The 2016-2017 BCCM Cabaret Series: Elegant Ellington

Celebrating BCCM’s Tenth Anniversary Year! Bayou City Concert Musicals presents The 2016-2017 BCCM Cabaret Series: Elegant Ellington at the Performance Centre @ The Ensemble Theatre, 3535 Main (entrance Fannin & Berry).

Houston legend Rob Landes will musical direct and host the evening that will also feature vocal performances from Anthony Boggess-Glover, Regina Hearne, Danica Dawn Johnston, and Joel Sandel.

Though most consider him a jazz master, Ellington is in a category by himself…he called it “beyond category.”

A pianist, composer and bandleader, Ellington did it all. He wrote more than a thousand compositions, many now considered standards of the Great American Songbook. His style often reflected his collaborators, whether that collaborator was a songwriting partner or a particularly talented musician in his big band.

Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C., the grandson of slaves, in 1899. He learned music from his parents, both of whom were pianists. His mother instilled in him the grace and elegance he became known for throughout his storied career. He was an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and nurtured many young talents, including Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, Harold Arlen, and Billy Strayhorn, who became his closest collaborator.

During his career, which stretched from his teenaged years playing for dances in his hometown to his death in 1974, Duke Ellington wrote over three thousand songs, played more that 20,000 performances, won 13 Grammy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the French Legion of Honor, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

At his funeral in 1974, attended by 12,000 people, Ella Fitzgerald said it all: “A genius has passed.”

Elegant Ellington will feature some of his most popular and influential works, including “It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” “Satin Doll,” Take the ‘A’ Train.” “Sophisticated Lady,” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.”