Saturday, 23 April, 19:30
SUCH SWEET THUNDER -
THE DUKE MEETS THE BARD
Harmony In Harlem come to St George's Guildhall in King's Lynn for a special performance of Such Sweet Thunder, the Shakespearean suite by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, on St George's Day - Shakespeare's birthday!
Get tickets from the Corn Exchange Box Office for tickets.
St GEORGE'S GUILDHALL
St George's Guildhall is a unique building. Not only is it the largest surviving mediaeval guildhall complex in the country, it is also the oldest theatre. Furthermore, it has the very special claim to be the only extant building that hosted William Shakespeare himself, when the plague forced the company to decamp from London.
ABOUT SUCH SWEET THUNDER
After Duke Ellington was invited to perform with his orchestra at the Stratford (Ontaria) Shakespearean Festival in 1956, for a return invitation in 1957 he and co-composer Billy Strayhorn set about creating a suite dedicated to the Bard. The resulting twelve movement suite, a set of vignetts of Shakespearean characters, became one of the most renowned albums in jazz history. The title of the suite derives from a line in A Midsummer-Night's Dream: I never heard so musical a discord, such sweet thunder
The twelve movements are as set out below, the last representing Shakespeare himself. As Duke put it "the four elements are comedy, romance, tragedy and the writer himself", and by means of a contrivance the four becomes the musical interval of a fourth, and by going through all the keys in a circle of fourths one may arrive back at the original starting point on the circle.
- Such Sweet Thunder [Othello]
- Sonnet for Caesar [Julius Caesar]
- Sonnet to Hank Cinq [Henry V]
- Lady Mac [Lady Macbeth]
- Sonnet in Search of a Moor [Othello]
- The Telecasters” [The Three Witches and Iago]
- Up and Down, Up and Down, I Will Lead Them (Up and Down) [Puck]
- Sonnet for Sister Kate [Katherine]
- The Star-Crossed Lovers [Romeo and Juliet]
- Madness in Great Ones [Hamlet]
- Half The Fun [Cleopatra]
- Circle of Fourths [Shakespeare himself]
Not only does the suite contain masterful descriptions of characters such as Hamlet and the the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, it contains four sonnets whose musical form exactly mirrors the fourteen lines of iambic pentameter of the poetic form. Cleopatra is described in terms of her parade down the river Nile on a golden barge, and Billy Strayhorn's masterpiece Up and Down, describes Puck's adventure in making many different couples fall in and out of love with each other in A Midsummer Night's Dream, represented by a modernistic, polyphonic entanglement of duets from within the orchestra.
Such Sweet Thunder is a challenging suite that Harmony In Harlem performed in 2014 and 2015. Not only that, but Michael Kilpatrick's transcription of the suite has been played by the Royal College of Music, The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. In 2016, for part of the BBC Proms, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland performed Such Sweet Thunder at the Royal Albert Hall.
25, 26, 28, 29 April, 19:00 (EST)- 22:00 (EST)
Ellington 2022
Details here.
April 25
7:00 PM CEST 7:05 PM
8:00 PM CEST 9:00 PM CEST
Moderator : Brigitte Lundin
Welcome to Ellington 2022
Leïla Olivesi
Ellington Medleys
Marcello Piras
Evidence of subtext in Ellington’s music
Jack Chambers
Buried Treasures
April 26
7:00 PM CEST 8:00 PM CEST
9:00 PM CEST
Moderator: Leïla Olivesi
David Berger
Ellington the Arranger: 1930s
Michele Corcella
Beyond the Blues - Duke Ellington’s experimentation techniques in the New Orleans Suite.
