Duke Ellington: Music is my Mistress

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

216-219

text excerpt

I first met Joya Sherrill backstage at the Paradise Theatre in Detroit during 1941. I asked her recently to refresh my memory with some details of our very happy musical association, and she remembers it like this:

"I had written a set of lyrics to ‘Take the "A" Train’ and had come to the theatre to sing it for you. I had no thought of singing with your band, but only hoped you would like the lyrics I had written.

"You called Billy Strayhorn to the piano. He played, I sang, and you listened. After I had finished, you asked me to sing something else, and I sang three other songs.

’That's Very Good’ you said…

"A few months later, a call came to me one evening in Detroit from Pittsburgh, from Duke Ellington. I shall always remember exactly what you said.

"I've been thinking about you’ your first words were. ‘Sing something for me.’ I was so excited, tears were streaming down my face, and I tried to think of a song to sing.

...

"I sang a few bars of ‘I've Got a Guy.’ It was a long-distance call and I thought I should be brief. ‘Sing the rest of it” you said. So I finished the song, and I remember word for word what you said then:

‘I would like to use you to broadcast and record. Your diction is perfect and you articulate so well.’

…

What Joya doesn't say, of course, is that she did such a good job on "I'm Beginning to See the Light" that we have been playing it ever since. It is a tribute to her diction and articulation, too, that when I ask them to join in singing it with us, audiences all over the world seem to know the words.

excerpt from 'Duke Ellington: Music is my Mistress' pp. 216-219 (313 words)

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