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Duke Ellington's Concert of Sacred Music
by Chuck Lenatti
In 1964, Dean D.J. Bartlett and the Reverend John S. Yaryan invited Duke Ellington and his orchestra to present a concert to consecrate the renovated Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill in San Francisco during a year-long festival of Grace. At first, Duke demurred. In his autobiography, Music Is My Mistress (Da Capo, 1976), Ellington explained why he changed his mind: It has been said once that a man who could not play the organ or any ...
Continue ReadingJack Chambers: Rethinking Duke Ellington
by Jack Kenny
Jack Chambers is professor at the University of Toronto and teacher of music and language. His jazz writings include the prize winning biography Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis (Da Capo Press, 1998) and Bouncin' with Bartok: The Incomplete Works of Richard Twardzik (Mercury PR, 2008). Sweet Thunder: Duke Ellington's Music In Nine Themes (Canam Books, 2019) was Chamber's first book on Duke Ellington. His 2025 book, A Tone Parallel to Duke Ellington:The Man In The Music (University ...
Continue ReadingA Tone Parallel to Duke Ellington: The Man In The Music
by Jack Kenny
A Tone Parallel to Duke Ellington: The Man In The Music Jack Chambers 259 Pages ISBN: # 9781496855756 University Press Of Mississippi2025 There are rare insights into Duke Ellington in this book from Jack Chambers, his second on Duke Ellington. Chambers has also written important books on Miles Davis and Richard Twardzik. He is predisposed to enjoy Ellington's music, can see the flaws in Ellington's personality and throughout the book he describes the ...
Continue ReadingJazz: Cultural Diplomacy, Art or Show Business?
by Anastasia Bogomolets
There is a firm belief among scholars that jazz and the American Jazz Ambassadors programme played an important role during the Cold War era. Extensive literature explores the significance of jazz in shaping global post-war relationships. The world has changed dramatically since then. On one hand, music, including jazz, has become increasingly commercialized; on the other, unlimited access to free streaming platforms has significantly reduced governments' ability to influence musical preferences. Do you think we are entering another historical period ...
Continue ReadingThe Jazz Men: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie Transformed America
by Richard J Salvucci
The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America Larry Tye 416 pages ISBN: 035838043X Mariner Books 2024 In 1986, a guy walked into a Post Office in South Texas--no, this is not the opening line of a joke. He lined up to buy some stamps. Big deal, right? But there was a bit of an altercation up front. Things moved more slowly than usual. When the customer got to ...
Continue ReadingThe Duke Ellington Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943
by Chuck Lenatti
Duke Ellington was one of the most popular and successful jazz musicians of the first half of the 20th century and according to composer Gunther Schuller and musicologist and historian Barry Kernfeld, “the most significant composer of the genre." Radio broadcasts from his residency at New York's Cotton Club beginning in 1927 extended Ellington's orchestra's national exposure and a parade of hit records, from “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" in 1926 to “C Jam Blues" in 1942, among many ...
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