Boston’s critically acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, (Mark Harvey music director) continues its historic 39th season with a concert of sacred and secular music by Duke Ellington. Admission is $$35 preferred seating, $25 general adult, $10 general child under 18. For Information, call 203 227 0827. Purchase Tickets Online at http://chtwestport.org/tickets Tickets at the door are $5 more.
The program will include Ellington standards and rarities across five decades including The Mooche, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Caravan, Wild Man Blues (from the major motion picture Paris Blues), and Billy Strayhorn's Daydream. Sacred music will be drawn from all three of Ellington's Sacred Concerts; selections will include Come Sunday, Heaven, The Shepherd, and It's Freedom, featuring the Christ & Holy Trinity Choirs. ...
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Boston’s critically acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, (Mark Harvey music director) continues its historic 39th season with a concert of sacred and secular music by Duke Ellington. Admission is $$35 preferred seating, $25 general adult, $10 general child under 18. For Information, call 203 227 0827. Purchase Tickets Online at http://chtwestport.org/tickets Tickets at the door are $5 more.
The program will include Ellington standards and rarities across five decades including The Mooche, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Caravan, Wild Man Blues (from the major motion picture Paris Blues), and Billy Strayhorn's Daydream. Sacred music will be drawn from all three of Ellington's Sacred Concerts; selections will include Come Sunday, Heaven, The Shepherd, and It's Freedom, featuring the Christ & Holy Trinity Choirs.
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (April 29, 1899-May 24, 1974) was honored by universities, American presidents and European royalty, and was equally at home in concert halls, churches, nightclubs, and international venues. His magnificent catalogue spans the spectrum of American music, and is, in his own words, “beyond category.”
With worldwide distribution of 10 CDs and wide-ranging performances in festivals, churches, concert halls, colleges and universities, The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra has been a major force in the international jazz scene for almost 40 years. Winner of the 2000 Independent Music Awards, the band has premiered more than 130 works for jazz orchestra and has garnered critical acclaim around the globe. Of the band’s 10 CDs, five are on Leo Records, one of the world’s leading adventurous music labels. The latest disc, American Agonistes (Leo Records) has been called a”stunning hour of music that is in turn beautiful, poignant and raucous” (Billboard.com). Guest artists who've appeared with Aardvark include Sheila Jordan, Geri Allen, Dominique Eade, Jaki Byard, Jimmy Giuffre, Robert Honeysucker, Jay Clayton, Walter Thompson, Rajesh Mehta, Paul Lovens, and Harvie Swartz.
Aardvark has performed all-Ellington concerts for more than two decades throughout New England, including a major performance at MIT for the Ellington Centennial (1999), recorded by WGBH radio with portions later released on the Aardvark CD Duke Ellington/ Sacred Music (Aardmuse). Music director Mark Harvey has transcribed many Ducal works, and has written and lectured about Ellington for 25 years. Dr. Harvey’s review of Harvey G. Cohen's monumental new book Duke Ellington's America (Chicago) will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal of American Music. In 1974, Harvey was an usher at Ellington's funeral, held at St. John the Divine Cathedral Church in New York City, where Ellington had previously premiered his Second Sacred Concert. Harvey co-produced an Ellington Sacred Concert at Boston Symphony Hall in 1989, performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra under the direction of Mercer Ellington.
Mark Harvey has performed in the U.S., Mexico and Europe; has recorded with George Russell (Blue Note) and Baird Hersey (Arista/Novus) and has appeared with Gil Evans, Claudio Roditi, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, Joe Carroll, Kenny Dorham and others. He is a winner of awards/commissions from ASCAP, the National Endowment, Meet the Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, and the 15th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, among others. Commissions have featured such notables as Joe Lovano, Steve Turre, Herb Pomeroy and Ran Blake. Dr. Harvey is a United Methodist minister and teaches jazz studies at MIT.
The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra is managed exclusively by Americas Musicworks, Rebecca DeLamotte, Managing Director. Telephone: 888-887-7169. visit: www.americasmusicworks.com
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