Music composed by Duke Ellington after meeting the late Queen Elizabeth and intended for her ears only will be performed by the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) next month.
Duke and monarch met at the Leeds Centenary Music Festival on October 18 1958 when the jazz great was touring Europe with his orchestra. Ellington was so taken by the then 31-year-old sovereign that he began writing as soon as he returned to his hotel room. The result was The Queen’s Suite, a 20 minute piece in six movements of which The Single Petal Of A Rose is the best known.
Returning to the US, Ellington recorded the suite at his own expense in order to retain control of the master tapes – then had a single gold disc made up and sent to Buckingham Palace the following year. It was his wish that the music never be performed, at least in his lifetime.
“The music was supposed to remain unavailable to the general public but an album was eventually released in 1976 following Ellington’s death,” said saxophonist, educator and SNJO creative director Tommy Smith. “I’m really glad that it was because the Queen’s Suite includes some outstanding writing by Ellington and his co-composer and arranger, Billy Strayhorn, that really needs to be heard and appreciated.”
The SNJO recorded The Single Petal Of A Rose in 2013 alongside two other movements from the Queen’s Suite and other Ellington classics such as Rocking In Rhythm and Black And Tan Fantasy. The 2022 concert series in which these pieces feature, In The Spirit Of Duke, will take in performances in Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow at the beginning of December.
“He’s such an inspirational figure,” said Smith. “We’ll be following every last Ellington detail, including the stage set-up, using specially sourced period trumpet and trombone mutes and playing scores that in some cases were specially transcribed from Ellington performances. We want to give audiences as close to the real-deal Ellington experience as possible.”
Ahead of those shows Smith will be performing Luminescence at the capital’s St Giles Cathedral, a collaboration artist Maria Rud. It will see the Edinburgh-born musician play solo saxophone while Rud creates accompanying artworks which will be projected onto the east wall of the 12th century building in real time.
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