Jazz Articles about Duke Ellington

About Duke Ellington

Radio & Podcasts

Up In Harlem - Duke Ellington (1927 - 1930)

by Russell Perry
January 8, 2019

In previous programs in this series, we have listened to Stride pianists and jazz orchestras from New York. In this hour, we'll return to Harlem to listen to maybe the most important band leader in jazz history and one of the most significant composers of the music—Duke Ellington. A contemporary of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington moved (from Washington, DC) to New York at roughly the same time and established himself as a recording artist. By 1927, he was ...

Radio & Podcasts

Christmas Gifts and Messages, Some From the Grinch

by Marc Cohn
December 28, 2018

If you haven't had your fill of Christmas, click the play button for last Saturday's holiday show. One of our rotating traditions is to program the Duke Ellington version of “The Nutcracker Suite." Our first segment tracks mostly old favorites that we play almost every year. The rest are offered for the first time on the show, including a 'Bah Humbug' segment.

Book Review

Luca Bragalini: Dalla Scala a Harlem. I sogni sinfonici di Duke Ellington.

by Maurizio Zerbo
October 5, 2018

Dalla Scala a Harlem. I sogni sinfonici di Duke Ellington. Luca Bragalini 296 pagine ISBN: # 978-88-5920-367-4 EDT 2018 Luca Bragalini è uno degli esponenti di punta della nuova storiografia jazzistica, che mira a rivalutare un filone ellingtoniano fin qui poco e male analizzato. In questo volume la sua attenzione si concentra sulla sontuosa vena sinfonica del Duca, con l'obiettivo di riconsiderarla in un'ottica pluridisciplinare grazie a ricerche musicologiche, letterarie, fotografiche e ...

Album Review

Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington In Coventry

Read "Duke Ellington In Coventry" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
June 8, 2018

During World War Two, the Germans rained tons of high explosives, including parachute air-mines and incendiary petroleum mines on the English city of Coventry. In addition to factories supporting the British war effort, they destroyed the city's emblematic cathedral. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, took to using “Coventry" as a synonym for mass destruction. Enemy cities would be “Coventried," Goebbels proclaimed. It was revealed after the war that Churchill had received advance warning of the blitz ...

Book Review

Raphael Confiant: Madame St-Clair

by Maurizio Zerbo
September 8, 2017

Madame St-Clair, la regina di Harlem Raphaël Confiant 240 pagine ISBN: # 978-8862225663 Stampa Alternativa 2017 Pur non eguagliando i capolavori del genere, “Madame St-Clair" è un esito letterario ben fecondo dell'afrocentrismo contemporaneo. Ne è autore lo scrittore martinicano RaRaphaël Confiant, cantore dell'identità creola-antillana in stretto rapporto con il pensiero panafricano. Ispirandosi alle teorie dell'antropologo Melville Herskovits, Confiant recupera in chiave narrativa la tesi che la cultura degli afroamericani vada ricollegata alla madre ...

Multiple Reviews

Duke Ellington on Storyville Records

by Chris Mosey
March 20, 2017

The legend of Duke Ellington--one of very few jazzmen worthy of the overworked accolade “genius"--continues to unfold four decades after his death. In large part this is thanks to the efforts of Ellington himself. From 1950 to 1974, he kept a private “stockpile" of recordings made for his own pleasure... and with an eye on posterity. Following his death on May 24th 1974, Duke's son Mercer donated this “stockpile" to Danish Radio. Since then ...

Album Review

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra: Rotterdam 1969

Read "Rotterdam 1969" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 11, 2016

Here's a succulent and long-hidden treat for Duke Ellington aficionados: a wide-ranging and reasonably well-recorded concert performance by the Ellington orchestra from 1969 at the Do Doelen Concert Hall in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Many of Ellington's tried-and-true favorites are here, along with a number of lesser-known themes such as tenor Paul Gonsalves' feature, “Up Jump"; “Come Off the Veldt (and Into the Bush)," a showpiece for drummer Rufus Jones; alto Johnny Hodges' star turn, “Black Butterfly"; and trumpeter Cat Anderson's ...