THE INTERNATIONAL
DEMS BULLETIN
DUKE ELLINGTON MUSIC SOCIETY
09/1 April - July 2009
Our 31st Year of Publication

FOUNDER: BENNY AASLAND
HONORARY MEMBER: FATHER JOHN GARCIA GENSEL
EDITOR: SJEF HOEFSMIT
ASSISTED BY: ROGER BOYES

Voort 18b, 2328 Meerle, Belgium
Telephone: +32 3 315 75 83
Email: dems1@telenet.be

 

DISCUSSIONS - ADDITIONS - CORRECTIONS

 


The Queen’s Suite

DEMS 09/1-20

See DEMS 08/3-19

In the last Bulletin I reported that I found slight differences between the Mono and Stereo sides of Steven Lasker’s LP when compared with the Pablo releases. To make sure, I also compared my Japanese Pablo CD (J33J 20008) with my LP (2310 762): no difference. I made copies for Giovanni Volonté and Luciano Massagli. The differences between the three versions are so small that the only way one can be sure is if one listens synchronously. Since my Italian friends did not employ the cable connections required for synchronous listening, I made them a CD with on one side (of the head-phone) the Pablo version and on the other side, first the Stereo version of the LP, followed by the Mono version which is on the flip side of Steven’s LP. By doing so, I can confirm my previous findings, and I can also suggest a theory of how it came about. I think that in the case of Northern Lights (of the Stereo version on the LP), the end of the recording was replaced by an insert. I have no idea why this was done. But after the missing half bar in “cod6BAND” I had to speed up my Pablo recording a little bit in order to stay in synch. This indicates that there was a substitution. Maybe the Pablo is the one with the insert. I cannot tell, but the ends are slightly different.
This is not the case with Apes and Peacocks (of the Mono version on the LP). Here too, an insert has been used, but in the process of making the join, one bar (# 28 in the second chorus) got lost in the Mono version. The ends are identical. If it was an insert, it must have been the same one used for both versions.
It was a not uncommon practice to edit the recordings. If one part of the piece was satisfactory it was not recorded again, but only the missing part was re-recorded. Someone then edited both parts together. This was done more often than we are aware of. It happened several times when Philips used the tapes from Columbia and had to make joins, which resulted in small differences between the two releases.
Sjef Hoefsmit

About the Queen Suite, I listened carefully to the CD that you prepared and discussed it with Giovanni. We admire what you did to make us understand where, you believe, is the beginning of the inserts: a job which requires a great deal of patience! We checked indeed all the differences that you claim and we cannot do anything else than saying that you are right. Nevertheless these differences are so slight that it seems impossible to describe exactly the inserts. We might be wrong, but, in our opinion, the missing bars in Northern Lights and Apes and Peacocks are very probably a mistake made by the engineer during the transfer from the original tape to the test pressing.
Luciano Massagli**


Duke’s Far and Middle East Tour 1963

DEMS 09/1-21

See DEMS 08/3-20

One reason there exists little film footage from this trip is that, after Delhi, the Contessa happened to be around Duke almost 24-7, except when they were on stage! And in 1963 such a mixed relationship was too much for the American public.
Arne Neegaard


Duke Ellington at Saint Sulpice

DEMS 09/1-22
On the web-site of the French INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel) is a short film about Duke’s Saint Sulpice rehearsal (on 16Nov69). Go to www.ina.fr and put “Duke Ellington” in the search field where you first found “recherche”. If you click OK, you will find the short (1’42”) film at the top of the list.
Georges Debroe


Thelonious Monk live at Newport (8Jul62)

