Live: July 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.

Jazz Au Champs Élysées 2024 année Duke Ellington

Sunday, 7 July, 2024 16:00 (CET)

Duke For Ever Le Blue Rhythm Band avec Claude Tissendier

Petit Jardin des Champs Élysées,  24 Rue de Baudreuil, 02100 Saint-Quentin, Paris, France

Introducing BRB should be insulting the Saint Quentinois: no need to introduce a band when they have recently celebrated their 70th birthday but remain amazingly youthful in their performances. The same with Claude Tissendier, from the Claude Bolling big band to mentoring the BRB, his line has always been excellence, reliability and professionalism.

Details here.

Sunday 21 July 2024, 

Petit Jardin des Champs Élysées,  24 Rue de Baudreuil, 02100 Saint-Quentin, Paris, France

Jump For Joy The Big Five 16:00 (CET)

Daniel Duspiwa ts, Hippolyte Fèvre tp, Jack Latimer g, Malte Tönißen b, David Hermlin dm.

The Big Five have established themselves as Berlin’s most authentic swing-era combo. Combining a propulsive rhythm section, a fiery horn-led frontline and dynamic song-arrangements, this international band makes a deep-dive into the lesser-known repertoire of the Swing Golden Age as well as original compositions. They have some incredibly hot players including the irrepressible swing drummer David Hermlin. With their explosive energy and an intense passion for authentic swing-era jazz, these cats will certainly make you Jump for Joy!

Details here.

Sunday, 7 July

Pizza Express Jazz Club, 10 Dean Street, London W1D 3RW

The Duke Ellington Songbook 

Pete Long and the Echoes of Ellington Orchestra, 13:00 (BST)

BGB Events Present... 

The Duke Ellington Song Book

Big Band Sunday Lunchtimes at Dean Street

PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho)

Following their sold-out inaugural Dean Street 2023 concert, it's a warm welcome return for Pete Long and his Echoes of Ellington Big Band presenting the Duke Ellington Song Book. Their long awaited and much anticipated debut concert with this 2024 show continues the now well-established Dean Street tradition of weekend big band lunchtime concerts. This concert will again feature the sensational voice of Sara Oschlag, echoing the style of the great Ella Fitzgerald.

£35.00

Details here.

Duke Ellington Sacred Concert

Saturday  20 July, 19.30 (BST)

King's College Chapel, King's Parade, Cambridge CB2 1ST 

Crouch End Festival Chorus 

David Temple conductor 

Roland Perrin & The Blue Planet Orchestra 

Zoë Brookshaw soprano 

Celebrating their 40th anniversary, the acclaimed Crouch End Festival Chorus bring a very special programme to the splendour of King’s College Chapel.

Under the baton of their co-founder and Music Director David Temple OBE, they perform Duke Ellington’s 'Sacred Concert', blending traditional religious musical forms with the language of jazz. The piece has a long association with Cambridge after Ellington and his band performed it at a concert in Great St Mary’s Church in 1967.

Details here.

Sunday 21 July, 15:00 (EST)

Ellington Effect Workshop 41 with David Berger

Drop Me Off In Harlem

Join us for the 41st Zoom webinar in David Berger's Ellington Effect workshop series, which will focus on Ellington's iconic composition Drop Me Off In Harlem. The Ellington Effect workshops are monthly Zoom meetings where David dives into a single composition each time, analyzing it musically line by line, as well as relating pertinent stories about Duke and the band, and answering questions from attendees.  This one will take place on Sunday, 21 July 21 at 15:00 EST. 

Get a ticket here.

Drop Me Off In Harlem

Although Ellington grew up in Washington, D.C. and called his 1920s band the Washingtonians, the city of his birth rarely appears in any of his song titles as opposed to his adopted neighborhood of Harlem, in which he lived for over 30 years before moving a couple of miles south to the Upper West Side. His constant reference to Harlem in his titles helped to develop a mystique about Harlem throughout the world.

In his liner notes to a 1963 Ellington album (Columbia C3L-27), Stanley Dance wrote that Drop Me Off at Harlem, as the title appeared on the label of the original Brunswick release, ‘originated as Duke and Nick Kenny rode in a cab across the George Washington Bridge after a benefit. ‘Where you going, Duke?’ Kenny asked. ‘Drop me off in Harlem’ was the answer. Later, Kenny came up with the lyric.

Even though this tune originated with Kenny’s lyric, Ellington didn’t record the lyric until 25 years later with Ella Fitzgerald singing Strayhorn’s straightforward arrangement.

Possibly because of the lyrics coming first, Ellington’s tune is a simple and direct aaba form. The two harmonic surprises (going to the relative minor near the end of the a section and the chromatic dominant 7ths in the second half of the bridge) are pretty mild. The simple, repetitive melody and rhythms demand a lot of creativity in the arrangement.

Even so, Ellington set very constricting limits on the melody, harmony and rhythm. After the 4-bar intro, there are 3 choruses which never stray very far from the melody even in the final 8-bar shout and short coda.

This piece, like many others of Ellington’s, started with a number of 8-bar phrases which were put together during rehearsal determining the solo order and the re-orchestration of the opening sax 4-part harmony.

The melodic repetition directs our attention to the orchestration, which does not disappoint. Aside from his usual strong voice leading, Ellington engages in some crossed parts and most strikingly employs the vocal technique of placing harmony parts above the melody, first in the muted trombones and later with three clarinets above Carney’s baritone on the melody.

Film buffs may recognize the first chorus from the Neil Simon movie Brighton Beach Memoirs where the first eight bars or so were used as a running gag every time Jerome looked at his brother’s racy French postcards.

