The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, with the Scottish National Youth Jazz Orchestra, celebrates the music of Duke Ellington.
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra are at The Queen's Hall on Sunday 6 December, with an opening set by the Scottish National Youth Jazz Orchestra. The whole night is a tribute to Duke Ellington, one of jazz's biggest names, and the two bands together cover his work from across fifty years as a bandleader.
The youth orchestra takes the first set, and they're focusing on Ellington's rarities — the pieces that didn't always make the front of the record. After that, the full orchestra takes over for the masterpieces, the ones that most people recognise. Between the two, you get a good look at the range of what he wrote, from the deep cuts to the standards.
It's a big-band night, so the sound is built around a full horn section. The orchestra describes the second half as honouring Ellington's work with the warmth, balance and dynamic range at the heart of the big band tradition. It follows their internationally acclaimed album In the Spirit of Duke, so the material sits in the same territory as that record.
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The Queen's Hall bills itself as a venue for a wide range of music — classical, jazz and blues, rock, pop, folk, soul, choral, chamber, spoken word and comedy — and this fits right into the jazz side of things. The concert starts at 7:30pm on Sunday 6 December at The Queen's Hall, 85-89 Clerk Street, Edinburgh South EH8 9JG.
