Ellington’s Sacred Concert at the Mannenberg
2008 MARKS 200 YEARS since American president Thomas Jefferson signed the bill abolishing the slave trade in 1808.
In 1965 jazz master Duke Ellington, himself descended from slaves and recognized as one of the most influential figures in jazz, was moved to write three massive works that combined elements of jazz, classical music, choral music, spirituals, gospel, blues and dance. He called them his “Sacred Concerts,” and they were performed in churches and cathedrals around the world. He said it was the most important thing he’d ever done.
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 30 years since his death in 1974.
200 Years of Freedom celebrated in Harare with Duke Ellington’s ‘Sacred Concert’
featuring Prudence Katomene-Mbofana, Trio Arctic big band, Zimbabwe College of Music Choir
Saturday 08 November 2008:
2 pm Zimbabwe College of Music, Free entrance
8 pm The Mannenberg Jazz Club, cover charge
On Saturday 8 November the Zimbabwe College of Music celebrates the anniversary of the abolition of slavery with an extraordinary presentation of the ‘Sacred Concert’, with the big band ‘Trio Arctic’, soprano soloist Prudence Katomene-Mbofana, and the 50-strong ZCM choir, at the Zimbabwe College of Music auditorium, and The Mannenberg Jazz Club (2 and 8pm respectively).
The 1-hour concert combines jazz, classical, spirituals and gospel, blues and dance. From the exuberant and energetic opening “Praise God and Dance” to sensuous solo song, beautiful a capella and swinging big band. The lyrics in the concert, and especially in the cycles of “Freedom”, are the slave’s prayers to God.
The solo soprano part will be sung by the well-known Zimbabwean jazz singer Prudence Katomene-Mbofana, who is currently a degree student at ZCM, and the huge choir comprises all students of the college, which presents a big concert every semester, sponsored by Fredskorpset and Fredrikstad Culture school, Norway. The 2007 “Musicals in Concert” was well received by Harare audiences.
For Sat 8 November, the big band comprises professional musicians from Zimbabwe and Norway, featuring Filbert Marova (piano), Owen Phiri (drums), Elisha Herema (bass), Timothy Kazembe (guitar), Eyvind Helseth, (trumpet), Tone Jordhus Søvik and Brith Løkken (saxophones), Linda Helseth and Addington Mutandadzi (trombones).
Pamberi Trust’s jazz support programme at The Mannenberg Jazz Club in Fife Avenue, which works to develop jazz in Zimbabwe, welcomes this exciting development event. Project officer Penny Yon said: “This is a great achievement by the Zimbabwe College of Music, and we are so proud to see Zimbabwean musicians and music students stepping up to the challenge. This is the first staging of the Sacred Concert in Zimbabwe, and we look forward to this new experience, and anticipate an exciting performance. It’s an early evening show with limited seating, so music-lovers are encouraged to arrive early to get a good seat!” The one-hour performance begins promptly at 8pm.
Duke’ Ellington - of whom it is written that his greatest contribution was “forcing the critical world to deal seriously with jazz as an art form” wrote in the introduction to the score of the Sacred Concerts: “As I travel place to place by car, bus, train, plane … taking rhythm to the dancers, harmony to the romantic, melody to the nostalgic, gratitude to the listener … receiving praise, applause and handshakes, and at the same time, doing the thing I like to do, I feel that I am most fortunate because I know that God has blessed my timing. … When a man feels that that which he enjoys in his life is only because of the grace of God, he rejoices, and sometimes dances.”
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