Duke Ellington

It's too bad Freddie Stone isn't known by more trumpet players and musicians. He was a superb trumpet player and flugelhorn artist. He was also Canadian and was born in Toronto.

In 1970 -71 Freddie was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He was the only non-Afro-American musician in the band. It was acknowledged that he could hold his own with many of the super-stars in that band with his creative soloing. His musical skills were unique and Duke considered him a wonderful asset to the band.   Freddie was not only a great horn player but also an innovative orchestrator. Duke recognised this special talent and even recorded some of Freddie's compositions and arrangements. Something he rarely did for other writers.

The Ellington band was always considered artistically "special".  The parts didn't have first trumpet written on them or lead alto but the parts were written with a specific player in mind. That person's name would be written on the music e.g. Cat, Johnny, Ray, and Paul etc.  This is what made the music of Duke Ellington so exceptional because he knew the scope of each player's ability and he exploited that talent.

When Freddie first joined the band he was taken back by how unorganised it seemed to be. As Freddie recounted to us, the first night with that band and a number was called, he couldn't find a sheet of music for that tune. There wasn't any. Freddie turned to one of the trumpet players and asked, "What do I do?   What do I play?"  He got, "Pick a note." In other words find a harmony note that fits with what we are playing.

Also, when there was music it was incomplete to say the least. Duke had taken sections of the chart and turned it all around.  He expanded the arrangement till it took some sort of compositional shape.  If you had been in the band for years like a lot of them had, you knew what to play but for a newcomer like Freddie this was "flying" blind.

However, Freddie Stone was always an outstanding player and that isn't over stating it. He can be heard on Phil Nimmons 9 plus 6 and other recordings done in Toronto and also those featuring him in the Ellington Band.

Freddie had a lot of stories to tell about those two years touring with Duke.  A concert would begin with just Ellington on piano and then it would expand to a trio or quartet and then get larger as it went along till the entire band was on stage. The audience thought this variety was interesting and entertaining but what they didn't know was that Duke couldn't get the guys to come on time for the start and he finally gave up and came up this solution.

The story goes, that when Duke Ellington first heard Freddie Stone he said, "I haven't a clue what he's doing but he sure does it well."

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