What do you get when you mix a former Major League baseball star turned farmer, with one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, and a Fresno ballroom? It’s a story that’s more than Skin Deep – today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
If jazz had a Mount Rushmore, Duke Ellington would no doubt be on it. But in the early 1950s, the swing era was over. So the Duke’s career wasn’t exactly thriving when he embarked on a nationwide tour. On February 28, 1952 his band rolled into the Central Valley for a show at Fresno’s Rainbow Ballroom. In tow was Louie Bellson, Ellington’s new drummer. Ellington’s band was largely black, and Bellson was white, but the music they made together was beyond category.
After the show, the band went to an after-party at the home of former Detroit Tigers pitcher Dutch Leonard, who was now a wealthy Fresno farmer. At the party, someone played back tapes made earlier that night. Bellson’s drum solo on the song Skin Deep was epic, with two bass drums, but there was a flaw on the recording.
The Duke ordered his band back to the venue the next day, sans audience, to get a new take. The recording was released by Columbia Records on one of Ellington’s first LPs, Ellington Uptown. It was a hit and made Bellson a star, but few people know the famous song was actually recorded in Fresno.
