The Duke Ellington Orchestra Friday, February 5th @ 8pm
Duke Ellington was eulogized as "the supreme jazz talent of the past fifty years" by critic Alistair Cooke in a 1983 issue of Esquire. A prolific composer, Ellington created over two thousand pieces of music, including the standard songs "Take the A-Train" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and the longer works Black, Brown, and Beige, Liberian Suite, and Afro-Eurasian Eclipse. With the variously named bands he led from 1919 until his death in 1974, Ellington was responsible for many innovations in the jazz field, such as "jungle-style" use of the growl and plunger, and the manipulation of the human voice as an instrument--singing notes without words. During the course of his long career, Ellington was showered with many honors, including the highest civilian award granted by the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was presented to him by President Richard M. Nixon in 1969. "No one else," concluded Cooke, "in the eighty- or ninety-year history of jazz, created so personal an orchestral sound and so continuously expanded the jazz idiom." Under the direction of Barrie Lee Hall, Jr., the Duke Ellington Orchestra is a national treasure and continues to tour to enthusiastic audiences world wide at prestigious Jazz Festivals, International Festivals and Performing Arts Centers.
