MO plays Duke Ellington

Over the last years, many fantastic international arrangers have arranged the music of Ellington especially for the Metropole Orkest. The music that we’ll play this evening in Tilburg gives you a good impression of Ellington’s different styles in the 20’s and 60’s of the last century.

We emphasize mainly on the repertoire of Ellington’s legendary ‘1940-band’ with a.o. Ben Webster playing tenor sax and bass player Jimmy Blanton. Like in Ellington’s band, the orchestra’s own soloists, all top notch musicians, play a big role in tonight’s concert.

Highlight of the show is symphonic suite Harlem that Ellington wrote in 1951 as part of an orchestral suite inspired by the city of New York. The piece premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1955. Harlem is a piece fits the orchestra like a glove. This is what the legend himself said about Harlem: “We would now like to take you on a tour of this place called Harlem… It is Sunday morning. We a strolling from 11th Street up Seventh Avenue, heading north through the Spanish and West Indian neighborhood towards the 125th Street business area… You may hear a parade go by, or a funeral, or you may recognize the passage of those who are making Civil Rights demands.”