Four months after President Nixon presided over his 70th birthday bash at the White House, Duke taped a radio interview, excerpted below from Ken Vail’s Duke’s Diary, Part 2: The Life of Duke Ellington, 1950–1974 (Lanham, Maryland: ScareCrow Press, 2002), 361-62.
WEDNESDAY 27 AUGUST 1969
Duke Ellington tapes a radio interview with Gary Moore for New York, New York:
Moore: President Nixon, sure. He swings doesn’t he?
Duke: Yes, his pulse and my pulse were together that night.
Moore: Oh, that must have been the most marvelous night. You’ve won so many honors. But that must have been the night, the night that Duke Ellington was honored at the White House by the President of the United States.
Duke: They had a lot of fun down there, I know that. Well, it was the most extraordinary night because a lot of people who worked there for years, 20 or 30 years, who I’ve known, you know. I worked there about 8 times when President Johnson was president, and I know all the guys pretty well, so they said that nothing has ever happened in the White House like this, you know.
Moore: It was a real break-up night, wasn’t it?
Duke: No, it started out with the White House normalcy. The President and Mrs. Nixon took my sister and I and Mrs. Agnew and Mr. Agnew up to their living quarters, and we chatted around very informally and at the Inaugural Ball at Smithsonian Institute the president’s opening statement was, “As Duke Ellington said it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” And I jumped six feet and I said where’d he get that? And I said what’s he know about me, you know, and when I finally got close to him, I said, “Mr. President, we used to play down in your neighborhood in Orange County and Balboa Beach, and all that, you know, in the early 40s, and I said could it be that you used to be one of those good dancers down there in the ball room?” He said, “Oh no, he was never a dancer, he was a watcher,” you know, and I never found out how he got that other name. And then he went on to show me how good his hi-fi set was, you know, and all his records and . . . I don’t know what kind of a hi-fi set he thought I thought the President of the United States was going to have, but he was bragging about how good the speakers were, and showed me how high it went up and how low, and then we went down and had dinner and the concert with all those great musicians, you know, Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, Billy Taylor, Hinton . . . who else? I can’t think of them all, they’re just loaded.
Moore: I know protocol says things like that usually knock off about midnight, but this thing caught fire and kept going until about what time?
Duke: Yeah, it was about two o’clock when we came out of there.
Moore: I think with the impetus . . .
Duke: And I left people there.
Moore: Oh, yes, about 4 o’clock in the morning.
Duke: If you can imagine a moment when Lou Rawls and Billy Eckstine and Joe Williams, all three at the microphone, singing the other one’s blues . . . not singing their own blues . . . taking turns.
Permission for the above courtesy of Rowman & Littlefield, 4501 Forbes Blvd, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706.
WEDNESDAY 27 AUGUST 1969
Duke Ellington tapes a radio interview with Gary Moore for New York, New York:
Moore: President Nixon, sure. He swings doesn’t he?
Duke: Yes, his pulse and my pulse were together that night.
Moore: Oh, that must have been the most marvelous night. You’ve won so many honors. But that must have been the night, the night that Duke Ellington was honored at the White House by the President of the United States.
Duke: They had a lot of fun down there, I know that. Well, it was the most extraordinary night because a lot of people who worked there for years, 20 or 30 years, who I’ve known, you know. I worked there about 8 times when President Johnson was president, and I know all the guys pretty well, so they said that nothing has ever happened in the White House like this, you know.
Moore: It was a real break-up night, wasn’t it?
Duke: No, it started out with the White House normalcy. The President and Mrs. Nixon took my sister and I and Mrs. Agnew and Mr. Agnew up to their living quarters, and we chatted around very informally and at the Inaugural Ball at Smithsonian Institute the president’s opening statement was, “As Duke Ellington said it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” And I jumped six feet and I said where’d he get that? And I said what’s he know about me, you know, and when I finally got close to him, I said, “Mr. President, we used to play down in your neighborhood in Orange County and Balboa Beach, and all that, you know, in the early 40s, and I said could it be that you used to be one of those good dancers down there in the ball room?” He said, “Oh no, he was never a dancer, he was a watcher,” you know, and I never found out how he got that other name. And then he went on to show me how good his hi-fi set was, you know, and all his records and . . . I don’t know what kind of a hi-fi set he thought I thought the President of the United States was going to have, but he was bragging about how good the speakers were, and showed me how high it went up and how low, and then we went down and had dinner and the concert with all those great musicians, you know, Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, Billy Taylor, Hinton . . . who else? I can’t think of them all, they’re just loaded.
Moore: I know protocol says things like that usually knock off about midnight, but this thing caught fire and kept going until about what time?
Duke: Yeah, it was about two o’clock when we came out of there.
Moore: I think with the impetus . . .
Duke: And I left people there.
Moore: Oh, yes, about 4 o’clock in the morning.
Duke: If you can imagine a moment when Lou Rawls and Billy Eckstine and Joe Williams, all three at the microphone, singing the other one’s blues . . . not singing their own blues . . . taking turns.
Permission for the above courtesy of Rowman & Littlefield, 4501 Forbes Blvd, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706.
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