Soloists: Brown, Whetsel, Jenkins, Whetsel, Williams, Bigard

Recorded February 17, 1933 in NYC for Brunswick B13081-A

(The same session that produced Slippery Horn)

Personnel:

Reeds: Otto Hardwick and Johnny Hodges (alto saxes), Barney Bigard (tenor sax and clarinet), Harry Carney (alto sax and baritone sax)

Trumpets: Arthur Whetsel, Cootie Williams, Freddie Jenkins

Trombones: Lawrence Brown, Tricky Sam Nanton, Juan Tizol (valve)

Guitar: Fred Guy

Piano: Duke Ellington

Bass: Wellman Braud

Drums: Sonny Greer

Duke's Day

From the archives...

December 30, 2021

Honoring Duke Ellington

Chris Nicols

For most of the 20th century, the City of New York ran the largest municipal broadcast organization in the United States, consisting of WNYC-FM, AM and TV. During this time, WNYC brought the diverse lives and cultures of the city into the homes of its residents through original entertainment, journalism and educational programming. Since the separation of WNYC from the City in 1996, the Municipal Archives has been caring for the thousands of films and video tapes from WNYC-TV, and thousands of radio recordings in partnership with the WNYC Foundation’s Archives. Some recently digitized items added to the online gallery  show deep appreciation for the life and work of music legend Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington.  

Duke Ellington receives the Bronx Medal from Acting Mayor Paul Screvane (left), August 2, 1965. Official Mayoral Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Duke Ellington Day was proclaimed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on April 29th, 2009, which would have been the jazz legend’s 110th birthday. Ellington is famous for adding his piano to brass orchestral jazz with songs such as “It Don’t Mean a Thing (if it Ain’t Got that Swing),” and was house band leader of the influential and infamous prohibition era Harlem venue the Cotton Club. The City of New York has honored the composer several times for his work and 2009 was not the first Duke Ellington Day. In 1965, Duke Ellington was presented with the Bronze Medal by Acting Mayor Paul Screvane, and Mayor John V. Lindsay also proclaimed Duke Ellington Day on September 15th, 1969, in honor of his contributions to American culture. WNYC Radio and TV covered the two events.  

WNYC recording, Duke Ellington Day, City Hall, August 2, 1965.  

Long before the awards and honors, Ellington arrived in New York in 1923, leaving his successful career in his hometown of Washington, D.C. for opportunity in the vibrant art scene of Harlem. That Manhattan neighborhood was in the middle of a cultural awakening now described as the Harlem Renaissance, when many enduring works by African American artists were created. Aside from Ellington, other musical giants like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong wrote and performed in clubs across Harlem. Writers like Arthur Schomburg and Langston Hughes penned famous works such as ‘The Weary Blues’ in 1926 and visual artists Richmond Barthé and Meta Vaux Warwick Fuller portrayed the beauty of black physicality.   

Duke Ellington had gained recognition as a member in other bands already, but his career really took off once he became the band leader at the Cotton Club. Although the venue was highly popular among its exclusively wealthy and white clientele, the real surge in popularity came when CBS began broadcasting the performances across the country, making Duke Ellington the first nationally-broadcast African American band leader. This popularity quickly led to short films with RKO Pictures and recording deals with major record labels.  

Ellington and his band left the Cotton Club in 1931 and found great success in composing and recording original music, as well as touring internationally despite the onset of the Great Depression. Some of his most enduring work, like ‘Caravan’ and ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ were composed and performed for the first time during this period. Ellington also began to win major awards for his work when he scored a film titled ‘Symphony in Black’ (1935), featuring Billie Holiday, which won the Academy Award for Best Musical Short Piece that year.

WNYC-TV Collection, Duke Ellington and his band perform at Duke Ellington Day, with Mayor John V. Lindsay, City Hall Plaza, September 15, 1969. NYC Municipal Archives.

Ellington’s popularity waned during the 1940s, only to resurge in the 1950s and ‘60s after his headline-grabbing appearance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. The resulting vinyl record of the performance has become the best-selling album of Ellington’s entire career. Soon he and his orchestra were in high demand to play at festivals across the country. Ellington spent the later years of his career split between expanding his discography and receiving awards and accolades for his decades of musical innovation. In addition to honors from the City of New York, Duke Ellington also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and won 12 Grammy’s as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Although the original Cotton Club no longer exists, the indelible mark that Duke Ellington left on the City and its culture is evident not just in the awards he was given, but the material now preserved and publicly available through a grant from the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund. You can find the WNYC-TV recording of the 1969 Duke Ellington Day on the Municipal Archive’s digital gallery along with hundreds of hours of WNYC-TV programming.  

Rabbiting On

30,000 euros - if you have that kind of money to blow, you will be able to blow an alto saxophone allegedly once belonging to Johnny Hodges.

As I write this, the auction for this item currently running (run, Rabbit, run...) oneBay has another 4 hours and 26 minutes. The link will ultimately perish but you may place your bid here.

For the record, here are the photographs of the saxophone and the vendor's description of the item. Good luck!

The vendor writes:

"Johnny Hodges from Duke Ellington" is engraved on the bell.

Vito Alto sax model 35. serial number 2872A.

Made in France by Leblanc in the mid 60' and assembled by Vito in Kenosha.

Very good shape apart one ding on the bow. 

Original pads in good shape. Needs regulation.

Original Leblanc case and neck strap.

The Vito model 35 was introduced in 1965 and endorsed by the great Johnny HODGES until his death in 1970. 

Johnny Hodges owned several 35 models with floral engravings during these five years.

My guess is that saxophone in auction is probably the first one he had and was presented to him by Duke Ellington.

A piece of jazz history.

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.