Collage
Ellington at the University of Wisconsin July 1972
April 28
7:00 PM CEST 08:00 PM CEST
9:00 PM CEST
Moderator: Marilyn Lester
Invited keynote speaker: Anna Celenza Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein
Pedro Cravinho
The Duke and The Queen - Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald’s rst visit to Portugal revisited
Steven Bowie
Kenny Burrell and Duke Ellington
April 29
7:00 PM CEST 7:30 PM CEST
8:00 PM CEST 9:00 PM CEST
9:20 PM CEST
09:35 PM CEST
Moderator: Ulf Lundin
Isabelle Marquis
Dance to the Duke
Ken Steiner
Rare and unissued recordings from the Steven Lasker Collection
Michael Kilpatrick
Boola
Marilyn Lester
The International Ellington Society - The Time Has Come
Laurent Mignard
Welcome to Ellington Study Group Conference Paris 2023
Ulf Lundin – Summing Up
Leïla Olivesi
Ellington Medleys
Ellington medleys have been famous since Duke Ellington started using this musical form in the ‘30s. This presentation expounds on the way Ellington pleased the audience by playing several of his best-known melodies in a short time while extending his creativity. To this e ect, I will demonstrate how Ellington took advantage of the medleys by saving more time to play new works during the same concert. Through the analysis of di erent versions of Black & Tan Fantasy, I shall explain how one composition could be at the same time, a work in progress and a gem performed within a timeless medley.
Marcello Piras
Evidence Of Subtext In Ellington’s Music
This writer has o en stressed the presence of a descriptive approach in Ellington’s creations (see “Duke and Descriptive Music”, The Duke Ellington Companion. Cambridge Univerfsity Press 2015). Although the composer himself gave clues to some of his musical depictions, and evidence is steadily piling up that he did that even more o en than he admitted, skepticism is still widespread. However, a major aspect of this approach has not yet come under systematic scrutiny—Duke’s use of a subtext consisting of actual words implied in musical quotations. As our presentation shows, this was the very rst technique Duke resorted to. Also, its presence throughout his opus inherently voids any general objection to Ellington’s descriptivism.
Jack ChambersBuried Treasures: Gems Left on the Shelf
In 1933, an English interviewer asked Duke Ellington about his “personal favourite composition. Ellington replied, “The things I’ve liked best I’ve left on the shelf....” . Though more than a thousand of Ellington’s compositions are preserved in well-wrought studio recordings, dozens of others were performed in concerts at least once but never recorded. These “shelved” compositions are less well known, and in some instances forgotten. From these dozens, I have selected ve gems. For a composer less prolifc than Ellington, they might have been considered masterpieces. For him, they were incidental music, but dramatic evidence of his irrepressible muse.
David Berger
Ellington, The arranger: 1930s
The presentation will be focusing on how Duke transforms others’ work into his own through his unique rhythms, melodies, harmony and orchestration. I will illustrate this in discussing four Ellington arrangements of other composer’s work – The Sheik Of Araby, Ebony Rhapsody, Volga Vouty and Java Pachacha.
Michelle Corcella
Duke Ellington’s Experimentation Techniques In The New Orleans Suite
Ellington’s compositional style developed continuously until his death in 1974. The talk, based on Duke Ellington’s manuscripts, is aimed to stress how the New Orleans Suite was a revolutionary work and a milestone in orchestral jazz. The opening track (Blues for New Orleans) is based on the simplest blues chord progression but it’s probably one of the the most experimental tunes of the 20th century for what concerns chromaticism and jazz orchestration. Due to his complex harmonies, Ellington has always been compared to European composers such as Debussy and Stravinsky. However, the presentation will show how Duke stretched tonality to its limits in a completely di erent way: the blues as a source of not-conventional harmonies. In Portrait of Mahalia Jackson. Ellington paid homage to the queen of gospel music transforming the orchestra into a big pipe organ.I will show how Duke reached this goal. Finally, I will talk about the fundamental role of the copyist, the relationship between the manuscripts and the recording, and the problems of interpretation of this repertoire for both college and professional big bands.
Panel
Duke Ellington at the University of Wisconsin July 1972
At the invitation of the University of Wisconsin and its music department, Duke Ellington spent most of the first week of July 1972 there together with some members of his orchestra to give concerts, lectures, and masterclasses. Ellington’s visit will be revisited in a multifaceted multimedia presentation full of memories and music.
Anna CelenzaThe Duke (Ellington), the Maestro (Bernstein), and the Brewer (Schlitz)
On July 2, 1966, Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein met for the rst and only time at the home of Robert Uihlein, chairman and CEO of the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The encounter was captured on video by WTMJ-TV and reveals much about the frictions between classical music and jazz during the Civil Rights Era and the growing in uence of corporate sponsorship on both genres. Using the 28 minutes of footage as a jumping o point, this talk o ers a reassessment of Bernstein’s attitudes towards jazz, a deeper look at Ellington’s attempts to rewrite the narrative of American music history, and Uihlein’s e orts to appropriate the fame of both men as part of a new marketing campaign for Schlitz Blue Ribbon Beer.
