{"id":239,"date":"2012-03-13T22:50:55","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T04:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2012-06-15T19:40:42","modified_gmt":"2012-06-16T01:40:42","slug":"this-week-in-the-war-11-17-march-1940-the-duke-josephine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"This week in the War, 11&#8211;17 March 1940: The Duke &#038; Josephine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?attachment_id=246\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-246\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-246\" title=\"Duke Ellington\" src=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Wellington1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"153\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Wellington1.jpg 153w, https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Wellington1-117x150.jpg 117w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 153px) 100vw, 153px\" \/><\/a>This week in the war, on 15 March 1940 in Chicago, American jazz composer and pianist, Duke Ellington, recorded <em>Concerto for Cootie<\/em>, which he dedicated to his trumpet soloist Charles &#8216;Cootie&#8217; Williams. Ellington and his band were at the height of\u00a0their creativity with recordings such as <em>Jack the Bear<\/em>, <em>Cotton Tail<\/em>, and <em>Ko Ko<\/em>. Many consider <em>Concerto for Cootie<\/em>\u00a0to be a landmark in jazz history and one of Ellington&#8217;s greatest compositions. Trumpeter Cootie Williams left to join Benny Goodman&#8217;s orchestra, and <em>Concerto for Cootie<\/em> turned into <em>Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me<\/em>, with lyrics added by Bob Russell. The song continued to be popular and was performed by many of the greats: Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Andy Williams.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?attachment_id=274\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-274\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-274\" title=\"Josephine Baker\" src=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Wbaker.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"142\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Wbaker.jpg 142w, https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Wbaker-133x150.jpg 133w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 142px) 100vw, 142px\" \/><\/a>While Ellington was recording in Chicago, another great American-born jazz artist was living and\u00a0performing in France: the singer-dancer and <em>Folies-Bergere<\/em> star, Josephine Baker, was entertaining French troops stationed on the Maginot Line. During the Christmas of the &#8216;Phoney War&#8217;, she had taken her act to the American Hospital in Paris. Before that, when France had entered the war in early September 1939, she\u00a0had been\u00a0recruited by the <em>Deuxieme Bureau<\/em> (French Military Intelligence) and spied for the Allies throughout World War II. She lived at the spectacular <a title=\"Chateau des Milandes\" href=\"http:\/\/milandes.com\/\">Chateau des Milandes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She had at least two reasons to fight the Nazis and their racist laws: she was black and her husband was Jewish. At the end of hostilities,\u00a0the grateful French\u00a0awarded her the <em>Croix de Guerre<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week in the war, on 15 March 1940 in Chicago, American jazz composer and pianist, Duke Ellington, recorded Concerto for Cootie, which he dedicated to his trumpet soloist Charles &#8216;Cootie&#8217; Williams. Ellington and his band were at the height &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=239\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,20,21,23],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-war-ii","tag-cootie-williams","tag-deuxieme-bureau","tag-duke-ellington","tag-josephine-baker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1290,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/1290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}