Although the New Desor discography says all the studio sessions from September 20, 1937 to February 15, 1940 were ARC-Brunswick sessions, these pages show the sessions with matrices starting with the letters M or WM as ARC-Brunswick (Master) sessions.

In Duke Ellington: A Listener's Guide, page 69, Eddie Lambert writes

"In late 1936 Ellington began to record for Irving Mills's Master label and introduced an new aspect of his recording policy by also instituting a series of recordings by contingents from the band on Mills's cheaper Variety label...Although this recording contract lasted until February 1940, the records came out on a number of labels, a fact explained by changes in the ownership of the company. In the spring of 1937, Mills was bought out by ARC...and from the summer of that year, the Mills labels were phased out and the Ellington band started to appear on ARC's main Brunswick label, the contingent recordings coming out on Vocalion."

In his comprehensive book/discography accompanying the 11 CD Mosaic release The Complete 1932-1940 Brunswick, Columbia, and Master Recordings of Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra, Steven Lasker says Mills' first Master Records, Inc. recordings were made in Hollywood in December 1936 and his label didn't thrive because he didn't have European distributors. He then "affiliated" with ARC who would press and distribute his product in the US. He wrote:

"Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra would record on a new 75-cent label, Master Records, while records made by small groups drawn from the band would be released on the 35-cent Variety label. Mills' other artists would also record for the two labels. The experiment didn't survive 1937, however, due in large part to Mills' failure to find European distribution for the new company's product. When the labels were discontinued, Master's artists and catalog were transferred to Brunswick, while Variety's artists and catalog were transferred to Vocalion."

He then tells us Ellington signed a 1 year ARC contract, with a 2 year renewal option, on Feb 16, 1938 that would expire on Feb 16 1940.

Since Ellington's contract with Master was to continue until 1940, and may have been replaced with the ARC contract signed in 1938, I decided to describe these sessions as "ARC-Brunswick (Master) session." I will leave it to serious collectors and researchers to work it out for themselves.

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Mr. Lasker shows the following sessions at ARC's studio at 1776 Broadway:

1937-09-20, 1938-01-13, 1938-02-02, 1938-02-24/25, 1938-03-03, 1938-04-11, 1938-06-07, 1938-06-20, 1938-08-04, 1938-08-09, 1938-09-02

He shows these sessions as being either at ARC (1776 Broadway) or Master (1780 Broadway)

1938-12-19, 1938-12-22

The first time Ellington met the Lunceford band in a battle of music, Lunceford led off with a string of Ellington compositions, plus their score of Rose Room, a feature for Willie Smith on clarinet which was clearly based on the recorded Ellington arrangement. When the Ellington band's turn to play came the leader persisted in calling slow, quiet numbers which made little impact on the audience. The band became increasingly angry at this policy and its effect until Cootie Williams shouted "For crying out loud, play something!" whereupon Duke turned his musicians loose - their blood well up - on St. Louis Blues and Tiger Rag. That was the end of the Lunceford challenge for that night."