DEMS 09/1-23

See DEMS 08/3-29

This is a quote from Chris Sheridan’s book “Brilliant Corners” (2001):
“A month before the occasion, Down Beat reported that Mr Monk was set to write a special piece for the band, to be arranged by Hall Overton and played at the festival. In the event, however, the performances were of two existing Monk compositions, the second set daringly against an unheard and unrehearsed Billy Strayhorn chart.....
The misidentifications in previous Ellington listings are surprising. In the case of Monk’s Dream, sporting a specially-written Billy Strayhorn chart, Duke Ellington introduces it correctly and repeats the identification in a reference back at the end of the rousing performance. The identification of the encore is more interesting because D.E.'s comment, ‘frére Monk’, reveals that this is a rare example of two bodies blithely playing different tunes simultaneously! On the one hand, Mr. Monk bowls straight into what is identifiably a slightly altered version of his 1956 Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are; on the other, the Ellington band, perhaps slightly caught out, picks up a Billy Strayhorn sketch, especially arranged for this concert, called Frére Monk (and recorded by Duke in rehearsal two months later). Against the ovation that follows it, Duke Ellington tells the enthusiastic audience, ‘he'll be back, he'll be back’ (perhaps to play Frère Monk straightforwardly). But he didn’t come back."
End of quote.
Georges Debroe and Klaus Götting

Frère Monk - just give it another try. It is a Strayhorn composition (cf. Walter van de Leur’s “Something To Live For,” Appendix D, p270). It is credited to Ellington in the New DESOR vol. 2 p875. If you listen closely you will find that it is an arrangement of blues riffs in a certain order - combining riff A by the saxes with riff B by the trombones, adding the trumpets or leaving out this or that section, a typical device of the Ellington organization. You get a lot of different colors by combining a few simple elements in this or that order. The whole thing can be used as a background for every blues in B flat, and this is what happened when they featured Monk at Newport. It is of course Frère Monk, but it is Monk's own Blue Bolivar Blues as well. They didn't rehearse it with Monk. Why should they? They just told him "Blues in B flat, at this tempo", Monk knew what to do and went into his own Blue Bolivar Blues. He could have gone into Straight, No Chaser or any other head in B flat as well.
Did you expect that a composition is a fixed thing? Not so, not in the Ellington organization. A live performance is not a sound photograph of a score or of an "original" version, at the least it has to be adjusted to the demands of the moment. One important fact is that Duke Ellington’s primary and most cherished compositional technique is that of montage. He would take a composition apart and rearrange it, starting with the end or reverse the order in any imaginable way etc. Remember that crucial advice by Will Marian Cook: "Reverse your figures!" D.E. explored this throughout his career.
Here we can talk of the "silent theme tradition", too, that emerged during the swing era and became a favourite device of the beboppers. You take a given chord pattern and compose a new line to it. The legal aspect is that you can sell it as a new composition. The result is that vast amounts of musical material can be exchanged between tunes. Or we can talk of "open form" versus "closed form", etc. etc. What I wanted to say is that Frère Monk is there, complete with all its portions, but in a slightly different order.
Hans-Joachim Schmidt

You asked a couple of questions regarding Thelonious Monk and the album “Unissued Live at Newport, 1958-59”. Apparently there is also a session with the Ellington orchestra dating from 1962 (I assume not from 1972 as you stated). [Indeed. I made a typo. SH] You thought Monk probably brought his own people as well and wondered who they were. I don’t know this CD but it does sound very interesting. Monk’s working group at the time was pretty stable and he continued to use it for his first sessions for Columbia later in 1962, so you likely heard Frankie Dunlop on drums and John Ore on bass. If there was an unfamiliar tenor sax it would have been Charlie Rouse.
You asked about the spelling of Ba-Lue-Bolivar-Ba-Lues-Are (which is correct, not the variant you also gave). It’s in the December 1956 album “Brilliant Corners”. Orrin Keepnews who produced that album said that “it is merely an attempt to set down phonetically the pronunciation Monk insisted on as most fitting for what might most simply be called Blue Bolivar Blues”. Tying this together, sort of, there is a Bolivar Blues recorded in 1962 on “Monk’s Dream”, his first for Columbia, with Dunlop and Ore. Unfortunately my memory of the 1962 version seems to have been lost with my album.
You probably know that Monk recorded an album of Duke’s music. They have some interesting similarities. Both had such a strong melodic sense, and a percussive style of playing.
Don Francis

