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Tag: Duke Elington

Ellington Is Forever

 

This is the most valuable object I own, an autographed photo of the Duke Ellington Orchestra given by Ellington to my father after one of the three engagements my dad presented in Erie, Pennsylvania between 1931 and 1933. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that my dad knew Ellington, and that I have touched this object that was once inscribed by the hand of genius.
On the 123rd anniversary of his birth–and every day–Ellington is forever.
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Roll Call: Big Band Edition, Sept. 3, 2020

I get a lot of music for my consideration, more than 325 new releases so far this year. Almost all of them are notable for something, and I’d like to give them their due. So every week, I’ll do quick hits on the releases of the preceding seven days. it’s a great writing exercise, and a lot of fun, too.

Labor Day is this weekend and the prospect of hearing ensemble jazz of any kind seems very far away. When the ensemble crowds more than a dozen players onto the bandstand, most of them playing instruments activated by the breath, big band performances are likely to be the last to return.

Yet at a moment when things couldn’t get much stranger or more ironic, here comes one of the richest crops of big band recordings in a long time.

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