There was the unforgettable night when Ethel Waters stood in the spotlight with the Ellington Band pulsating behind her, and sang, for the first time in public, a song by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler called Stormy Weather. I heard Ed Sullivan introduce Arlen on television the other night merely as the writer of Over the Rainbow! Oh, well.

Then there was that later night at the Cotton Club, when the entire brass section of the Ellington band arose and delivered such an intricate and unbelievably integrated chorus that the late Eddie Duchin, usually a poised and dignified musician, actually and literally rolled on the floor under his table in ecstasy.