The same group, Monk, Rouse, Ore, Dunlop, plays on the Milan and Paris performances recorded a year earlier, in April 1961.
Roger Boyes

On the internet I came upon the Newport ’62 tracks with Monk. Although different from the version on “The Private Collection Vol.3, this is definitely Frère Monk and not Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues Are.
Rick Steiger


“Stars on Parade” / Gotham Session revisited

DEMS 09/1-24

See DEMS 08/3-13

Today's mail brought two 16-inch ETs which I won from a recent record auction. "Stars on Parade" program 575, "Ellington Moods" by Duke Ellington, is paired with "Stars on Parade" program 576, "Davy Crockett" starring Conrad Nagel. "Stars on Parade" program 581, "Music of Manhattan," is paired with program 582, "A Matter of Time" starring Ethel Griffies. The labels show the dates each program was to be aired: program 575 (by Ellington) was "release: week of August 19, 1951"; program 576 was "release: week of August 25, 1951"; program 581 was "release: week of September 30, 1951"; program 582 was "release: week of October 7, 1951." I note that each date cited was a Sunday, when the Gotham Recording Studio was likely closed, and that the label of my copy of program 581 (release: week of September 30, 1951) bears the penciled notation "WMIL 9-22-51," which I'll guess is the date when the disc was received at radio station WMIL.
So: Ellington's "Stars on Parade"/ Gotham recording session wasn't held on 19Aug51 as shown in every discography, but at some earlier date, perhaps in late July or early August. To see a photo of the session and a list of the personnel, see DEMS 02/3-12. The photo is also found on the back cover of CBS(F)66607 ("The Complete Duke Ellington, 1947-52"), but misdated to 5oct51, the date of the Down Beat issue in which the photo was first published.
Steven Lasker


“The Best of Duke Ellington”, 4 CD set

DEMS 09/1-25

See DEMS 08/3-30

My set arrived today and I am excited about the wonderful sound restoration done by Harry Coster - for the first time I can hear that the Ellington Orchestra really had a guitar player!
And now, a little challenge to all of you: Listen to Dusk on The Desert a couple of times, then jump to In a Jam! Same trumpeter, isn’t it?
Arne Neegaard

I think you are right about the trumpeter being the same on both Dusk on the Desert and In a Jam. I'll venture a step further in that I think the trumpeter is Cootie Williams. To me, on In a Jam it sounds very much like some of the tonality and phrasing he used on Tootin' Through the Roof.
Martin Tach

I agree that the trumpet on In a Jam is Cootie with Rex finishing off the disc. I believe that it was almost settled that the horn solo on Dusk on the Desert was Artie Whetsel on trumpet-see DEMS 02/2-27 and 02/3-27. However there was further discussion 05/3-37, where it was argued that the soloist wasn't a trumpet but Lawrence Brown on trombone!
My vote goes to Artie.
Bill Morton

See also 06/1-18; 06/2-20 and 06/3-27.
DEMS

I made a typo - I was thinking of the trumpeter on Dinah´s in a Jam!
Arne Neegaard

See for Dinah’s in a Jam DEMS 05/2-24.
DEMS

What did Tizol sound like, on muted trombone? The solo [on Dusk on the Desert] has a tinge of Latin flavour, hasn’t it? And when we ruled out Lawrence Brown on slide trombone, no one thought about a valve trombone. It’s the legato-like phrasing I am thinking of. Switch between Caravan and Dusk on the Desert a couple of times.
Arne Neegaard

I think we may be hung up on the tonality of the performer. Check out the phrasing. To me the phrasing sounds closer to Stewart or Williams than legato players like Whetsel, Tizol or even Brown.
The tonality and phrasing is like that on Tootin' Through the Roof. Again, Stewart or Williams. But to me, the phrasing is more typical of Cootie. In both instances he is displaying a tonality not often heard from him but to me, the phrasing is pure Cootie.
Martin Tach

