Duke Ellington In Gr?na Lund

For a band that had been on the road for 32 years, the six day engagement at Gröna Lund Tivoli in Stockholm offered Duke Ellington And His Orchestra the rare leisure of staying in the same place for several days.The orchestra played at the outdoor stage at Gröna Lund every evening, but on the 8th of June 1963 they later moved to an indoor restaurant called Dance Inn. Here, the band played in a relaxed setting for dancing. They did 2 long sets that you can hear on this 2 CD set.

“The atmosphere was at a peak level both on the scene and on the dancefloor”, Leif Anderson observed in “Orkester Journalen” – the legendary Swedish jazz magazine.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra at this time featured Swedish trumpeter Rolf “Roffe” Ericson and the audience was in for a treat: a chance to hear a few seldom–heard tunes, and the joy of hearing and feeling the sound of the great orchestra up close and in the moment.