Live: November 2024

 It is advisable to book any event listed here in advance when possible and check with the promoter/ organiser to ensure any performance is going ahead as planned before travelling.

Saturday, 9 November, 2024 19:30 (GMT)

The Music of Duke Ellington 

Harmony In Harlem, dir. Michael Kilpatrick

40-43 St Andrew's St, Cambridge, Cambs CB2 3AR Tel: 01223 506343

Harmony In Harlem return to St Andrew's Street Baptist Church in Cambridge, for a fresh performance of our vibrant foot-tapping swing, exotica and jazz from the great composers Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. On this occasion we are reviving some of up-tempo repertoire all the way from the mid-1930s through to the mid-1960s for an invigorating show. We are pleased to be included as a Fringe Event within the Cambridge Jazz Festival. Doors open at 7:00pm.

Details here.

Saturday, 16 November 2024 20:30 (CET)

La Légende de Duke Ellington: Du Cotton Club À Newport

Duke Orchestra, dir. Laurent Mignard

Théâtre de la Garenne, 22 Av. de Verdun 1916, 92250 La Garenne-Colombes, France

Two great orchestras brought together on the same stage (Nicolas Montier's Jazz Circus and Laurent Mignard's Duke Orchestra) bring us back to life the odyssey of the most brilliant jazz composer and orchestrator of all time.

From the Cotton Club in the late 1920s to the Newport Festivals in the late 1950s, a breathtaking journey along the paths that led Duke Ellington to the height of fame and glory.

An exceptional concert specially designed to celebrate 20 years of Jazz at La Garenne and the 125th anniversary of the birth of Duke Ellington. A new sesame to enter the world of jazz… not to be missed under any circumstances!

Details here

Sunday, 24 November, 2024, 18:00 (GMT)

Kings Place (Hall One), 90 York Way, London N1 9AG

Tomorrow’s Warriors presents Nu Civilisation Orchestra led by Peter Edwards for this special EFG London Jazz Festival performance of Duke Ellington’s New Orleans Suite.

Intensely evocative, New Orlean’s Suite is not just Ellington’s love letter to the city that is regarded as the cradle of jazz, but also an homage to the great musicians that shaped the Crescent City sound and who would go on to have such a huge influence across America and beyond.

These compositions retain the trademark Ellington swing, but he’s added something more. There’s a swagger and grit to the opening track, Blues for New Orleans, with its swirling electric organ riffs and rolls that anchor you in Tremé from the get-go. Equally evocative is the high-energy street parade of Second Line, conjuring images of crowds partying down streets amidst a sea of spinning umbrellas.

But Ellington goes beyond just celebrating the city. He also honours some of the great New Orleans musicians, many of whom were his contemporaries, with a series of portraits for Sidney Bechet (who Ellington recalled hearing in 1921, “the greatest thing I ever heard in my life. It knocked me out.”), Louis Armstrong, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and bassist Wellman Braud.

“Ellington is a unique composer and bandleader. It’s not just the quality of his arrangements, he brings a humanity to his writing that is unlike anyone else. With New Orleans Suite, he is celebrating a city and its great musicians, but there is an added poignancy. At the time of the recording Bechet and Braud were both already dead, and Armstrong and Jackson would pass away within the next two years. Six decades into his own career, Ellington must have been acutely aware that this was the end of a chapter in jazz history, a changing era. You can feel that in the compositions, but he is embracing that change in true Crescent City style, celebrating life and banging the drum for its blessings. Ellington’s music stands alone. It’s tempting to say that there’s Ellington and then the rest is a bag of noise!”

Dr Gary Crosby OBE, Artistic Director, Nu Civilisation Orchestra

Book tickets here