“Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn" at Black Hawk College Quad Cities Campus -- February 27.
Friday, February 27, 1 p.m.
Black Hawk College Quad Cities Campus, 6600 34th Avenue, Moline IL
With the presentation featuring rare filmed and recorded performances by one of the most iconic orchestras in history, Gates Thomas' program Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn will be delivered at the Black Hawk College Quad Cities Campus on February 27, the public invited on this unforgettable journey through an extraordinary body of American music.
Born in Washington, D.C. in 1899, Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In the 1930s, his orchestra toured Europe several times, and some of the jazz musicians who were members of Ellington's orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered among the genre's all-time-finest players. Ellington melded them into the best-regarded orchestral unit in the history of jazz, with some members choosing to stay with the orchestra for several decades. In the opinion of composers and historians Gunther Schuller and Barry Kernfeld, Ellington is widely considered "the most significant composer of the genre.”
A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78-rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than 1,000 compositions, his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan," that brought a Spanish tinge to big-band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly 30-year collaboration with composer/arranger/pianist Billy Strayhorn, with whom the artist composed multiple extended compositions, suites, and short pieces. Over the course of his career, Ellington earned 14 Grammy awards, three of which were posthumous, and a total of 24 nominations, and although the 75-year-old passed away in 1974, he was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Special Award for music in 1999. Among the most familiar of Ellington's cherished tunes are “It Don't Mean a Thing,” “In a Sentimental Mood,” “Sophisticated Lady,” and “Satin Doll,” with additional United States chart-toppers including “Three Little Words,” “Cocktails for Two,” “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart,” and “Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me.”
Program presenter Gates Thomas, who will participate in a Q&A edvent following his lecture, is a composer, conductor and recording producer whose work has been performed by artists including Pat Metheny, Gary Burton and the Lionel Hampton Big Band. His 2016 research fellowship at the George Washington National Library led him into a second career as a historian, focusing on 20th century music, the American Revolution, the U.S. Navy, Davenport and the recording arts.
Thomas will present Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn on February 27 in Building 4, Room 209 of Black Hawk College's Quad Cities campus, the event begins at 1 p.m., and lunch will be available while supplies last. Admission is free, and more information is available by calling (309)796-5177 and visiting BHC.edu.