Pedro Cravinho
Duke Ellington’s and Ella Fitzgerald’s First Visit To Portugal Revisited
In late-January 1966, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald arrived in Portugal as the rst stop of their European tour. The national press publicised Ellington and Fitzgerald’s arrival enthusiastically, announcing it as the most signi cant jazz-related event ever in the country, and their Lisbon concerts sold out. Even if Duke Ellington’s and Ella Fitzgerald’s concerts are considered milestones among local critics and fans, there is a lack of information about them in Ellington’s historiography Based on archival, bibliographical, and analytical research, the presentation examines the discourses in the national press that surrounded Ellington and Fitzgerald Lisbon’s concerts and expand to Duke Ellington’s last visit to the country in November 1973
Steven BowieKenny Burrell and Duke Ellington
Kenny Burrell is one of the leading advocates for the legacy of Duke Ellington. In 1978, his UCLA class, “Ellingtonia,” became the rst full time course in the United States devoted to Duke Ellington. It is still part of the curriculum today. The presentation will cover Kenny Burrell’s connection with Ellington – from his teen years as a fan, to his person and professional connections with Ellington and his musicians, his tributes to the Ellington/Strayhorn canon, and to his work in establishing an academic platform for the world of Ellingtonia.
Isabelle Marquis
Dance To The Duke
Jazz and dance were completely tied, at least until the end of World War II and Duke Ellington’s music deeply re ects this connection. As a matter of fact, dance intimately belongs to Duke Ellington’s world: from clubs (Cotton Club) to concert halls (Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center), from ballrooms (Savoy, Apollo) to the opera, and even in cathedrals. His most iconic compositions It Don’t Mean a Thing, Take The A Train, Caravan are still delighting nowadays lindy hoppers, tap dancers and all kinds of jazz dancers. The presentation will focus on four aspects: Eccentric dance in the revues of the 20s-30s with Bessie Dudley and Earl Snake Hips Tucker, Tap dance with Bunny Briggs, Swing dance with the Whitey’s lindy hoppers and Modern jazz with Alvin Ailey and Maurice Béjart.
Steven Lasker / Ken SteinerRare and unissued recordings from the Steven Lasker Collection
Steven Lasker will share some never-issued Ellington rarities from his collection. They will be presented by Ken Steiner and the presentation will open with selections from a discographically-unlisted 1937 Cotton Club broadcast. It will be followed by a number of other “goodies”.
Michael Kilpatrick
Boola
Boola was Duke Ellington’s concept for a “tone parallel to the history of the American Negro”, originating as early as December 1930. Duke was reported to be composing Boola throughout the decade, yet nothing tangible emerged. It was eventually abandoned and superseded by Black, Brown and Beige, written afresh in 1943, although employing much of the narrative of Boola. My presentation is based on my recent discovery of several manuscripts representing sections of Boola, vindicating Duke’s repeated claims that Boola was taking shape. What’s more, putting dates to these manuscripts and tracing their thematic content provides a remarkable hypothesis as to what Duke may have been planning for Black, Brown and Beige.
Marilyn LesterThe International Ellington Society – Time Has Come
While Duke was still alive, several appreciation societies were founded, dedicated to examining and enjoying the Ellington (and Strayhorn) legacy. Many of those societies have disbanded and others are on shaky ground, owing to shi ing cultural norms as well as aging out members It’s time to support Ellington’s legacy with a realignment of the concept of a Duke Ellington Society to t the modern, techno-savvy global universe. The presentation will address the aims of such a society and the practical issues involved in setting it up.
April 25
7:00 PM CEST 7:05 PM
8:00 PM CEST 9:00 PM CEST
Moderator : Brigitte Lundin
Welcome to Ellington 2022
Leïla Olivesi
Ellington Medleys
Marcello Piras
Evidence of subtext in Ellington’s music
Jack Chambers
Buried Treasures
April 26
7:00 PM CEST 8:00 PM CEST
9:00 PM CEST
Moderator: Leïla Olivesi
David Berger
Ellington the Arranger: 1930s
Michele Corcella
Beyond the Blues - Duke Ellington’s experimentation techniques in the New Orleans Suite.
