SNJO In An Ellington Mood Queen's Hall Edinburgh 10th December 2023 Review
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra In An Ellington Mood at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was a lovingly crafted tribute to one of the giants of 20th century music (of any genre) – Duke Ellington.
SNJO director Tommy Smith not only has a deep knowledge of how Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn individually and collaboratively created some of the definitive music of their era. But was also invited to play with the Ellington Legacy Orchestra when they toured Switzerland in 1999, a band that then included some of the original members of Duke Ellington’s own band.
Great care has been taken with this production to recreate not only the sound of Ellington’s music but also the feel of it by recreating the band line up and using specially sourced period brass mutes. The music played is often taken from scores specially transcribed from Ellington live performances. Add to this some outstanding musicianship and more than a touch of sartorial elegance from the band and this performance is as close as many of us will ever get to a Duke Ellington band performance.
Duke Ellington composed over 1,000 songs in his lifetime and I have to admit to being familiar with far too few of them, but the selection of music performed tonight included some of the more obvious including “Take The ‘A’ Train” and “Mood Indigo” plus a few surprises.
The music of Duke Ellington is one of those places where any perceived by some people superiority of classical music over all other forms simply disappears and the statement is rendered meaningless as tonight’s programme of music demonstrated clearly a talent as important to music as any of the classical masters. Here is music of emotion, power, diversity, subtlety and creativeness that matches anything that went before it. I sometimes try to imagine just what music Mozart, Beethoven or any of the other great classical composers would have created if they had access to some of the instruments that the SNJO played tonight. It was, however, clear what Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn could create tonight with their interpretations of music from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” and Edvard Griegʼs “Peer Gynt Suite” amongst a very diverse musical set list.
The addition of vocalist Lucy-Anne Daniels added much to this evening’s programme of music with her wonderfully timed and intuitive interpretations of classics that included “It Don’t Mean A Thing”, “I Ain’t Got Nothing But The Blues”, “Let’s Do It” and “Satin Doll”.
With “In An Ellington Mood” Tommy Smith and the SNJO have achieved their goals – keeping the music of Duke Ellington alive, introducing that live Ellington music experience to a new generation of people (there were a lot of young faces in tonight’s audience) and probably making a lot of us (including myself) wish that we could have been there to hear this music played live first time around.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
SNJO director Tommy Smith not only has a deep knowledge of how Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn individually and collaboratively created some of the definitive music of their era. But was also invited to play with the Ellington Legacy Orchestra when they toured Switzerland in 1999, a band that then included some of the original members of Duke Ellington’s own band.
Great care has been taken with this production to recreate not only the sound of Ellington’s music but also the feel of it by recreating the band line up and using specially sourced period brass mutes. The music played is often taken from scores specially transcribed from Ellington live performances. Add to this some outstanding musicianship and more than a touch of sartorial elegance from the band and this performance is as close as many of us will ever get to a Duke Ellington band performance.
Duke Ellington composed over 1,000 songs in his lifetime and I have to admit to being familiar with far too few of them, but the selection of music performed tonight included some of the more obvious including “Take The ‘A’ Train” and “Mood Indigo” plus a few surprises.
The music of Duke Ellington is one of those places where any perceived by some people superiority of classical music over all other forms simply disappears and the statement is rendered meaningless as tonight’s programme of music demonstrated clearly a talent as important to music as any of the classical masters. Here is music of emotion, power, diversity, subtlety and creativeness that matches anything that went before it. I sometimes try to imagine just what music Mozart, Beethoven or any of the other great classical composers would have created if they had access to some of the instruments that the SNJO played tonight. It was, however, clear what Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn could create tonight with their interpretations of music from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” and Edvard Griegʼs “Peer Gynt Suite” amongst a very diverse musical set list.
The addition of vocalist Lucy-Anne Daniels added much to this evening’s programme of music with her wonderfully timed and intuitive interpretations of classics that included “It Don’t Mean A Thing”, “I Ain’t Got Nothing But The Blues”, “Let’s Do It” and “Satin Doll”.
With “In An Ellington Mood” Tommy Smith and the SNJO have achieved their goals – keeping the music of Duke Ellington alive, introducing that live Ellington music experience to a new generation of people (there were a lot of young faces in tonight’s audience) and probably making a lot of us (including myself) wish that we could have been there to hear this music played live first time around.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Please note that unless requested by performers/pr/venues that this website no longer uses the "star rating" system on reviews.