THE PARADISE JAZZ SERIES AUDIENCE CONSUMES TWO-HOURS OF DUKE ELLINGTON'S HITS, PLUS HIS NUTCRACKER SUITE

Duke Ellington

Mr. Ellington, when you formed the Duke Ellington Orchestra way back in 1923, did you think it would still be thriving 96 years later? I’d bet a month's salary you believed the orchestra would be popular, but not globally revered nine decades after its founding. Mr. Ellington, I heard the latest incarnation of your orchestra Friday night at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall. The orchestra headlined the second concert of the 2019-2020 Paradise Jazz Series and performed a whopping two-hours. Opening the first set with Take the A Train followed by The Cotton Club Stomp, Satin Doll, The New Orleans Suite, Sophisticated Lady, Caravan, Cotton Tail, and Black and Tan Fantasy. Mr. Ellington that was plenty of music for an audience to consume in one set. I loved certain aspects of the concert overall but was anxious to leave midway through the second set. I appreciate the orchestra stuck to the original intent of your music. No soloist showboated when featured. Trumpeter Frank Greene blew with such conviction I believed the late Cootie Williams’s spirit coached Green during his solos. And when saxophonists Shelley Carrol and Morgan Price were called before the congregation, they damn near blew the upholstery off the main floor seats. Mr. Ellington, the audience could’ve left after the first set, satisfied they’d witnessed the best the orchestra had to offer. The history lesson the conductor Charlie Young prefaced each number with was a welcomed bonus. Young talked about your character as an innovator and as a leader. For the second set, the orchestra gave the audience an early Christmas gift, performing your version of the Nutcracker Suite. Honestly, Mr. Ellington, four movements into the suite, I was ready to call it a night. Not because the movements weren’t happening, or the musicians were tired after the energy-draining first set. The second set felt like a separate concert. Before the orchestra started the suite, Young got carried away joking about his obsession with Thanksgiving turkey, a joke surely, he’s told a thousand times over the years. Why, Mr. Ellington, do some jazz bandleaders long to be comics? The first set I enjoyed. The second one was overkill. Many of the attendees will disagree with my outlook. The audience was engrossed throughout, and I bet the orchestra could’ve played two additional hours and the audience would’ve been okay with that.