NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

3/21/2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - The University Jazz Orchestra at Northwestern State University will present "The Best of the Sacred Concerts of Duke Ellington" Wednesday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. The Jazz Orchestra is directed by Galindo Rodriguez.

Also performing will be the NSU Chorus directed by Michael Rorex and the NSU Tap Repertoire directed by Susan Hussey. Coordinator of Music Tony Smith will introduce the concert.

Soloists include Carlos Ortiz IV and Ryan Robertson on trumpet, Chris Moore on trombone, Chris Huggins on baritone saxophone, Curtis Simmons on drums, Elena Bocagczova on piano and vocalists Jeremy Williams and Renee Scallion.

In the last years of Ellington's life, the jazz maestro explored the spiritual side of his extraordinary musical gifts. Between 1966 and 1973, Ellington wrote three massive works that combined elements of jazz, classical music, choral music, spirituals, gospel, blues and dance, according to www.dukeellington.com.

He called them his "sacred concerts" and they were performed in churches and cathedrals around the world. He said it was the most important music he'd ever written.

Because of the scale of the music and the sheer number of artists needed to execute each work, Ellington's sacred concerts have rarely been performed in the decades since his death in 1974.

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