Mercer Hassy

Mercer Hassy Orchestra: Duke's Place

by Jack Bowers
April 17, 2024

If much of the music on Duke's Place seems only vaguely familiar, that is probably because composer-arranger Mercer Hassy has taken more than a dozen songs written and/or made popular by Duke Ellington and his orchestra and turned them, for better or worse, inside out and upside down, playing with melody, harmony and rhythm but always with a clear purpose in mind, and presenting for the most part Ellington as you no doubt have never heard him before.