Duke Ellington - Second Sacred Concert

I Had High Hopes...

... but, as jazz it doesn't swing, as classical it doesn't soar.

I like Ellington's jazz a lot. I take him quite seriously as true creator of music, which is the finest thing a human can aspire to be. I was all prepared to find a kind of compositional genius in this "sacred concert" that I could place on a par with the "sacred concerts" of Scarlatti and Rameau in the Baroque era. I didn't find that here. Maybe Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, and company just couldn't jive freely in the pious context of a Romanesque sanctuary... November 23, 2008

The Ellington Spirit Incarnate

This is not only the best of the three Ellington Sacred Concerts but, with Alice Babs on hand, it's one of the best performances of that Concert.

Critics and Ellington "purists" will tell you the Sacred Concerts are inferior Ellington. I beg to disagree. It's true that much of the music, such as the tuneful "Something About Believing," is accessible to the point of being mainstream pop. Duke was playing to a whole new audience and moreover using local choirs that had to learn the music on the fly. But listen to the orchestrations--the inimitable sound of the Ellington reed section--as well as the solo pieces and performances.

Take the ingenious, artful little number, "Heaven." Duke was no visionary like Coltrane: he was a genial, generous-hearted human being with an insatiable appetite for life and the things of this resplendent world. "Heaven" is another "Sophisticated Lady." It will strike some listeners as being "inappropriate" and insufficiently "spiritual." To my ears the piece is a hymn of thanksgiving by an artist who relished and was grateful for every moment of his existence--the sensuous as well as the spiritual.

The Second Sacred Concert is Ellington writing about what he knows and in the process reflecting the substance and style of what had gone before. It's characteristic Ellington, which in my book is music at its best. January 14, 2006

Discography

Second Sacred Concert.
This cd is not a live concert. Ellington's Second Sacred Concert premiered on January 19, 1968 at The Cathedral of St. John Divine in New York City. On January 22, 1968 the numbers featuring Alice Babs were recorded at Fine Studios in New York city. They are "Almighty God," "Heaven," "It's Freedom,"
"TGTT," and "Praise God and Dance." The remaining numbers were recorded at Fine Studios on February 19-20, 1968. June 9, 2002

Supreme Church-Ellington

I find this music (fusion jazz-gospel-classic-christian-psalms) very successful. He did it. Noch ein mal. I've even performed the whole concert in our church (one of the biggest in north europe), and I just said; wow. My favorites are T.G.T.T., The Shepard and the final. There is a reason Duke Ellington reached where he did. This. August 6, 2001

Jazz que toca el alma (Jazz that touches the soul)

"The Seconde Sacred Concert" nos muestra a un gigante entre los grandes, Duke Ellington, en una de sus facetas menos frecuentes: la religión. Pienso que el objetivo del músico en esta obra es la de llegar al alma no sólo de los cristianos sino de todo el mundo y, sobre todo, de aquellos que aman la música. El Concierto lo logra en casi todos los momentos. El tema que me impacta, por ejemplo, es "Freedom". En él los coros llegan al cielo y la música al corazón. Las palabras de Duke son conmovedoras cuando recuerda emocionado a su otrora compañero Billy Strayhorne. Esta sola pieza hace que la compra de este álbum valga la pena. El resto se va en un puñado de canciones de gran categoría, a cargo de solistas y acompañados por un coro religioso. También hay secciones en que la orquesta y el propio Ellington al piano lucen sus varios argumentos musicales. El único defecto, quizás, es el exceso de recitados que, si bien pueden ser muy profundos, pueden llegar a aburrir por su extensión. "The Second Sacred Concert", puede gustar o no, pero nadie puede quedar indiferente ante él. February 14, 2000

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