‘Duke Ellington in London SW2 – For One Night Only!’

Duke Ellington scarcely needs introducing to readers of UK Jazz News. But, that said, the opportunity to experience Ellington’s Sacred Concert with large forces in a packed theatre is not to be missed. There will be a buzz. The stalls are already sold out…

On Saturday 7 November, South Londoners can witness Ellington’s work being performed by choral society Streatham Choral directed by Calum Fraser, joining forces with Brixton Chamber Orchestra’s Big Band and soprano soloist Verushka. Streatham Choral typically performs in churches in SW16, with occasional outings to the West End’s Cadogan Hall – but this concert of Ellington will take place in the Streatham Hill Theatre – one of South London’s most venerable performance venues, dating back to the jazz era of the1920s. It will be quite an occasion, the first time that Streatham Choral has worked with the Brixton Chamber Orchestra.

Ellington created three different versions of the work. The first, his ‘Concert of Sacred Music’ was performed in San Francisco in 1965. The aptly named ‘Second Sacred Concert’ was premiered in New York two years later, and the ‘Third Sacred Concert’ in Westminster Abbey in London in 1973. Although all three of the versions share many of the same musical elements, the content for each performance varied, depending on the forces available at the time. Streatham Choral and Brixton Chamber Orchestra will be using the Høybye/Pedersen version prepared for an international conference on Ellington’s Sacred Concerts in 1993.

Ellington himself, certainly towards the end of his life, was reluctant to label his own music as jazz, describing it as ‘beyond category’, so perhaps we need to be careful when applying the norms of jazz to Ellington’s Sacred Concert. But just as the Sacred Concert both is and isn’t jazz, it both is and isn’t a sacred choral piece of the type familiar to those in the habit of sitting down in a concert hall or church to hear a performance of Handel’s Messiah – though the comparisons are as interesting as the contrasts. It’s not just the jazz ‘category’, for example, that makes space for improvisation. Composers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often provided their performers with little more than a melody and a ‘figured bass’, in effect an invitation for performers to improvise their parts within the framework provided. Turn up at any church with a ‘classical’ musical tradition even today and much of the music provided by the organist will be improvised.

Music Director, Calum Fraser, who last led Streatham Choral in performances of Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and who will next be directing Mendelssohn’s Elijah in the Cadogan Hall, is looking forward to the challenge of leading a performance of Duke Ellington. ‘Working on Duke Ellington’s wonderful composition has been an absolute joy. Rehearsals are very different, as the vocal techniques are quite unlike what would usually be asked of the choir. Most pertinently, there is an element of improvisation in the score, which will mean the choir will have to be on their toes in the ‘For one night only’ performance’.

Matthew O’Keefe who founded and leads Brixton Chamber Orchestra, though classically trained, is also a big band saxophonist. He has also worked in the Streatham Hill Theatre before and led his orchestra in Gospel Orchestrated there on 17 October. ‘I’m really glad to be performing in this amazing space twice this Autumn,’ says Matt, ‘and to delve into such different types of gospel music, the development of which is bound up tightly with that of jazz. The Ellington is a brilliant piece of music. Choirs and big bands aren’t an everyday combo so we are all looking forward to this! We hope people will come along for what promises to be a very special performance.’