The Sunday, April 17 Jazz Unlimited will be “Compositions of Duke Ellington.” April marks the 117thth birthday of one of our greatest composers, Duke Ellington. We will hear music that includes a 1932 medley in stereo, a suite for a film on the horse racing paintings of Degas, a vocal of one of his pieces from “Such Sweet Thunder,” a tribute to Shakespeare. Other artists on the show include Al Cohn, Benny Carter, Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Johnny O’Neal, Ella Fitzgerald, Clarinet Summit, Buell Neidlinger, McCoy Tyner, the Vienna Art Orchestra, James Newton, Cleo Laine, John McLaughlin and James Carter, all playing some of the over 3000 compositions of Duke Ellington.
The Slide Show contains my photographs of some of the musicians heard on this show.
This Archive of the show will be available until the morning of April 25, 2016.
Here is a video of a group of Ellington and some of the stars of the 1942 band playing "C Jam Blues." The musicians include Barney Bigard (cl), Sonny Greer (d), Ray Nance (vln), Joe 'Tricky Sam' Nanton (tb), Rex Stewart (cor), Ben Webster (ts), Junior Raglin (b) and Duke Ellington (p), Note the brims on the hats.
