Live: September 2024

Sunday, 15 September, 16:00 (CET)

Jazz Aux Champs Elysées 2024 Année Duke Ellington

Laurent Mignard Duke Orchestra

au Splendid

In 2003, Laurent Mignard founded the Duke Orchestra to recreate the Duke Ellington Sacred Concert in Saint Sulpice, then the Far East Suite in Beirut. The Duke Orchestra and its dream team of soloists gradually established themselves as the best Ellingtonian orchestra in activity (according to the Duke Ellington Music Society), to project the legacy in concerts and (re)creations on the greatest stages. Composer, Laurent Mignard is inspired by Ellington, Ornette Coleman, Debussy, Dutilleux, Takemitsu ... in search of the balance between serenity and surprise, beyond traditional tonal laws. Laurent Mignard is president of the Maison du Duke.

(Didier Desbois as, Aurélie Tropez as, cl, Olivier Defays ts, Carl ts, fl, Philippe Chagne bs, Claude Egea tp, Sylvain Gontard ou Gilles Relisieux tp, Jérôme Etcheberry tp, Malo Mazurié tp, Nicolas Grymonprez tb, Michaël Ballue tb, Jerry Edwards tb, Philippe Milanta p, Bruno Rousselet b, Julie Saury d, Laurent Mignard dir)

Details here.

Sunday, 15 September 15:00 (EDT)

Ellington Effect Workshop #43: Boy Meets Horn

Join us for the 43rd Zoom webinar in David Berger's Ellington Effect workshop series, which will focus on Ellington's iconic composition Boy Meets Horn. 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.  

About Boy Meets Horn

Following previous concertos for his star soloists, Ellington created this masterpiece with and for Rex Stewart. As Ellington explained, he thrived on limitations. In this case, Rex had six effective notes where he could employ his half valve technique. Although Ellington gets full credit for this piece, according to Rex, the two of them worked out his cornet part together, and then Duke scored it for the band.

This was not the first concerto Ellington wrote for Rex. Trumpet In Spades was written in 1943. It featured Rex’s technique at a very fast tempo. Successive concertos for Barney Bigard (Clarinet Lament), Johnny Hodges (unrecorded Concerto For Johnny), Lawrence Brown (Yearning For Love), and Cootie Williams (Echoes Of Harlem) preceded Boy Meets Horn. Later concertos include Concerto For Cootie (Williams), Golden Cress and Blue Cellophane (Lawrence Brown), Air Conditioned Jungle and Silk Lace (Jimmy Hamilton).

Ellington was a master at recognizing his players’ strengths and idiosyncrasies and capitalizing on them. Rex Stewart’s expressive use of half valve effects was a big part of his musical personality and set him off from other trumpet and cornet players. Louis Armstrong popularized half valve techniques like falloffs and glisses. Cootie Williams adopted those techniques and added scoops and bends, but Rex took it to another level. In Boy Meets Horn, originally entitled Twits and Twerps, successive, humorous half valve non-pitches characterize the a theme of the concerto.

As with all great concertos, the entirety of the ensemble is integral to the composition and not mere accompaniment. What could be sheer buffoonery in another arranger’s hands becomes comic genius with Ellington. Surprisingly, other bands arranged and played Boy Meets Horn, most notably Benny Goodman featuring Chris Griffin.

Tickets available here. Annual membership available here.

Wednesday, 25 September, 18:00 (BST)

Duke Ellington Society UK Social via Zoom

This is a private event for members of Duke Ellington Society UK and subscribers to their email newsletter.