In the last years of his life, Duke Ellington created three major concerts that became what he called "the most important thing I've done." He called them his "sacred concerts”, and they remain the richest embodiment of his highest ideal – to combine jazz, classical music, choral music, spirituals, gospel, and blues together into a form he simply called “American” music.

In the mid-60s, these concerts were performed in churches and cathedrals around the world. They received a lot of attention, and not all of it positive. Many saw the sacred concerts as an attempt to use Duke’s popularity to reinforce commercial support for organized religion.

It’s hard to say for sure, because we can’t ask him anymore. But I think that for Duke, there was a much deeper story in play.

From everything I have learned about the man, it seems that Duke understood something about music that most of us don’t get: that while music may be something we all love, it’s not a universal language.

He understood that in spite of all our warm feelings about the universality of music, it also underscores just how different we are. In Duke’s time, the classical crowd didn’t hang around with the blues crowd, or with the jazz crowd for that matter. For every style of music, there was a different level of society. In 1968, these different levels didn’t talk to each other very much.

I can’t imagine that Duke wouldn’t have known that pushing classical up against gospel would be challenging for both sides. In fact, it seems that he also knew that it was finally time to learn tolerance through listening - listening to someone else’s world, to experience how others think; how they feel, and to be amazed at how truly different another culture can be.

So by combining classical music, choral music, spirituals, gospel, and blues together Duke wasn’t just trying to be clever, he was actually introducing one world to another, and letting us get to know each other.

So organized religion wasn’t using Duke’s popularity. Quite the opposite, Duke was using every resource he had to promote true harmony.

This week on Choral Concert you will hear a re-mounting of one of those concerts, originally performed in Grace Cathedral in San Fransico in September of 1965 - and faithfully reproduced at St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church, Vancouver last November. It’s a moving and powerful performance by the Sacred Music Gospel Choir and the Fred Stride jazz Orchestra.

 
Duke Ellington in 1965 at Grace Cathedral in San Fransico combining jazz, choral and even tap dancing.

Is music a universal language? Was this Duke Ellington's greatest work? We'd love to know your thoughts in our comments section.

Related Links:

Choral Concert

The Duke lives on at dukeellington.com

posted by Jeff Reilly on Feb 24, 2012