Duke Ellington News

HACKETTSTOWN -- The Carrie Jackson Sextet will perform at the Centenary Theater, 400 Jefferson St., at 8 p.m. Saturday.

One of the bonuses of being post-colonial, 'multi-rooted' Indians is the variety of good music that fills our lives and does desirable things to our hearts and souls.

On July 7, 1930, as the Great Depression tightened its grip on America, the Des Moines City Council voted to pass an "ordinance to provide for prohibition, license, regulation and supervision of public dances within the city of Des Moines." Nearly 80 years later, a group of cultural advocates is petitioning the council to overturn the ordinance, ...

If there was ever any doubt that Hiromi Uehara - who performs and records under her first name alone - is a fusion musician, that's surely been laid to rest by her most recent release, Beyond Standard .

Debbie Reynolds was the presenter in 1962 when Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini won Oscars for "Moon River'' from "Breakfast at Tiffany's.'' "Baby shall we go/Out skippin'?/Careful, amigo,/You're flippin'. Speaks Latin,/That satin doll.'' The concision of phrasing, the easy languor of the language, the winking wit: How could Johnny Mercer, the man ...

"First I thought, 'This is the maid,' " says photographer Herman Leonard. "She said, 'Excuse me, but I've got to feed the dog.' She had a steak in the frying pan, and she was cooking the steak for the dog." The woman was Billie Holiday, one of the greatest voices of modern times.

For more than 50 years, jazz trumpeter Eddie Preston graced stages from Russia to Europe with the likes of Ray Charles, Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus.

Art Tatum , born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, learned to play the piano by ear, developing a very fast playing style while maintaining accuracy.

Jazz great Duke Ellington once said, "If it sounds good and feels good then it is good." Washington, D.C.'s premier jazz festival, named in Duke's honor, promises all of the above and more.

This week, the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival here in Washington, D.C. presented a lifetime achievement award to New Orleans pianist Ellis Marsalis.

Come give your happy feet a chance and jump, jive and wail at Pittsburgh CLO 's production of Swing!, playing June 20 through 26 at the Benedum Center in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District.

This 1958 photo released by Herman Leonard Photography, shows jazz great Duke Ellington playing the piano at the Olympia Theater in Paris.

All Rights Reserved. Ryder takes over a subway train in "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3." NEXT rating: C Noted jazz musician Duke Ellington may have made taking the A train famous.

D.C. musician Elijah Easton plays in the White House Music Series. Buy Photo Jazz great Wynton Marsalis, left, and Duke Ellington School of the Arts graduate Elijah Easton, 17, perform during the Jazz Studio, the first of the White House Music Series.

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The White House sounded more like the music wing of a high school than a seat of government Monday - and that's just the way First Lady Michelle Obama likes it.Mrs. Obama launched a White House music festival that brought 150 students together with musical legends like Wynton Marsalis and Paquito D'Rivera for a workshop on jazz, which the first ...

"...performances that enchant, surprise and ineffably capture the imagination. Riley's lyrics and Donald's music seem to flow together in a single flood of invention..." --Jazzwise Magazine Sirena Riley started her first night in London by opening a 'Time Out' magazine and going to the first jazz open mic session she could find.

"I never expected to see you again," quipped the octogenarian Dave Brubeck following the standing ovation that occurred Thursday evening at the Warner Theater before the first notes of the concert were struck.

ENERGETIC swing band Ellingtonia is performing tomorrow night at Lympstone Village Hall, on School Hill in Lympstone.

The concept of a "Best Of" album seems like it should be set aside for those musicians who have entered the popular consciousness to the degree that a sampler disc would be an easy sell.