AMERICAN ICONS

Confluence Concerts Artistic Associate ANDREW DOWNING introduces AMERICAN ICONS: ELLINGTON/STRAYHORN/WILLIAMS, being performed September 25 and 26, 2024 at Heliconian Hall in Toronto. Tickets available at www.confluenceconcerts.ca

The great Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington famously coined the phrase "There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind." And, he said of his frequent collaborator Billy Strayhorn that his music was "beyond category". Though both of these musicians are often categorized as 'jazz musicians', that label was something they avoided and even refused. 

As someone whose musical life is filled with different situations and experiences with a multitude of diverse musicians with varying backgrounds and experiences, the idea of categorization of music has always felt problematic to me. I fully realize that there are practices and tendencies in groupings of music, such as jazz, rhythm and blues, contemporary classical, early music, country music, Turkish music, etc. that help to describe, and pay respect to traditions, but I have found that for me, the best music is hard to fit into a category. 

This concert celebrates three American composers and performers whose music was just 'good music'. It may, on the outside, have the trappings of jazz music, but the entirety of the music is broad-reaching and rich, bringing with it the whole experience of the artists - a real American experience. It includes in it the lush harmonies of Debussy and Ravel, the indescribable feeling of the blues, the syncopation and swing of African-American music from New Orleans around the turn of the 20th century, and forms and lyricism of the Tin Pan Alley songs of the 1920s. It combines all of that in one beautiful package that is really beyond category.

The songs by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington were written mostly for Duke Ellington's band, and the arrangements have been crafted from transcriptions of different performances by various artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, and the composers themselves. The movements from The Zodiac Suite by Mary Lou Williams were transcribed from her own recording of the piece.

- Andrew Downing

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PERFORMERS IN AMERICAN ICONS

Ineza Mugisha - voice
Suba Sankaran - voice
Dérrell Woods - voice

Larry Beckwith - viola
Alexa Belgrave - piano
Andrew Chung - violin
Andrew Downing - double bass
Aidan McConnell - drums
Beth Silver - cello