Django's U.S. Tour 1946 Info wanted...

Teddy Dupont

Jazzaferri wrote:

... i wonder if it's the same ciggy

Definitely!! Those shots were taken only seconds apart. Unfortunately, I have never been able to find a full crop or decent quality copy of the second one.

Here is a copy of the actual photo that Django used to carry around with him. It was taken in a hotel room in NY in 1946 with Sonia Dimitrivitch and he is playing the same Gibson guitar he used throughout the American tour:-

Barengero

Hi Teddy,

can you tell me if the woman on the picture is the singer Sonia Dimitr(i)evitch who recorded an LP with violinist Yoska Nemeth around 1958?

Do you have more informations about her?

Best regrads,

Barengero

Jazzaferri

Teddy

I am curious to know where you found all those neat photo's..

Teddy Dupont

Barengero wrote:

...can you tell me if the woman on the picture is the singer Sonia Dimitr(i)evitch who recorded an LP with violinist Yoska Nemeth around 1958?

Do you have more informations about her?

I think it is almost certainly the same person. Sonia Dimitrivitch/Dimitrievitch/Dimitrievich (not sure of the exact spelling) was a gypsy singer and is mentioned in Theodore Bikel's autobiography but I don't know much about her.

Jazzaferri wrote:

I am curious to know where you found all those neat photo's..

I've been collecting Django photos for many years. I have in the order of 500, some of which are very rare and some that have never been published before. I have been trying to get a book dedicated to photos of Django published for some time now.

Jazzaferri

Put my name on one.... and let me know where to send the money when you have em.

spatzo

Here's Duke Ellington Itinerary from October to December 1946:

October 1946
Date Location Venue Type Verification
1
2
3 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
4 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
5 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
6 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
7 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
8 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
9 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
10 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
11 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
12 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
13 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
14 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
15 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
16 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
17 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
18 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
19 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
20 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
21 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
22 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
23 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
24 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
25 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
26 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
27 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
28 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
29 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C Django's arrival in NYC
30 New York, NY Aquarium Restaurant C
31 Atlantic City, NJ

REMARKS
23- New York, NY Recording session for "Musicraft"

November 1946
Date Location Venue Type Verification
1 Harrisburg, PA D
2
3 Buffalo, NY Memorial Auditorium C
4 Cleveland, OH Music Hall C (Plain Dealer's Article[ Django's first show?])
5 Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Auditorium Gardens
6 Toronto, Canada Mutual Arena
7 Toledo, OH Auditorium
8 Cincinnati, OH
9 Indianapolis, IN Murat Th. T Billboard 23 Nov 46,p 43
10 Chicago, IL Civic Opera House C Variety 20 Nov 46,p 58
11
12 Rochester, MN Auditorium
13 Minneapolis, MN Variety 8 Oct 45,p 65
14 Des Moines, IA Kant Auditorium Billboard 30 Nov 46,p 36
15 Lincoln, NB
16 Omaha, NB Auditorium
17 Kansas City, MO Municipal Auditorium
18 Kansas City, MO
19 Cedar Rapids, IA
20 Cedar Rapids, IA
21
22
23 New York, NY Carnegie Hall C Down Beat 16 Dec 46,p 2
24 New York, NY Carnegie Hall C Down Beat 16 Dec 46,p 2
25 New York, NY WOR Studios Recording session for "Musicraft"
26 Baltimore, MD
27 Lynchburg, VA
28 Petersburg, VA
29 Philadelphia, PA Academy Of Music C
30 Syracuse, NY C

REMARKS:

December 1946
Date Location Venue Type Verification
1 Boston, MA
2 Cranston, RI Rhodes-On-The-Pawtuxet
3
4
5 New York, NY Recording session for "Musicraft"
6
7 Detroit, MI Masonic Temple Auditorium C Billboard 21 Dec 46,p 14

This last date should be Django's last concert with Duke Ellington

Please note:
"The Duke Ellington Itinerary"
This itinerary is a work in progress. Partly based on original research
conducted by Joe Igo and others. Updates supplied by Steve Lasker, Ken
Steiner and others.
Additions & corrections should be sent to <!-- e --><a href="mailto:dooji@swipnet.se">dooji@swipnet.se</a><!-- e -->
This page was posted on October 1, 2005.

spatzo

Just an add on the Lincoln show - Lincoln had six big ballrooms and one was operated by Will Wittig: the "PLA-MOR" (the last one that is still on today). After Duke Ellington passage, Wittig declared that he will no more book big names for concerts as he only grossed $3.700 when Duke played there.

