Richard Wang was an Associate Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Ensembles at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He also directed the professional Fletcher Basington Orchestra which specialised in the music of Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
He started to contribute presentations to the Ellington Conferences already in 1990 and at the conference in Stockholm in 1994, he talked about Ellington music.
The full title his presentation at Ellington ’97 was The Art of Song in Three Ellington Musicals.
The main part of it are videos from productions of Ellington musicals in Chicago behind which Wang was a driving force, foremost Jump for Joy and Beggar’s Holiday. He also showed a long sequence from the only films that exist on the life around Jump for Joy in Hollywood in 1941.
When I have time, I will also publish Richard Wang’s presentation at the Ellington Conference in Stochholm in 1994.
Author and video editor: Ulf Lundin