Living Ellington

I liberated the video above from a posting on Facebook, copying and pasting it here. It is a brief extract of an interview with Duke Ellington taken from an edition of the BBC's arts programme Omnibus. 

Pausing only to wonder what other Ducal treasures lie unseen for many a long year within the BBC's archive (the hyperlink above gives some indication), we can say that Ellington's interlocutor on this occasion was Stanley Dance, often referred to as Ellington's Boswell.

Here is a picture of Ellington with Stanley Dance in the critic's garden in England, 1948:

Crate diggers may well recognise the Ellington portion of this photograph from the cover of the UK RCA Victor UK 'red spot' edition of the album In A Mellotone...

The fiftieth anniversary of Duke Ellington's passing in 1974 found me listening to a recording of the broadcast of Duke Ellington's funeral which took place at The Cathedral of St John The Divine, New York City, 27 May 1974.

I had not really noted Stanley Dance's eulogy for Duke before. The full text is collected in Mark Tucker's exemplary The Duke Ellington Reader. It was singularly poignant listening to Dance himself deliver the eulogy. On several occasions, he was on the verge of being overcome with emotion, particularly at those parts of his speech where he reflected on the transcendent aspects of Ellington's career and legacy.

An exceptional speech, it is nothing less than a manifesto for a life lived well, epitomising consummately those principles which informed and underpinned Ellington's music.

Dance said, in part:

"In the truest sense of the phrase, he was a citizen of the world. That is a cliche, perhaps, but how few are those who deserve it as he did. 

 

"...As a musician, He hated categories. He didn’t want to be restricted. And although he mistrusted the word jazz, his definition of it was freedom of expression.

 

"As with musical categories, so with people categorizes.  Categories of class, race,

colour, creed and money, were obnoxious to him.

 

"...His scope constantly widened and right up to the end he remained a creative

force, his imagination stimulated by experience.

 

"He was, in fact, more of an inspiration than an influence.

"And though he made no claims to being a disciplinarian, he ruled his realm with wisdom.

 

"With all, Duke Ellington knew that what some called genius was really the exercise of gifts which stemmed from God. 

 

"And the good news was love of God and his fellow man.

"He proclaimed the message in his sacred concerts, grateful for an opportunity to acknowledge something of which he stood in awe, a power he considered above his own human limitations."

The full text of Stanley Dance's eulogy and other excerpts from the broadcast of the funeral of Duke Ellington may be heard here.