Collage
Ellington at the University of Wisconsin July 1972
April 28
7:00 PM CEST 08:00 PM CEST
9:00 PM CEST
Moderator: Marilyn Lester
Invited keynote speaker: Anna Celenza Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein
Pedro Cravinho
The Duke and The Queen - Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald’s rst visit to Portugal revisited
Steven Bowie
Kenny Burrell and Duke Ellington
April 29
7:00 PM CEST 7:30 PM CEST
8:00 PM CEST 9:00 PM CEST
9:20 PM CEST
09:35 PM CEST
Moderator: Ulf Lundin
Isabelle Marquis
Dance to the Duke
Ken Steiner
Rare and unissued recordings from the Steven Lasker Collection
Michael Kilpatrick
Boola
Marilyn Lester
The International Ellington Society - The Time Has Come
Laurent Mignard
Welcome to Ellington Study Group Conference Paris 2023
Ulf Lundin – Summing Up
Leïla Olivesi
Ellington Medleys
Ellington medleys have been famous since Duke Ellington started using this musical form in the ‘30s. This presentation expounds on the way Ellington pleased the audience by playing several of his best-known melodies in a short time while extending his creativity. To this e ect, I will demonstrate how Ellington took advantage of the medleys by saving more time to play new works during the same concert. Through the analysis of di erent versions of Black & Tan Fantasy, I shall explain how one composition could be at the same time, a work in progress and a gem performed within a timeless medley.
Marcello Piras
Evidence Of Subtext In Ellington’s Music
This writer has o en stressed the presence of a descriptive approach in Ellington’s creations (see “Duke and Descriptive Music”, The Duke Ellington Companion. Cambridge Univerfsity Press 2015). Although the composer himself gave clues to some of his musical depictions, and evidence is steadily piling up that he did that even more o en than he admitted, skepticism is still widespread. However, a major aspect of this approach has not yet come under systematic scrutiny—Duke’s use of a subtext consisting of actual words implied in musical quotations. As our presentation shows, this was the very rst technique Duke resorted to. Also, its presence throughout his opus inherently voids any general objection to Ellington’s descriptivism.
Buried Treasures: Gems Left on the Shelf
In 1933, an English interviewer asked Duke Ellington about his “personal favourite composition. Ellington replied, “The things I’ve liked best I’ve left on the shelf....” . Though more than a thousand of Ellington’s compositions are preserved in well-wrought studio recordings, dozens of others were performed in concerts at least once but never recorded. These “shelved” compositions are less well known, and in some instances forgotten. From these dozens, I have selected ve gems. For a composer less prolifc than Ellington, they might have been considered masterpieces. For him, they were incidental music, but dramatic evidence of his irrepressible muse.
David Berger
Ellington, The arranger: 1930s
The presentation will be focusing on how Duke transforms others’ work into his own through his unique rhythms, melodies, harmony and orchestration. I will illustrate this in discussing four Ellington arrangements of other composer’s work – The Sheik Of Araby, Ebony Rhapsody, Volga Vouty and Java Pachacha.
Michelle Corcella
Duke Ellington’s Experimentation Techniques In The New Orleans Suite
Ellington’s compositional style developed continuously until his death in 1974. The talk, based on Duke Ellington’s manuscripts, is aimed to stress how the New Orleans Suite was a revolutionary work and a milestone in orchestral jazz. The opening track (Blues for New Orleans) is based on the simplest blues chord progression but it’s probably one of the the most experimental tunes of the 20th century for what concerns chromaticism and jazz orchestration. Due to his complex harmonies, Ellington has always been compared to European composers such as Debussy and Stravinsky. However, the presentation will show how Duke stretched tonality to its limits in a completely di erent way: the blues as a source of not-conventional harmonies. In Portrait of Mahalia Jackson. Ellington paid homage to the queen of gospel music transforming the orchestra into a big pipe organ.I will show how Duke reached this goal. Finally, I will talk about the fundamental role of the copyist, the relationship between the manuscripts and the recording, and the problems of interpretation of this repertoire for both college and professional big bands.
Panel
Duke Ellington at the University of Wisconsin July 1972
At the invitation of the University of Wisconsin and its music department, Duke Ellington spent most of the first week of July 1972 there together with some members of his orchestra to give concerts, lectures, and masterclasses. Ellington’s visit will be revisited in a multifaceted multimedia presentation full of memories and music.
