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Duke Ellington, The "C" Jam Blues

Billy Strayhorn, Take the "A" Train

Duke Ellington, Creole Love Call

Juan Tizol/Duke Ellington, Caravan

John Kander/Duke Ellington, New York, New York

Duke Ellington, Blem

Duke Ellington, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse

Quintin White, Rocky White Solo

Irving Mills/Duke Ellington/Barney Bigard, Mood Indigo

Duke Ellington, Fantasia

Duke Ellington, Somebody Cares

Raymond Fol/Billy Strayhorn, Raymond Fol (Improvisation Over Take The A Train)

Billy Strayhorn/Claude Bolling, Claude Bolling (improvisation Over Take The A Train)

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra Live in Brussels

Sonuma Archives 1973

Jazz
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Cast

Duke Ellington — Bandleader

Money Johnson — Trumpeter

Harry Carney — Clarinetist, saxophonist

Barry Lee Hall — Trumpeter

John Coles — Trumpeter

Mercer Ellington — Hornist, trumpeter

Vince Prudente — Trombonist

Program notes

The year 1973 saw a Belgian edition of the Jazz from Newport event, featuring one of the very last performances that the great Duke Ellington ever gave. He passed away less than a year later and one of jazz’s most important sparks of genius – the one that got the whole world swinging – faded out. 

So-named “Duke” for his elegance and debonair image, he’d lost none of his charm by his mid-70s, addressing the audience with the words: “all the kids in the band want you to know that we do love you madly.” Indeed, it was Duke’s charm that held such appeal, but his ease belied a hard journey that began in Washington pool halls where he learnt to play piano as a teenager, and then as a young adult forced to play “jungle music” for all-white crowds on his way up. 

The role model status he attained, therefore, was hard-won and he is often considered America’s greatest ever composer by those who see jazz as the nation’s classical music. A glance at this concert’s repertoire confirms it: standard after standard, with Duke penning almost every one. A great figure with an incalculable influence on modern music.

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