Jazz Articles about Duke Ellington

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Duke Ellington: Copenhagen 1964

by Jack Kenny
March 3, 2026

All Duke Ellington concerts offered music of substance. Audiences listened patiently through the medleys and Tony Watkins' vocals. Some performances, however, stood apart because they contained material that was fresh--music not yet worn thin by repetition, where both the thinking and playing could still surprise. Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and the orchestra toured Asia (the “Far East") in 1963. Rather than immediately writing new compositions, they deliberately allowed the impressions of the journey to settle, preferring that the process ...

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Luca Bragalini: gli inediti di Duke Ellington e Gerry Mulligan

by Angelo Leonardi
February 16, 2026

Musicologo e docente di Storia del Jazz al conservatorio Verdi di Milano Luca Bragalini è da anni un appassionato studioso a cui dobbiamo preziosi saggi e importanti scoperte sulla musica afroamericana e i suoi protagonisti. Ricordiamo la monografia Storie poco standard. Le avventure di 12 grandi canzoni tra Broadway e jazz (EDT 2013) e il saggio Luca Bragalini: Dalla Scala a Harlem. I sogni sinfonici di Duke Ellington. (EDT 2018). Mentre quest'ultimo volume viene pubblicato negli Stati Uniti ...

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Lost and Found, part 3: Rare recordings of Ellington, Ben Webster, Art Tatum and Gil Evans

by Larry Slater
October 17, 2025

There are so many Duke Ellington recordings available. How much undiscovered music of the band can there be? In this hour, you'll hear rarely heard gems from the Ellington discography. Music that's so rare, I doubt even die-hard Ellington aficionados have heard some of these tracks. The Duke Ellington Orchestra with Django Reinhardt at Carnegie Hall. A home recording of Ben Webster on clarinet. Duke Ellington's late great extended work “The River." Also featured are Art ...

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Duke Ellington's Concert of Sacred Music

by Chuck Lenatti
June 1, 2025

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 ...

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Jack Chambers: Rethinking Duke Ellington

by Jack Kenny
May 20, 2025

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 ...

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A Tone Parallel to Duke Ellington: The Man In The Music

by Jack Kenny
May 19, 2025

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 ...

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Trio Jungle (A "Classic" Episode)

by Patrick Burnette
March 20, 2025