Blood Count

In early 1967 Billy Strayhorn, who was suffering from esophagael cancer and the effects of radiation treatment, set out to compose a multi-movement work in which one of sections was to be titled "Blue Cloud." Perhaps he realized that due to his failing health, he would most likely not be able to complete this extended work. In February 1967 he sent the score to Duke Ellington to have parts extracted. The work was then retitled Blood Count, evocative of Strayhorn's time spent in a hospital for cancer treatment. Ellington rehearsed this piece while traveling through Italy and then performed it live at a concert in Stuttgart, Germany on March 6, 1967. Ellington further performed it at the Theatre Des Champs Elysees in Paris on March 10, 1967. Upon his return to New York, the ensemble played it live once again at Carnegie Hall in New York on March 26, 1967, this concert was immortalized as part of the multi-disc set "The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World." Billy Strayhorn died on May 31, 1967. The Duke Ellington Orchestra would visit this arrangement just two more times: at a concert in Los Angeles on June 23, 1967 and then for the famous studio-recorded tribute to Strayhorn "...And His Mother Called Him Bill." This publication was derived from a sketch score, a lead sheet, an incomplete full score that may or may not be in Strayhorn's hand, and the original parts with the names of the Ellington musicians in the top left corner of each title page. Corrections had been marked by the players in some cases.