The Sunday Special: Remembering Stanley Dance

Duke Ellington’s confidante took a young writer under his expansive wings

I didn’t appreciate Stanley Dance while he was with us — had no idea of just how long a shadow he cast.

In fact, until I found his grave marker at Mission San Luis Rey de Francia cemetery, I didn’t know that he and I shared both a birthday and our Catholic faith.

All I knew at first was that Jeannie Cheatham introduced us, and said I should ask Stanley for advice on writing about jazz.

When I found out that Stanley had written books about Duke Ellington and Count Basie, that did impress me. Over time, I came to realize that he’d actually been close friends with Duke Ellington (even helping Duke write his memoir), that he knew most of the men who’d been in Basie’s band over the years.

Still, when Jeannie and her husband, Jimmy, parlayed their Sunday night jam sessions into a recording contract with Concord, I was a bit put out when they asked Stanley to write the liner notes instead of me!