Genoa, the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Politeama
Genoa – No one like Duke Ellington has elevated the jazz tradition to a supreme form of art, giving it equal dignity with cultured music of Western origin. Musical genius, author of memorable pieces that have fully entered the musical history of the twentieth century, Duke Ellington ennobled a genre which from then on would never again be counted as folklore, a minor, convoluted, primitive musical form, an occasion for mere divertissement. In this regard, the affirmation of another jazz great, Miles Davis, an extremely haughty character and certainly little accustomed to the praise and recognition of others, is eloquent: “I think – said the trumpeter and composer from Missouri, proponent of some turning point in the history of jazz – that all musicians should get together someday, get down on their knees and thank Duke”. To revive his music once more, Tuesday 24 January at 9 pm at the Politeama Genovese, will be the Duke Ellington Orchestra, a formation led by his nephew Paul and directed by Charlie Young III, which keeps alive the Maestro’s artistic legacy, bringing the beauty of his jazz around the world. Or rather of his music, because Ellington, in rejecting rigid labels, used to reiterate that there were only two genres: good and bad music. There is no doubt to which of the two categories the immense Ellingtonian production belonged, and continues to belong, which it ranges from swing to an elaborate suitelike the famous Black, brown and beige, from concerts of sacred music to soundtracks.
Even those who are not a passionate jazzophile will certainly have the opportunity to listen to some of the immortal pieces written by Ellington for his famous orchestra, in which soloists of the caliber of Harry Carney, Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, Jimmy Blanton, Ben Webster, Paul Gonsalves, Clark Terry. Admired, already at the end of the 1920s, by exceptional spectators such as the composer Igor Stravinsky, the conductor Leopold Stokowsky, the clarinet virtuoso Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington knew how to create a sound – think of the “jungle style”, rendered with the use of mutes, or the “growl” of brass and clarinets – which made his orchestra unique and inimitable, a powerful sound machine capable not only of reconnecting Harlem with its African roots but of forcefully reaffirming and enhancing a peculiar cultural identity. Assisted by his close friend Billy Strayhorn, arranger and co-author of some compositions including the famous Take the A train which has become the theme song of the orchestra, and always ready to fix on a piece of paper the sketch of an extemporaneous melody (many masterpieces were born during a journey by train, taxi, plane, on the sofa in a hall or in the wings of a theater), during his prestigious career Ellington has churned out an impressive array of tunes – from Satin Doll to In a Sentimental Mood, from Does It Mean Nothing If She Doesn’t Have That Swing? to C jam blues, from Mood indigo to In a mellow tone – become gods tout-court classics of 20th-century music. Tickets from 45.50 to 56.50 euros.