The Duke (Ellington), the Maestro (Bernstein), and the Brewer (Schlitz)
On July 2, 1966, Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein met for the rst and only time at the home of Robert Uihlein, chairman and CEO of the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The encounter was captured on video by WTMJ-TV and reveals much about the frictions between classical music and jazz during the Civil Rights Era and the growing in uence of corporate sponsorship on both genres. Using the 28 minutes of footage as a jumping o point, this talk o ers a reassessment of Bernstein’s attitudes towards jazz, a deeper look at Ellington’s attempts to rewrite the narrative of American music history, and Uihlein’s e orts to appropriate the fame of both men as part of a new marketing campaign for Schlitz Blue Ribbon Beer.
Pedro Cravinho
Duke Ellington’s and Ella Fitzgerald’s First Visit To Portugal Revisited
In late-January 1966, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald arrived in Portugal as the rst stop of their European tour. The national press publicised Ellington and Fitzgerald’s arrival enthusiastically, announcing it as the most signi cant jazz-related event ever in the country, and their Lisbon concerts sold out. Even if Duke Ellington’s and Ella Fitzgerald’s concerts are considered milestones among local critics and fans, there is a lack of information about them in Ellington’s historiography Based on archival, bibliographical, and analytical research, the presentation examines the discourses in the national press that surrounded Ellington and Fitzgerald Lisbon’s concerts and expand to Duke Ellington’s last visit to the country in November 1973
Kenny Burrell and Duke Ellington
Kenny Burrell is one of the leading advocates for the legacy of Duke Ellington. In 1978, his UCLA class, “Ellingtonia,” became the rst full time course in the United States devoted to Duke Ellington. It is still part of the curriculum today. The presentation will cover Kenny Burrell’s connection with Ellington – from his teen years as a fan, to his person and professional connections with Ellington and his musicians, his tributes to the Ellington/Strayhorn canon, and to his work in establishing an academic platform for the world of Ellingtonia.
Isabelle Marquis
Dance To The Duke
Jazz and dance were completely tied, at least until the end of World War II and Duke Ellington’s music deeply re ects this connection. As a matter of fact, dance intimately belongs to Duke Ellington’s world: from clubs (Cotton Club) to concert halls (Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center), from ballrooms (Savoy, Apollo) to the opera, and even in cathedrals. His most iconic compositions It Don’t Mean a Thing, Take The A Train, Caravan are still delighting nowadays lindy hoppers, tap dancers and all kinds of jazz dancers. The presentation will focus on four aspects: Eccentric dance in the revues of the 20s-30s with Bessie Dudley and Earl Snake Hips Tucker, Tap dance with Bunny Briggs, Swing dance with the Whitey’s lindy hoppers and Modern jazz with Alvin Ailey and Maurice Béjart.
Rare and unissued recordings from the Steven Lasker Collection
Steven Lasker will share some never-issued Ellington rarities from his collection. They will be presented by Ken Steiner and the presentation will open with selections from a discographically-unlisted 1937 Cotton Club broadcast. It will be followed by a number of other “goodies”.
Michael Kilpatrick
Boola
Boola was Duke Ellington’s concept for a “tone parallel to the history of the American Negro”, originating as early as December 1930. Duke was reported to be composing Boola throughout the decade, yet nothing tangible emerged. It was eventually abandoned and superseded by Black, Brown and Beige, written afresh in 1943, although employing much of the narrative of Boola. My presentation is based on my recent discovery of several manuscripts representing sections of Boola, vindicating Duke’s repeated claims that Boola was taking shape. What’s more, putting dates to these manuscripts and tracing their thematic content provides a remarkable hypothesis as to what Duke may have been planning for Black, Brown and Beige.
The International Ellington Society – Time Has Come
While Duke was still alive, several appreciation societies were founded, dedicated to examining and enjoying the Ellington (and Strayhorn) legacy. Many of those societies have disbanded and others are on shaky ground, owing to shi ing cultural norms as well as aging out members It’s time to support Ellington’s legacy with a realignment of the concept of a Duke Ellington Society to t the modern, techno-savvy global universe. The presentation will address the aims of such a society and the practical issues involved in setting it up.
