Tuesday 26 September 2023

Homage to Catalonia


 
I recently happened upon a page of the website of Radiotelevisión Española, or RTVE, with the broadcast recordings of Duke Ellington's performances in the Basilica de Santa Maria Del Mar, Barcelona from 1969 and 1973.

Here are the links to the relevant broadcasts...

Sacred Concert 1969 Part One

Sacred Concert 1969 Part Two

Sacred Concert 1973

The relevant page may be found here.

The following descriptions from the website have been put through Google Translate which may explain any peculiarities in the translation.


50 years ago, Duke Ellington shouted 'Liberty' in Barcelona

It is 50 years since Duke Ellington's first concert at the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona. The audience was amazed by the spectacle and surprised by the performance of the song Freedom in the midst of Franco's regime. The musician returned to offer another concert there. place and with the same critical and public success in 1974(sic)

Shocked, the public heard in Santa Maria del Mar, in the historic Born neighborhood of Barcelona, at the concert of Duke Ellington and his orchestra, the interpretation of the song Freedom. It was 1969. The closing of the IV Barcelona International Jazz Festival was being celebrated and one of its featured shows was this concert.

Along with the great Duke Ellington (Washington, 1899) and his great orchestra, their vocalists Alice Babs and Tony Watkins sang, and the Sant Jordi Choir completed the staging with its founder and director Oriol Martorell at the helm. Also among the musicians were a group of jazz fans who two years later would form the legendary band La Locomotora Negra.

The concerto belongs to those of sacred music composed by Ellington. A musician who, to compose, drank from his roots in show business and of course African-American culture, but also from his religious faith.

And this is how the Study in Black program captured it. The TVE teams recorded the event on November 24, 1969 and it was broadcast at Christmas. It was directed by Jose Carlos Garrido and the narrator was Albert Mallofré. The recording is in two parts and bears little resemblance to the familiar themes of those dates on our television.



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