I remember the earlier thread about the horn on Dusk on the Desert. It was very interesting in that it considered Brown's trombone as well as trumpet players.
André Hodeir in his excellent article about Concerto for Cootie described Cootie Williams as "A man with a thousand sonorities". The trumpet on Dusk on the Desert reminds me of the sound Cootie used on the Benny Goodman Sextet recording of On the Alamo as well as the Ellington recording of Tootin' Through the Roof.
So, as they say, with all due respect to the VERY well considered opinions of the experienced and dedicated Ellington listeners on the [Duke-LYM] list. I am sticking with my opinion. For now. I am open to influence from other listeners like you [Bill Morton].
Martin Tach

It's most likely Cootie soloing on Dusk on the Desert. End of story. Martin (see his emails in this conversation) has probably got it right.
It can't be Brown or Tizol. It can't be a trombone of any description. End of story.
Tizol is playing with the saxophones during that first chorus so that there are five "saxophones" and five muted brass instruments (3 trpts, 2 tbns). The trumpet solo on the original part (at the Smithsonian) is written for Cootie and it says so on the score as well (half of which wasn't identified until I found it, and the set of parts which are entitled Jamming and Jiving).
Besides, the solo is far too high for a trombone. It goes up to a high F.
Michael Kilpatrick


Duael Fuel — Rock City Rock

DEMS 09/1-26

I was listening too Rock City Rock from 1957 and I became aware that parts of the arrangement were used in the drum feature Duael Fuel from 1959. I am correct?.
Wayne Cluton

You are correct. The 5° and the 6° choruses of the 13Mar57 recording of Rock City Rock are the same as the 2° and 3° choruses of Duael Fuel Part II, recorded on 8Sep59. Duke was one of the first “recyclers”.
DEMS


A very nice offer

DEMS 09/1-27

Dear DEMS,

Congratulations on the very informative and useful web-page http://www.depanorama.net/dems/
It is very impressive to make all these documents easily available on one webpage.
If this mail reaches Sjef, I want to give you my deepest regards for your work.
I have downloaded and stored all the Bulletins on my computer - including all the pdf files, to facilitate my own use. Thanks for giving me this possibility.
However, I need to re-organize my paper document archive in the house, and save space, and make it easier. I appreciate reading old DEMS material, but it struck me, when I checked old Bulletins, that DEMS or other collectors might appreciate even more to have or study this material.
If that would be the case, I would be prepared to pack the paper bulletins and send them in a package to the receiver. The least I can do for Benny and Sjef is to pay for the freight. So it is a "free of charge"-offer.
I have available ALL paper copies of the DEMS Bulletin that Benny Aaslund, and later Sjef Hoefsmit, sent to me from 1979 to 2000. I have saved all this mail and nothing is lost. I have also saved Bulletins 2001/1, 2002/2, 2003/1-3. The quality is first class - almost as sent by Benny and Sjef.
Benny - and I assume also Sjef - did sometimes attach additional material in the mail. An example is Bulletin 1979/1 where I got and have saved all 33 A4-pages. The pdf-version on the web-page http://www.depanorama.net/dems/ contains the first two pages only.
My point is that I have saved some more pages than sometimes are included in the pdf-files.
Many are rightly very interested to use electronic means and web-pages. DEMS has certainly adopted these methods. There might still be collectors who would appreciate to have the original version.
Please, give me some advice on this matter.
A second solution for me would be to ask Duke Ellington Society of Sweden the same question - but I prefer to ask DEMS first.
With kindest regards,
Goran Axelsson
Ekvagen 5
SE-187 41 TABY
goran.fe.axelsson@telia.com
tel +46 8 768 7834 (res)
mobile: +46 70 868 7834

