• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Newcity Music

Reviews, profiles and news about music in Chicago

  • Newcity
    • Newcity Network
    • Best of Chicago
  • Art
  • Brazil
  • Design
  • Film
  • Lit
  • Music
    • About Newcity Music
    • Contributors
    • Chicago Indie Record Store Guide
  • Resto
  • Stage

Preview: Chicago Jazz Ensemble: Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts

December 13, 2007 at 12:05 pm by Jan Hieggelke

by Jan Hieggelke
December 13, 2007April 30, 2012Filed under:
  • Chicago Artists
  • Holiday Music
  • Jazz

RECOMMENDED
Although the virtuoso big band sound of Duke Ellington is one of the most recognizable sounds on the planet, far less known are the series of three “Sacred Concerts” that Ellington composed late in his life between 1965 and 1973, on commission, works that he considered the most important that he had ever written and that allowed him to “say openly what I have been saying on my knees.” Steeped not only in the jazz idiom Ellington so revolutionized, the “Sacred Concerts” also include elements of African-American spirituals, gospel, tap dance and blues as well as European classical music and the British choral music tradition, all given a swinging, kaleidoscopic treatment as only Ellington could mix them all up. Trumpeter and Chicago Jazz Ensemble music director Jon Faddis directed these remarkable pieces seven years ago with the San Francisco Symphony, and will direct this special CJE holiday concert performance of sections of them with vocalists Bobbi Wilsyn, Stephanie A. Dixon, Maggie Brown and Robert Sims along with tap dancer Bril Barrett and a full gospel choir under the direction of Chip Johnson. (Dennis Polkow)
Friday, December 14 at Harris Theater

Author: Jan Hieggelke

Related

Tagged:
  • Bobbi Wilsyn
  • Bril Barrett
  • Chicago Jazz Ensemble
  • Chip Johnson
  • Duke Ellington
  • Harris Theater
  • Jon Faddis
  • Maggie Brown
  • Robert Sims
  • Sacred Concerts
  • San Francisco Symphony
  • Stephanie A. Dixon

Post navigation

Previous Post Spin Control: Make Lemonade
Next Post Soundcheck: Off to the Gallo

Primary Sidebar

Popular Stories

  • Liz Phair, Steve Albini & Me
    Liz Phair, Steve Albini & Me
  • A Whole Wide World of Wisdom: A Preview of Wreckless Eric at The Burlington
    A Whole Wide World of Wisdom: A Preview of Wreckless Eric at The Burlington
  • Immaterial World: Ken Kurson Examines the Void Left by Jim Ellison's Death
    Immaterial World: Ken Kurson Examines the Void Left by Jim Ellison's Death
  • Their Time: Why Arctic Monkeys May Be the World’s Best Band
    Their Time: Why Arctic Monkeys May Be the World’s Best Band

Copyright Newcity Communications, Inc. © 2018