A Salute to Duke

Drummer Jake Hanna was in New York recording with renowned trumpeter Bobby Hackett when he first met Duke Ellington. As the 68-year-old Hanna now remembers it, the year was about 1961, shortly before he took a job with Harry James.

“[Ellington’s regular drummer] Sam Woodyard had just disappeared,” recalled Hanna, who performs Sunday in Irvine in a special tribute to Ellington. “They weren’t happy with the replacement. . . . I went down to the Astor Hotel to see them and the next day, Ellington’s manager came over . . . and said, “Duke wants you.’ So the next night, after the [Hackett] recording session, I went by and helped Duke out, played drums for him. I was on the bus [with the Ellington orchestra] the next day.”

What followed was a whirlwind tour of the mid-Atlantic states, with stops in Buffalo, New York and Annapolis, Md.--until Woodyard resurfaced 10 days later.

Despite his short tenure, Hanna found that punctuality seemed a problem for everyone in the band but Ellington. “I couldn’t believe that nobody showed up on time,” he said. “Sometimes they’d be four hours late on the call. So I started talking to Duke one night at the Naval Academy, and I say, “The way these guys are late and all, I’m surprised the band doesn’t drive you crazy.’ “Oh yes,’ said Duke, “they’re taking me to the nuthouse, all right. But at least I’m the one driving the bus.’ ”

Hanna appears with cornetist Bill Berry’s L.A. Big Band on Sunday evening at producer Kenny Allan’s fourth annual Tribute to Duke Ellington at the Irvine Marriott. Berry also dropped into the Ellington band not long after Hanna’s brief stint--and under similar circumstances. But Berry lasted more than three years with the organization, eventually leading the trumpet section, writing arrangements and taking on one of the band’s more famous solos--his accompaniment to tap-dancer Bunny Briggs’ performance during Ellington’s suite “My People.”

Berry was working at the time in the band of fellow-trumpeter Maynard Ferguson when he was introduced to Ellington one evening at New York’s Apollo theater. On the way out of Ellington’s dressing room, the group’s band manager asked Berry to join up. The trumpeter stayed with Ellington until 1964.

During that time, he accumulated a wealth of stories about Ellington’s method of operation, Johnny Hodges’ culinary habits and what it was like traveling as the band’s only white musician. The way he came by the solo in “My People” is typical of the way the band worked, he said.

“Nothing with Ellington was ever obviously organized,” Berry “said,’though I’m sure he had everything organized in his mind. It just evolved that [drummer] Louie Bellson and Bunny and I took those parts. Duke probably just said, “Play a couple choruses.’ ”

Berry’s close connection to the Ellington organization has earned him a busy schedule of appearances during this Ellington centennial year (Ellington was born April 29, 1899). He appeared on panels discussing Ellington at the International Assn. of Jazz Educators in Anaheim last February and again last month at the Monterey Jazz Festival. He has performed Ellington tributes in Japan, Orlando, Fla., and Stanford University. In Zurich, Switzerland, he conducted four of Ellington’s suites, including “Such Sweet Thunder.” Columbia Records called on Berry to write liner notes for its reissue of “Such Sweet Thunder.”

Berry also has appeared with the Smithsonian Jazz Orchestra under the direction of David Baker, and, in August, he conducted the string section of the San Diego Symphony in an Ellington program.

All the activity has caused Berry, who once said Ellington was “the only guy I ever met that I knew right off the bat was a genius,” to reevaluate his former employer’s role in jazz.

“Especially when I was conducting the suites . . . they just amazed me. I heard things I’d never heard before. I was astounded by the intricacies, the musicality of the work. It brought back how powerful he and [Billy] Strayhorn were as writers.”

Hanna remembers not only the man’s music, but also his dignity.

“I was sitting in [New York’s] Hickory House with [guitarist] Barney Kessel, and Duke came in--which was his habit--to have a steak. And Barney says, “There’s Duke Ellington. I’d really like to meet him.’ And somebody told Duke, and he came over and introduced himself, and Barney was so dumbfounded he couldn’t say anything. That’s the kind of person Ellington was: very gentlemanly.”

* Tribute to Duke Ellington, with Bill Berry’s L.A. Big Band, Irvine Marriott, 18000 Von Karman Ave. 6-10 p.m. Sunday. $25. (949) 553-9449.