Dear Goran,

Your mail has indeed reached Sjef. Thank you very much for your nice compliments. I am also very happy that you mentioned Benny’s name. It is so much easier to continue a good work than to invent and start it.
I will put your letter in the next DEMS Bulletin. Since the Bulletins are “on line”, there are many more readers than in the old days. It is very possible that one or more of these “new” readers will be interested to have the hard copy Bulletins.
Sjef has never attached additional material to the Bulletins. Benny did so several times. For instance with the 10th Anniversary issue 1989/1. However I have from the first Bulletin only the first two pages. That’s why you find only these as PDF files. Bjørn Andresen used my copies of the Bulletins for his terrific work to scan them all. I guess that the supplementary pages of the first Bulletin contained only pictures.
Thank you very much for your generous offer. Mailing all old Bulletins will be very expensive!
Sjef Hoefsmit


John Steiner - "Frankie And Johnny"  labels

DEMS 09/1-28

See DEMS 08/3-17 and 08/2-24

I possibly can add a few elements to the mystery, somebody hopefully will be able to elucidate. In my collection I also have such a 78rpm disc with this 25mar45 recording and the labels are again different: a kind of mix from what we find in DEMS 08/3. They show (see copies attached) "Merry Christmas 1946", spell Frankie & Johnny correctly and print UP 501 + UP 502 directly on the label (UP 501B and UP 502B are also engraved in the wax).
Side 1 starts with the very end of the int8BAND (let's say: %int1BAND), continuing with 1°10DE etc and runs for approx 3:43. Side 2 has Metronome All Out and runs for 3:39.
You may have noted that the original description of Frankie and Johnny (as 313bb on page XXXVIII in the OLD Desor Volume 6) had no intro by the band; this intro however is mentioned for 4509ae in the NEW DESOR page 873. Both refer to SD Xmas-1946 as very first release.
Jean Portier





Jig Walk

DEMS 09/1-29

See DEMS 05/1-42

I was re-reading Roger Boyes' wonderful analysis of Jig Walk recently (DEMS 05/1-42). It was both informative and entertaining at the same time, involving several musical items and people followed over an extended period of time. He masterfully wove several themes and sub themes together as intricately as a Bach fugue. I enjoyed it thoroughly. As an added benefit for me the references to 4.30 Blues, and to The Last Time I Saw Chicago (from a 1941 session involving Pee Wee Russell) took me back again to those pieces to listen with new respect. I wonder if you could pass on my appreciation to Roger.
If he hasn't checked YouTube recently he may be interested to know that there have been a couple of versions of Jig Walk from the mid 20s added recently (directed by Sam Lanin, apparently featuring Miff Mole, Red Nichols and Joe Venuti; and another directed by Bert Firman). A web search pulls up others--Earl Oliver from the mid 20s with a vocal, and a contemporary version by Tim Harding's Cotton Club Orchestra with tubular bells modeled on Ellington's 1940 version.
Don Francis

Thank you, Don, you are very kind. I wonder also if Duke plays a snatch of Jig Walk (DEMS 05/1-42), on the short Institut National’s St-Sulpice rehearsal to which Georges Debroe draws our attention in this issue of the Bulletin. Most unlikely, I am sure, but it would be wonderful if he did.

Roger Boyes

Sorry he didn’t play it.
DEMS


Message from Sturgis

DEMS 09/1-30

See DEMS 08/2-5

On Friday evening, October 9, 2009 we are having the Duke Ellington Memorial Orchestra perform at the Sturgis-Young Auditorium. This will be the 35th anniversary of the Dukes final performance which was here is Sturgis MI. (Tickets will be on sale in the near future.)
The Historical Marker which your organization so generously contributed to is scheduled to be unveiled then and I will be saying a few words before or at least at sometime during the performance that evening. We even hope to have TV coverage for part of the event! Would someone from your organization be willing to contact me and to appear at the performance that evening and say a few words, please?  Just a few minutes of information from someone representing your Society would be greatly appreciated.
Linda Winkens**
President of the Sturgis, Michigan Historical Society
P.O.Box 392, 200 W. Main Street
Sturgis, MI 49091
USA

