Developments in the world of Florence Mills lore may not happen at the frenetic pace of the modern media but there are plenty of things happening from time to time so I hope to update this page regularly.
The previous editions of news can be seen still at Archive No. 1, No. 2 , No.3 , No.4 , No.5 , No.6 , No.7, No.8 , NO.9, No.10, No.11, No.12 , No.13
Fans of Florence Mills and Duke Ellington will be aware of the great mystery
surrounding finding clear proof that Duke did have Florence in mind when in
1928, shortly after her death, he wrote Black Beauty, and later titled it
" A Portrait of Florence Mills." In my book I presented the powerful
circumstantial evidence that I believe convincingly supports this view.
At the recent Duke
Ellington Conference held at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, noted
musicologist
Marcello
Piras
presented a remarkable session, titled "Black
Beauty, or: How to Paint a Portrait in Sound" in which he used the
technique of Motivic
Analysis to demonstrate that the composition itself contained powerful
evidence that it was related to Florence Mills' own songs and
performances. This is probably as close as we are ever going to get to
producing documentary evidence of the connection. Marcello's presentation was
enthusiastically applauded by the learned audience at the Conference.
Another highlight of the conference for many was the brilliant performance of Ellington's composition "Black, Brown and Beige Suite" by David Berger and a group of talented Amsterdam Conservatory music students, with only four days rehearsal.
A personal highlight for me was
getting to meet Duke Ellington's grand-daughetr , Mercedes Ellington, and his
nephew Stephen James - here I am, with these members of Ellington royalty (note
Florence Mills peeping out from myjacket)
T
That's all for now, folks