Sunday 13 October 2024 15:00 (BST)
Harmony In Harlem, directed by Michael Kilpatrick
Overture to a Jam Session
St John's Walk, Market Street, Harlow, Essex CM17 0AJ
Tel: 01279 417575
Harmony In Harlem is returning to St John's ARC in October for a second performance of their feature Overture to a Jam Session, a two-part exposition of the genius of Billy Strayhorn. We are also presenting a couple of new songs with Jane Mayo and revisiting some of our older repertoire of up-tempo 1930s/40s swing from the maestro, Duke Ellington.
Tickets may be ordered here or by phoning St John's ARC at the number above. Doors open at 2:30pm.
Monday 14 October 2024, 20:00-21:30 (BST)
North West Duke Ellington Orchestra
Christ The King Parish Club, Score Lane, Childwall, Liverpool L16 6AW
The NW Duke Ellington Orchestra welcomes you to their second concert at Christ The King Parish Club! Directed by Phil Shotton, join us for a night of Duke Ellington's finest music. Get ready to be swept off your feet by the timeless tunes of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, performed by this talented 15 piece big band. Don't miss out on this unforgettable evening filled with jazz, swing, and soulful melodies. Bring your friends and family for an unforgettably fabulous night out!
Tickets here.
Play On
Everyman and Playhouse, Liverpool, 15- 19 October
What does it take for a woman to make it in a man's world?
Meet Vy, a talented songwriter looking to make it big in the 1940's Harlem scene. She quickly learns from her uncle Jester that women will never be taken seriously in a man’s world. But, like many a strong hero, she refuses to accept defeat. Through her gender fluid cunning, she meets club owner The Duke and sensational nightclub singer Lady Liv and is swept up in a syncopated symphony of melodies, mistaken identities and romance. Who will come out on top?
Play On! is set in the jazz scene of New York's Cotton Club. This stylish retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Talawa’s Artistic Director Michael Buffong (A Kind of People, Royal Court; All My Sons, Talawa and Royal Exchange) fuses the thrilling music of Duke Ellington with street dance choreography. Prepare to be wowed by this musical spectacular that will have your toes tapping and hands clapping along with the timeless soundtrack.
A new Jazz musical based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
Conceived by Sheldon Epps and Book by Cheryl L.West
Music by Duke Ellington
Produced by Talawa Theatre Company and The Belgrade Theatre
Co-produced with Birmingham Hippodrome, Bristol Old Vic, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Wiltshire Creative
Artwork by Feast Creative
Details here.
Friday 18 October 2024, 19:30 (BST)
Rebel Yell Jazz Orchestra, The Far East Suite
St Nicholas Church, Church Street, Chiswick, W4 2PJ
The Rebel Yell Jazz Orchestra is returning to St Nicholas Church for a fantastic evening of Jazz.
Rebel Yell Jazz Orchestra will be playing the masters of Big Band, including Francy Boland and featuring Duke Ellington’s legendary Far East Suite. ‘One of the nicest acoustics a band can play in and with the most supportive audiences’.
Apart from pieces from the canon of the Clarke/Boland Big Band, the orchestra will also play the entirety of Duke Ellington’s Impressions of the Far East Suite. It should make for a memorable evening.
St Nicholas’ Church, a treasure by the Thames is an inclusive Anglo-Catholic (CofE) West London church serving the people of Chiswick and beyond. They offer beautiful, traditional worship and spirituality alongside a commitment to the complexity of 21 century life, as well as free children’s activities, silent prayer and outreach projects in the community.
Tickets:
£12 on the door. £7 for under 25s. Friends of St Nicholas Church go free.
Sunday, 10 October 2024 15:00 (EDT)
Ellington Effect Workshop No. 44 with David Berger
Happy Go Lucky Local
About Happy Go Lucky Local
Following in his tradition of train pieces like Choo Choo (1924) and Daybreak Express (1933), Ellington now must follow Strayhorn’s formidable Take The 'A' Train (1941). Happy Go-Lucky Local is the opposite of Daybreak Express. Instead of the overwhelming speed and power threatening everything in its path, this broken-down train rumbles through the sleepy countryside at a soulful easy-going pace bringing a smile to every face and as Jimmy Maxwell used to say, “making you want to wiggle your hands, shake your ass and holler.”
Originally conceived as the fourth and final movement of the Deep South Suite, this is the only part of the suite that was recorded commercially. Ellington’s recording contract with RCA Victor ended in January of 1946, and he wouldn’t return to Columbia until September of 1947. In the nearly 2-year interim, he recorded for a number of small labels as well as V-discs for the armed forces.
The most important of these recordings were made for Musicraft in a 1-month period between November and December, 1946. Musicraft’s catalog was sold over and over to other small labels, so that these important sides appeared in many bargain compilations over the years.
The Musicraft sides document Ellington and Strayhorn’s postwar shift from the dancehall to the concert hall. Aside from a couple of straight forward ballad features for Johnny Hodges and Marylou Williams’ Trumpets No End, the music consists of longer pieces that couldn’t fit on one side of a 78 rpm disc. Jam-a-ditty was the only movement recorded from the Tonal Suite. Strayhorn’s Overture To A Jam Session, Ellington’s The Beautiful Indians, the 1937 Diminuendo In Blue minus its finale (Crescendo In Blue), and Happy Go-Lucky Local. Ellington had experimented more than a few times with pieces spanning more than one side going all the way back to Tiger Rag in 1929.
Happy Go-Lucky Local was planned as a 2-parter. Both parts were recorded on the same day, but Part 2 was recorded first. The entire Deep South Suite had already been rehearsed and performed. The original score for Part 1 had been discarded and replaced with completely different (mostly repetitive vamp) material that was likely dictated at rehearsal. The 5-chord transition/modulation appears at the end of Part 1 and then again at the beginning of Part 2. In live performance, there is not repeat.
The blues theme of Part 2 became a Rhythm and Blues hit several years later under the title of Night Train, credited to Jimmy Forrest. Forrest played tenor sax with Ellington from August, 1949 to January, 1950. Curiously, Ellington never contested the authorship.
Tickets available here.
And from Luca Bragalini...
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