indeed, Saye:

And here’s Staton, not looking too thrilled, but then again, one of her features was “The Thrill is Gone”:

On Wolfe’s original negatives, the photos of Saye and Staton bookend this one shot of Louis and Lucille Armstrong, along with one of their special guests, young trumpeter Chris Clufetos, who went on to have a long, distinguished career under the name of Chris Clifton:

Armstrong’s drummer Danny Barcelona can be glimpsed in the background, as everyone looks kind of sullen, waiting for the other acts to finish up. Eventually, everything got settled and it was time for Armstrong to rehearse with members of the Ellington Orchestra on the finale, which was conceived to be a jam on “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue.” But first, it was time for Armstrong, with his natural, effervescent personality, to get everyone present loose and laughing uproariously. We can only wish we knew what was so funny, but at least we have the images, which are joy personified.

We’ll begin with Louis approaching Ellington trumpeter–and Armstrong worshipper–Ray Nance, again with Danny Barcelona and Chris Clifton in the background, among others:

The laughter commences, with Bobby Hackett now present and beaming on the right:

The trombone in the foreground belonged to Quentin “Butter” Jackson. Wolfe spun around and captured Jackson and the trombone section basking in Armstrong’s glow:

Armstrong, now clearly rolling, cracking up everyone in room:

The next negative is again of Jackson, this time losing it:

Eventually Duke got into the act, with Paul Gonsalves also laughing in the background:

Armstrong eventually approached Jackson, looking like he was having the time of his life:

Wolfe eventually stood directly in front of Armstrong and snapped away as Louis continued to hold court. Some of these photos are blurry, but are still worth sharing because of the joy they exude. And don’t miss the two figures taking it all in in the background: Louis’s longtime friend, actor and comedian Slim Thompson, and the recently departed, much missed Dan Morgenstern:

With the hilarity out of the way, it was time to get down to business. Wolfe originally shot from this angle behind Louis. Here he is motioning with his right hand, with Ellington on the left side of the frame. Ellington’s trumpeters Harold “Shorty” Baker and Cat Anderson are watching and trumpeter Bobby Hackett, as always, is beaming:

Time to play, with Hackett joining in; All Stars bassist Mort Herbert watches in the background center:

Louis seems pleased:

And once again, so does Hackett, who always had a “pinch me, I’m dreaming” expression when Louis was around:

Some of the musicians, namely Quentin Jackson and Cat Anderson, eventually switched to the other side of the studio. Wolfe eventually shifted his position, too, and captured a truly all-time lineup from his new vantage point. From left to right: Louis, Paul Gonsalves, trumpeter Clark Terry, Gene Krupa (just spectating), George Shearing (manning the piano while Duke, I assume, directed traffic), trombonists Trummy Young and Butter Jackson, and Gus Johnson on drums; once more, young Dan Morgenstern takes it all in on the far right:

Having captured the overall scene, Wolfe then focused on shooting some close-ups. Here’s Gonsalves and Terry, and it appears Cat Anderson in the background:

Wolfe definitely had an affinity for Gonsalves, shooting many close-ups; here’s a few:

And of course, Wolfe took the most close-ups of Pops; here’s a selection:

At a certain point, everyone must have been satisfied with how the Armstrong-Ellington jam session went and Duke and his men were free to go home. It is still not known when the decision was made to switch from “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” to “Perdido,” but my hunch is that was made on show day because when Louis and Lucille Armstrong went over the script after the January 6 rehearsal (audio of which can be heard in part one), “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” was still in. My guess is time was running out and they wanted something with a familiar set of changes so the other guests–including Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Vic Dickenson, and Coleman Hawkins–could blow. (Yes, there’s no set of changes quite as familiar as the blues and it would have been thrilling to hear those artists wail on that form but as I previously mentioned, “Diminuendo and Crescendo” had some time-consuming, heavily-arranged portions that probably led to it sadly being scrapped.)

The Ellingtonians might have been free to go home, but many stuck around to watch what happened next: Armstrong rehearsing first with Gene Krupa and Bobby Hackett, and later, with Dizzy Gillespie. Those photos will be shared in part three of this series so be sure to come back soon for those and a whole lot more!