Duke Ellington Repertory Orchestra
On Thursday night I headed out to the Leeds College of Music with the Jazz and Blues society to see some fine traditional jazz from the Duke Ellington Repertory Orchestra. The orchestra played pieces composed and arranged by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington himself and was a truely wonderful performance.
The first set started off with some of the older and more unusual pieces with the second half of the proceedings livening things up a lot with some superb solo performances.
This big band is well worth seeing and certainly made me remember back to the North Sea Jazz Festival when I saw the Dizzy Gillespie big band play there. Big band jazz is still as amazing as it ever was and still has a place in the world of today; for where would we be without the sound of four trumpets, three trombones and a superb sax soloist up front with piano accompaniment? Significantly less jazzy and nowhere near as happy would be my answer!