I know someone who would have loved to appear in Sturgis at the ceremony. That’s my late friend Gordon Ewing. He was terribly upset when he saw the plaque at the Northern Illinois University at De Kalb, claiming that Duke’s last performance took place there on 20Mar74. It was at Sturgis as we all know now. The plaque belongs in Sturgis. Can one of his friends in Chicago replace him?
Sjef Hoefsmit


More Good News

DEMS 09/1-31

From a reply to Geff Ratcheson:
We are looking to do the 30s big band Columbia owned material sometime either late this year or next year.
For Mosaic, Scott Wenzel


Art Pilkington’s Tapes

DEMS 09/1-32

See DEMS 07/3-26

I was made aware recently of your announcement in the 07 Ellington newsletter in which you mentioned that I have some tapes of my dads. Although I no longer have the tapes (they were given to York University for their Jazz collection), I noticed that my email and telephone number were incorrectly listed. Maybe that's why I never received any replies. For your information, the telephone (in Canada) is 905 846-3723 and the email is dpilkington@sympatico.ca .
Although I do not wish to part with them, I have his original research binder with the Ellington itinerary, etc if anyone wants to borrow.
Ted Pilkington


Paris Blues

DEMS 09/1-33

No other set of recordings has given so much headache as the recordings made for the film Paris Blues. For many years a tape from the Jerry Valburn collection has been waiting to be documented. Giovanni and Luciano have been working on it recently, and this has resulted in the session of 14Dec60 in Paris, DESOR 9076 on Correction-sheet 1093 and the session of Dec60, interview for French radio, DESOR 9077 on Correction-sheet 1092. Several selections on this tape were without Ellington at the piano, and consequently they were not included in the New DESOR. A more complete (but not necessarily correct) survey can be found in the 5th edition of Ellingtonia by Willie Timner on page 223 and in Klaus Stratemann’s book starting on page 429. The preliminary research results from Jerry Valburn were very helpful.
The date of the interview for the French radio can be determined with more precision. We know from Jet Magazine of 8Dec60 that Duke left on the same date (8Dec) for Paris. In the interview for French radio he states that he arrived exactly two weeks previously. This pinpoints the probable date of the interview to around 23Dec60.
DEMS


New York, New York in Toronto

DEMS 09/1-34

The article "The Duke: At 73, A Few Changes, But Undiminished Enthusiasm", was written by Tom Buckley, New York Times News Service. It appeared in The Fresno Bee, 24 Sept 1972, but the original article was published in the NYT of 3 July, 1972:

Duke: His Creative Impulse -- All That Jazz -- Throbs On
By Tom Buckley, 3Jul72, Monday, Page 19, 2003 words:
This is taken from the article:

“Duke Ellington sat cater-cornered on a folded plaid blanket on the piano bench. ‘Lemme hear it now,’ he said. With his left hand he cued the brass section for the biting attack he wanted on the rift theme of New York, New York.”

And here is the puzzle:
The discographies have 2Aug72 as the first recording session with New York, New York. The article was printed in NYT one month earlier and thus this session must have been in June. The only candidate here is the one on 22Jun72 in Toronto where Tyree Glenn was (not?) present, because the author refers to a conversation between Duke and Tyree:

"After a few measures The Duke signaled a halt. ‘Ooh, no, no, no,’ he said.
‘You want the same B-flat as in the first bar?’ asked Tyree Glenn, the lead trombonist. ‘Bah, bah, beyow?’ The Duke shook his head.
‘What do you want?’ asked Tyree Glenn, a large pudding of a man with a graying goatee.
‘I want it together, mainly,’ The Duke replied with a laugh. ‘Play it with a drawl and an accent.’ He illustrated his conception by bending the word ‘drawl’ with a full Southern intonation and tightening his mouth around ‘accent’ so that it came out pure Mayfair.
‘Tyree, keep it that way,’ he said after the band had played the figure again.
‘I don´t know what I did,’ the trombonist replied, and the 15 musicians in the recording studio in Toronto last week laughed appreciatively.
‘C´mon, let´s roll it,’ The Duke said. Behind the glass partition the sound engineer adjusted his dial and switches and started the tape spinning. etc., etc.”

