Friday, September 20, 2019

FRIDAY MUSIC: Duke Ellington, by JD

Last week at the Proms there was an evening of music inspired by Duke Ellington's three concerts of sacred music.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e5mz3d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington%27s_Sacred_Concerts

It was good but seemed to be less than inspired, lacking the passion and soul of the original concerts. The originals are available in full on YouTube and here is a selection from Duke himself and his peerless orchestra.

Swedish opera singer Alice Babs who features in several of the following videos deserves a special mention:

"Babs participated in performances of Ellington's second and third Sacred Concerts which he had written originally for her. Her voice had a range of more than three octaves; Ellington said that when she was not available to sing the parts that he had written for her, he had to use three different singers."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Babs















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