Another operator of the same area that booked Duke for the Kansas City concerts said that DUke played twice grossing $3.800 for a concert (with Django) but he added that he grossed $5.600 the following day for dance with the same orchestra (probably without Django).

The lack of radio promotion was one of the reasons why the concerts were not crowed, in the same area (Des Moines) the Tommy DOrsey Orchestra netted $9.500 with a good pre-advertising throught radios and newspapers.

In Des Moines Duke played at the Kent Radio Theater on Friday 15 October 1946 grossing $3.160 for 1.571 people: lack of radio promotion. Usually the gross in that place was more than $6.000.

The promoters also indicated that the youngsters attracted by big names bands didn't really like to
"sit throught two straight hours of listening... even for theirr favorite orks" but the general economic situation was also pointed out.

"Kids won't sit, want to terp" (terp=substitute for any action) said the operators trying to understand the flop those concerts revealed.

The problem was not Django Reinhardt but a change in the behavior of listeners. SO probably Django had not played in all the DUke Ellington concerts because they also had to play for dance...

The Midwest operators Johnny Antonello and Will Wittig booked Duke for:

- Des Moines Oct 14 IA KANT AUDITORIUM or
- Des Moines Oct 15 Kent Radio Theater (Billboard magazine)
- Lincoln Oct 15 Pla-Mor (booked by Wittig)
- Omaha Oct 16 AUDITORIUM
- Kansas CIty Oct 17 MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM
- Kansas City Oct 18 Race Dance at KC MUNY AUDITORIUM

That's all for now, but I find those news pretty interesting on Django and the States...

It looks like the flop wasn't Django's one nor Ellington's one but a change in mentalities among many organisation problems (no radio or newspaper advertising).

Barengero

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Teddy Dupont wrote:

Barengero wrote:

...can you tell me if the woman on the picture is the singer Sonia Dimitr(i)evitch who recorded an LP with violinist Yoska Nemeth around 1958?

Do you have more informations about her?

I think it is almost certainly the same person. Sonia Dimitrivitch/Dimitrievitch/Dimitrievich (not sure of the exact spelling) was a gypsy singer and is mentioned in Theodore Bikel's autobiography but I don't know much about her.

This is a picture from the cover of that record.

JazzDawg

Ok, here are some references to Django and the U.S. tour that I've been meaning to share...

The Time magazine article, Nov. 18, 1946 appears here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777312,00.html

References from 2 books on Duke Ellington where Django gets mentioned, not a lot of details, just some nice quotes and info about him.

Comments about Django, and just band mates talking about him, gives insights to Django while on tour.

Reminiscing in Tempo, Stuart Nicholson, 1999, pp 266-269 Northern University Press, Boston, ISBN 1-55553-380-9

Just the quote from Rex Stewart, I mistakenly attributed to Duke Ellington.

The Duke Ellington Reader, Mark Tuker (editor), 1993, p.471, Oxford University Press, NY,ISBN 0-19-505410-5

Rex Stewart:

In my opinion, out of the ten great guitarists in the world, Django is five of them!

Teddy Dupont

From the perspective of America's view of Django Reinhardt, this is an interesting comment from a very brief review of the Hot Club Quintet's "Honeysuckle Rose" that appeared in an August 1938 edition of Time magazine:-

HONEYSUCKLE ROSE (Quintet of the Hot Club of France; Decca). Django Reinhardt's rhythmic and inventive guitar sounds as though it were played on the banks of the Mississippi, rather than the Seine.