1944 Duke Ellington Manuscript with Letter
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GUEST:
My mother gave it to me. She told me that my grandmother had bought it as an item in a war bonds, World War II war bonds auction at my mother's high school.
APPRAISER:
It's a Duke Ellington manuscript, in his hand. And he's actually signed it here in the top right corner, which is great. Duke Ellington's probably one of the kings of big-band jazz. His band, probably most famous for "Take the A Train."
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
I think he's probably one of the most beloved figures in popular jazz.
GUEST:
He was a big personality.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, he was a huge personality. And I think the other thing that really secures his legacy is the fact that he had such a long and prolific career.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
These do come up. We see Duke Ellington manuscripts come up from time to time. He was obviously a very prolific orchestrator, composer. When they do come up, they bring fairly consistent numbers. What's interesting about yours is the letter,
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
which, I don't think I've ever seen another letter quite like this.
GUEST:
Oh, really?
APPRAISER:
And it's really awesome, because it gives us a date. So we know it's February 10, 1944. The secretary here is basically saying, "He's traveling right now, so he couldn't write this letter personally, but we wanted you to have this for your auction."
GUEST:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
You even had the original auction catalogue.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
That we were able to see where it was listed, so it's, the provenance on this is just extraordinary. One of the things that really drives the price on these is, "What is the song?"
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
If I was standing here talking to you about "The A Train”…
GUEST:
Right, oh, sure.
APPRAISER:
…We might be talking about a completely different thing.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
"Camp Grant Chant," not a tune that everyone really knows when you say the name. I did a little bit of research. That's actually, like, an also-known title for another song called "Fickle Fling."
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Which isn't, again, a tremendously well-known tune. The tune was released on six or seven different albums. He played it in the '40s. And I actually had a chance to listen to it before I came out to talk to you.
GUEST:
Oh, great.
APPRAISER:
It is a classic, wartime, mid-'40s swing.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
There's not a lot of laying out, the solos don't go on like a lot of his later stuff.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
But it's just a really great camp tune. We think possibly he may have actually gone to Camp Grant, which is a military base near Rockford, Illinois.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
He may have actually composed this as a quick little ditty to play for the troops there. We don't know, we can't confirm it.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
But then he did pick up playing it under a different title at a later time, like 1946, 1947. The other interesting thing about this, I think, is, I found conflicting records as to who the composer was on this tune.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Some sources list Billy Strayhorn. Well, nearly 30 years of composing together, that he was one of the co-authors of the tune.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Other places only list Duke Ellington. That's not necessarily that definitive, because it is kind of well-known that there was a little bit of give-and-take as to what Strayhorn got credit for, working with Ellington.
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
A lot of people say he didn't get credit for some of the stuff he did. Not that Ellington was trying to take advantage or anything.
GUEST:
Sure.
APPRAISER:
But I'm sure when you're sitting down, playing tunes all day, composing...
GUEST:
It gets mixed together, I'm sure.
APPRAISER:
Absolutely. When these come up, for, per-page, they usually sell around $1,000 to $1,500 per page.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
I think because he signed it, and because we have this letter, I think you're looking at more like a $3,000 price at auction for this.
GUEST:
Wow. I never would have guessed that. I'm definitely going to have to put it in a frame and hang it in the living room.
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