It will be a hot time in old D.C. from June 5 to June 15 when the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival brings headliners from New Orleans for the fifth anniversary of the marathon music fest named after Washington’s native son. (Ellington grew up on Ward Place, at 22nd and M Streets.)
Most events throughout the city are free; some charge a fee. The Phillips Collection starts things off with a piano jazz concert on the eve of the festival, June 4, and holds free Jazz n’ Families Fun Days on the 6th and 7th. Other events include “Jazz in the ‘Hoods” programs at more than 30 neighborhood clubs, free concerts on the Mall, and a performance at the National Gallery of Art’s sculpture garden. On June 10, the French embassy features the legendary clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, the festival’s artistic director, joined by Dr. Michael White and his Original Liberty Jazz Band. The Kennedy Center programs, featuring free Millennium Stage events, will conclude with a Concert Hall benefit performance on June 15 honoring pianist and composer Ellis Marsalis, the patriarch of the Marsalis family. The concert includes members of his family, Harry Connick, Jr., and others.
Charles Fishman, the festival’s founder/producer, is a composer who was Dizzy Gillespie’s manager for many years. He has produced international music events, and as a native Washingtonian and jazz fan, he felt the nation’s capital deserved a festival honoring America’s only original art form―so he started one.
He has lined up an impressive list of chairmen: New Orleans-born Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., of Patton Boggs, LLP; Walter Isaacson, the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, who was also born in New Orleans; Sheila C. Johnson, CEO of Salamander Hospitality and the president of the Washington Mystics; Marc H. Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans, now the head of the National Urban League; and political consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin, who currently live in New Orleans. Steven Stolman is the new president of the festival’s fundraising Ovation Society.
Today considered an important musician as well as a prime jazzman, Edward Kennedy Ellington, who died in 1974, was nicknamed Duke as a boy for his dapper style. Always elegant, he never changed his manner, whether he was at the Cotton Club in Harlem or at Carnegie Hall. A composer, pianist, and bandleader, he appeared in movies and wrote film music. His score for “Paris Blues,” starring Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman, is considered a classic.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the French Legion of Honor. In 1965, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. When he didn’t receive it, he said, aged 67, “Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.” On his centennial in 1999, the Pulitzer Prize Board finally recognized him with a special citation as one of the most influential figures in American music.
And one more honor: Four months ago the U.S. Mint launched a new quarter, dedicated to the District of Columbia and graced by an image of the city’s own Duke next to a grand piano.
Most events throughout the city are free; some charge a fee. The Phillips Collection starts things off with a piano jazz concert on the eve of the festival, June 4, and holds free Jazz n’ Families Fun Days on the 6th and 7th. Other events include “Jazz in the ‘Hoods” programs at more than 30 neighborhood clubs, free concerts on the Mall, and a performance at the National Gallery of Art’s sculpture garden. On June 10, the French embassy features the legendary clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, the festival’s artistic director, joined by Dr. Michael White and his Original Liberty Jazz Band. The Kennedy Center programs, featuring free Millennium Stage events, will conclude with a Concert Hall benefit performance on June 15 honoring pianist and composer Ellis Marsalis, the patriarch of the Marsalis family. The concert includes members of his family, Harry Connick, Jr., and others.
Charles Fishman, the festival’s founder/producer, is a composer who was Dizzy Gillespie’s manager for many years. He has produced international music events, and as a native Washingtonian and jazz fan, he felt the nation’s capital deserved a festival honoring America’s only original art form―so he started one.
He has lined up an impressive list of chairmen: New Orleans-born Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., of Patton Boggs, LLP; Walter Isaacson, the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, who was also born in New Orleans; Sheila C. Johnson, CEO of Salamander Hospitality and the president of the Washington Mystics; Marc H. Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans, now the head of the National Urban League; and political consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin, who currently live in New Orleans. Steven Stolman is the new president of the festival’s fundraising Ovation Society.
Today considered an important musician as well as a prime jazzman, Edward Kennedy Ellington, who died in 1974, was nicknamed Duke as a boy for his dapper style. Always elegant, he never changed his manner, whether he was at the Cotton Club in Harlem or at Carnegie Hall. A composer, pianist, and bandleader, he appeared in movies and wrote film music. His score for “Paris Blues,” starring Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman, is considered a classic.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the French Legion of Honor. In 1965, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. When he didn’t receive it, he said, aged 67, “Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.” On his centennial in 1999, the Pulitzer Prize Board finally recognized him with a special citation as one of the most influential figures in American music.
And one more honor: Four months ago the U.S. Mint launched a new quarter, dedicated to the District of Columbia and graced by an image of the city’s own Duke next to a grand piano.