According to Timner, Tyree Glenn was not present at the recording session on 22 June, but present at the concert the following day.
Some of the material from that session was released on Laser Light, but two numbers were unissued: Alone Together and Unidentified Title.
Conclusion: Very first known recording of New York, New York aka Unidentified Title, which is not unidentified any longer, plus Tyree Glenn added on the recording session on 22Jun72.
Arne Neegaard

Let us first look at the session of 22Jun72. Your information found in Timner must come from his 4th edition. It did not appear in his 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition, neither did it appear in the old Desor. In the 5th edition you find a more accurate listing. The fact that New York, New York and two unidentified titles are in the 5th edition added to that 22Jun72 session has to do with the listing, accompanying the “donation” by Mercer Ellington to the Danish Radio. On that listing this session, dated on 7Jul72, had three additional selections: New York, New York; Original by Tyree Glenn  and Original by Russell Procope. These three selections have never been located in the Danish collection. In the meantime we know that there were only 2 trombonists (and six reeds) in the session of 22Jun72 and that Arnie Chycoski, trumpet player, replaced Mercer Ellington. This was unveiled by Ted O’Reilly on the Jul05 IAJRC in Copenhagen. Ted attended the recording session on 22Jun72. Arnie Chycoski died recently on 10Sep08. On 22Jun96 Ron Collier told us in Toronto that Vancouver Lights was not issued on the Laserlight CD, but that the recording, selected for the CD, was titled Relaxing which is also a composition from his hand.
What about New York, New York? The article by Tom Buckley gives us the information that there must have been a recording session with the participation of Tyree Glenn, in which this selection was recorded. I discovered that the three selections (New York, New York; Original by Tyree Glenn and Original by Russell Procope) as mentioned on Mercer’s list were recorded on 27Jun72. I base my conclusion on another part in Tom Buckley’s report in which he stated:

“At 11:30 P.M. the Duke left the recording studio. From there he went to a nightclub to hear a singer he was thinking of engaging for a one week date he was booked to play at the Playboy Club Hotel in Great Gorge, N.J., that began Friday night. He was greeted at the nightclub by the singer, Aura Rully, who came to Canada from her native Rumania three years ago. She is a striking young woman, with long, dark hair and small, feline features. The Duke ceremoniously greeted her with four kisses, two on each cheek, took his place at a ringside table and ate a steak, and drank tea while listening to her perform. He decided that she would do, and they discussed terms and conditions in whispers when she had finished her set. At 2 A.M. the Duke was back in his hotel room, talking with Ron Collier, who would do the arrangements that Miss Rully required. ‘It is not a big sound,’ said the arranger, speaking of Miss Rully, ‘but a fantastic range. But I don’t know about her reading.’ ‘Well, if she isn’t a good reader, she has to have a quick ear to do all those Ella Fitzgerald things,’ said the Duke. ‘It works out about the same.’
At 5 o’clock the next afternoon, which was Wednesday, the Duke, naked except for a chartreuse chiffon around his head to protect it from air-conditioning drafts, got out of bed in his hotel suite. He would be leaving in another hour to play a dance in West Lorne, Ontario, 150 miles to the west.”

Duke’s Itinerary confirms the events. See Ken Vail p418:
Tuesday 27Jun72, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra record for the stockpile at the Thundersound Studio in Toronto.
Wednesday 28Jun72, DE & HO play a concert at the West Elgin Community Center in West Lorne,  Ontario.
Friday 30Jun72, DE & HO open a one-week engagement at the Playboy Club at Great Gorge in McAfee, New Jersey. Vocalist Aura Rully from Toronto appears with the band for this engagement.
There is only one conclusion possible. The date of the New York, New York recording was 27Jun72. As long as we do not include sessions in our discographies from which no recording has survived, this session is out, but it might eventually be included if we find one or more of the recordings of New York, New York and the Originals by Glenn or Procope.
Thanks to Arne Neegaard for sending me a copy of the NY Times!
Sjef Hoefsmit**