My family has a small connection to jazz royalty. Specifically, my father’s cousin, Freddy Stone, toured with Duke Ellington’s band in 1970 & ’71. How cool is that? My father talks about his cousin, Freddy, now and again but thank you to my sister for reminding me of these videos. She in turn got them from her friend, Bob Wiseman. Fred Stone was also a music teacher and an inspiration to Bob Wiseman. This is a fantastic video of him playing with the Duke; he’s the only white guy in the band. He’s also a little bit “out there” which is pretty humorous and after the performance, Duke Ellington exclaims “we don’t know what he’s doing, but he sure does it well.” From the CBC archives: