Lawrence Brown igen
I början av månaden publicerade vi ett föredrag om Lawrence Brown som musikforskaren Kurt Dietrich höll på Ellingtonkonferensen i Washington D.C. 1989. I samband med publiceringen bad vi DESS-medlemmarna att sända oss deras favoritlåtar med Lawrence Brown som solist.
Överraskande många hörde av sig och vi tackar Kim Altsund, Bjorn Andresen, Göran Axelsson, Roland Bjurman, Thomas Erikson, Bo Haufman, Brian Koller och Peter Lee för deras bidrag. We thank Kim Altsund, Bjorn Andresen, Göran Axelsson, Roland Bjurman, Thomas Erikson, Bo Haufman, Brian Koller och Peter Lee for their contributions.
Thomas Erikson gav oss en lång låtlista, som delvis sammanföll med han spelade i sitt föredrag om Lawrence Brown på DESS-mötet den 7 maj 2018, och många av hans förslag finns med i l de två spellistor, som vi ställt samman.
De innehåller också fulla versioner av de melodier som Dietrich spelade i sitt föredrag.
Spellista Lawrence Brown 1930-1939
Spellista Lawrence Brown 1940-1966
Uptown Lockdown
DESS’ sister organisation DESUK is not totally locked down but has gone virtual and offers through Uptown Lockdown a weekly program with interviews, music and discussions. It is the brainchild of Anthony Pepper och Frank Griffith – members of the DESUK Board – and started in the summer.
One can follow the programs live but with limited interactivity The best is to wait until the program is made available in the DESUK channel on YouTube. This is mostly done very quickly. All programs broadcasted so far can be found in the channel. The most recent there is the one from Sep. 23 https://youtu.be/zyissWHBzeU.
The DESUK website (http://dukeellington.org.uk) has a page, which describes the different ways one can follow the Uptown Lockdown broadcasts.
DESUK is not the only Ellington Society to adapt to the Covid-19 situation. After six months without meetings, TDES in New York announced last week that from October it resumes meetings but they will be streamed.
Streamed concerts and presentations
The number of streamed concerts with music by Ellington or Strayhorn and lectures about the two is steadily growing.
This month, Duke Ellington Center For The Arts DECFA offered on Sep. 20 a streamed concert called The Great Reunion: A Celebration of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
This hourlong concert is now available on the DECFA’s channel on YouTube (https://youtu.be/hQiCXi111mk).
On Sep.23, Confluence Concerts in Toronto arranged an online concert with Billy Strayhorn’s music called Something To Live For: A Billy Strayhorn Celebration. It is also available on YouTube but only until Oct. 7 (https://youtu.be/SGZfX4qROAA).
Before the concert, there was an interview with Walter van de Leur.
An online lecture NOT to miss is Who Was Duke Ellington part 1. It is given by Loren Schoenberg, founder of and senior scholar at National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Together with other lectures, it is available on JMIH’s Youtube Channel (https://youtu.be/FpriY8buwv0).