Celebrating Duke's Spirit
“In the Spirit of Duke,” an artist residency at Harvard
April 20-22, will celebrate the spiritual music of Duke Ellington and mastery of vocalist Jon Hendricks. A featured event will be a concert of spiritual music in the jazz idiom on April 22 in Sanders Theatre, including the Harvard debut of selections from Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts,
performed by the Harvard Jazz Bands and Kuumba Singers of Harvard College. This will the first collaboration between these ensembles.
Jazz composer, arranger, and conductor David Berger will also join the project as a guest conductor for the Ellington works, which will include a performance by legendary tap dancer Jimmy Slyde. “Christo Redento” by another Duke—Duke Pearson—will also be performed. The Kuumba Singers and Sunday and Monday Jazz Bands will appear independently and together, conducted by Berger; Tom Everett, Director, Harvard Bands; Mark Olson, Assistant Director, Harvard Bands; and Sheldon Reid ‘97, conductor, Kuumba Singers of Harvard College.
“Like most people who live to old age,“ says Berger, “Duke Ellington became more and more concerned with the meaning of his mortality and his relationship with God. Never a churchgoer, he worshipped in his own way and developed his own understanding of God. Simply put, ‘God is a three-letter word for Love, and Love is a four-letter word for God.’ His three sacred concerts are non-sectarian celebrations of the Judeo-Christian tradition with a heavy emphasis on the Black American church experience. This is more than a jazz concert. There is a feeling of spirituality and community that is so sorely missing in America today. I am honored to bring this great music to Harvard with my old friend, Jon Hendricks, the singer for whom Ellington composed his first Sacred Concert.”
The residency, made possible with the support of the Richard J. Scheuer, Jr. Fund and the Peter Ivers Memorial Fund, continues the 25 years of collaboration by the Office for the Arts and Jazz Bands to honor eminent jazz artists and bring their artistry to Harvard students and the community.
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974), composer, pianist, and jazz bandleader, wrote three Sacred Concerts between 1965 and 1973. The large-scale works incorporated dancers, choruses, and gospel singers in addition to his own band. Describing these efforts as “the most important thing I have ever done,” he said they allowed him to “say openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.” The work was originally presented to celebrate the consecration of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in 1965. This is the 40th anniversary of Sacred Concerts.
Hendricks is one of the world’s favorite jazz vocalists and widely considered to be the “Father of Vocalese” and greatest innovator of that form. Vocalese is the art of setting lyrics to recorded jazz instrumental standards (such as big band arrangements of Duke Ellington and Count Basie), then arranging voices to sing the parts of the instruments. In this way a new form of the work is created, which tells a lyrically interesting story while retaining the music’s integrity. Jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called Hendricks the “Poet Laureate of Jazz.” Time dubbed him the “James Joyce of Jive.”
In 1957, Hendricks teamed with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross to form the legendary vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. With Hendricks as lyricist, the trio perfected the art of vocalese and took it around the world, earning them the designation of the “Number One Vocal Group in the World” five years in a row from Melody Maker magazine. Countless singers cite the work of LH&R as an influence, from The Manhattan Transfer to Al Jarreau to Bobby McFerrin. Hendricks has recorded several critically-acclaimed albums on his own, some with his wife and daughters. He collaborated with The Manhattan Transfer for their seminal 1985 album, Vocalese, which won seven Grammy Awards.
Berger, a leading authority on the music of Ellington, his compositional colleague Billy Strayhorn, and the Swing Era, was conductor and arranger for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra from its inception in 1988 through 1994. He has transcribed more than 600 full scores of classic recordings including over 400 works by Ellington and Strayhorn. In 1996 Berger collaborated with choreographer Donald Byrd to create the Harlem Nutcracker, a two-hour dance piece that expands the 31-minute Tchaikovsky/Ellington/Strayhorn score into an American classic. He conducts “The Sultans of Swing,” a 15-piece band that brings swinging jazz to a new generation. Peter Watrous of the New York Times wrote that Berger “captured Mr. Ellington’s tempos, an integral part of his compositions, perfectly...bringing real heat to the performance.”
Concert tickets are available at the Harvard Box Office: 617.496.2222 or www.fas.harvard.edu/tickets.
For more information about “In the Spirit of Duke” or the Jazz Program, contact Director of Bands Tom Everett, 617.496.2263, everett@fas.harvard.edu; or OFA Director of Programs Cathy McCormick, 617.495.8676, cmccorm@fas.harvard.edu.
