A couple of weeks ago, I found in one of the Benny Åslund boxes a cassette marked 5 Dec 66 Wash “Sacred Concert”.
When I put it in my cassette player, it was really low-fi but I have worked on it as Anders Asplund taught me to do and I found that the sound is now quite acceptable.
Ellington played a Sacred Concert at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York on 4th December 1966, and the day after, another one at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. It was sponsored by the Interdenominational Church Ushers Association of D.C. and was surrounded by some controversy. The Baptist Ministers Conference boycotted the concert because it considered that Ellington music was not “sacred” but Duke wanted the concert to go on.
Rev. E. Franklin Jackson of John Wesley AME Zion Church, a Democratic National Committee member, disagreed with the boycott and agreed to deliver the invocation. He presented Ellington at the concert. He said ‘Duke grew up in my church and played the piano for Sunday School. His music is wonderful for the church.
Contrary to what I wrote in the first version of the article, there was only one concert, in two parts with a break in between. Below is the first side of the cassette and the next article will have the second side.
Comments are welcome!
Author and tape editor: Ulf Lundin
Thank you for this. The choir is far above average for a Sacred Concert.
Thank you! Don’t miss part two of the concert that I will publish today. Less of the choir but some good things with Ellington,the orchestra and Jimmy McPhail.