Ned Elliot Williams in Cotton Club - 1927

from Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, page 235:

I first heard the Ellington band in 1927, which was the year it made its debut at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem… I can't say that I was too much impressed with the Ellington crew on that visit. It definitely didn't have the form and the polish that it acquired later, of course. I was bewildered by the elaborate floor revue at the Cotton Club, even then comparable to the top Broadway musicals, and fascinated by the dispatch and lack of commotion with which a belligerent drunken guest was subdued and evicted by the club attaches.
cite as

Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro, Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It (London, 1992), p. 235. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1435236225449 accessed: 28 March, 2024

location of experience: Cotton Club

Listeners

Ned Elliot Williams
entertainment publicist, music journalist and managing editor
1897-1981

Listening to

hide composers
Jazz band music performed by Duke Ellington & His Orchestra

Experience Information

Date/Time 1927
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by 5011Henning on Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:43:45 +0100
Approved on Tue, 30 Aug 2016 16:12:03 +0100