[2] The show was held on 7 November 1940 at the Crystal Ballroom on the second floor of the Fargo City Auditorium at the corner of First Avenue South and Broadway.

[3] The Crystal Ballroom featured a glass ball two feet in diameter hanging from the ceiling that reflected the dancehall's lights.

In addition to Ellington himself, notable soloists included Ben Webster, Jimmy Blanton, Johnny Hodges, Rex Stewart, and Tricky Sam Nanton.

[8] Burris and Towers had promised the William Morris Agency not to use the live recording for commercial purposes and it was heard only from the original disks until the 1960s.

[2] Towers was in charge of radio broadcasting at the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1952 to 1974 but remastering recordings remained a hobby and became a career after his retirement.

[2] The original acetate disks have since been donated to the Archives Center of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

On 3 April 2001, another CD release with additional tracks was made on Storyville as The Duke at Fargo, 1940: Special 60th Anniversary Edition.

[9] JazzTimes writer Harvey Siders says, "the real star, of course, is the band, with its organized chaos, its sophistication, its jungle heat, its ability to respond to the improvisational genius of Duke".