Mitch Gonsalves Linkedin Executive Advantage

Some musicians are very closely associated with the name of Duke Ellington because they played in his orchestra for most of their career. Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney are obvious examples, and another is Ray Nance, whose violin lent the orchestra a touch of class. The tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves may only have been with Ellington for a relatively short time, but for the Duke, he and his mammoth solo in "Diminuendo And Crescendo in Blue" at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival were a fresh start after years of stagnation. Despite their close links with the Ellington orchestra, many of its musicians kept forming their own bands and cutting records with them. Paul Gonsalves and Ray Nance went into the studio with their sextet and played with the backing of a mainstream rhythm group and another wind player they knew from the Ellington orchestra…