5 Things In The Jazz World This Week

50th Anniversary of Duke Ellington's 'Concert of Sacred Music'

Photos by Ronald Davis

• The 50th Anniversary of Duke Ellington's 'Concert of Sacred Music.'
• 58th Monterey Jazz Festival kicked off. The SFJAZZ High School All-Stars Orchestra performs on the Night Club stage at 2pm on Saturday (9/19)!
• Ethan Hawke stars in Robert Budreau's Chet Baker non-biopic ‘Born to Be Blue.’
• Christian Scott released Stretch Music, featuring SFJAZZ High School All-Stars alum Elena Pinderhughes (flute). The release also includes an App, which let's fans play along with the record.
• Danilo Perez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade (Wayne Shorter Quartet minus Wayne) released Children of The Light.

Through The Years: SFJAZZ at Grace Cathedral

With tonight's Clarinet Summit (David Murray, Don Byron, Anat Byron & Todd Marcus) in store, we've compiled a highlight reel of a number of artists SFJAZZ has presented at San Francisco's iconic Grace Cathedral through the years.

Yusef Lateef & Adam Randolph

1998 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Anthony Braxton

World Premiere of Composition No. 132

1986 Jazz In The City

Cecil Taylor

1991 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Tom Harrell & Charlie Haden

1998 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Bill Frisell

2007 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Zakir Hussain & Charles Lloyd

2001 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares

2006 Spring Season

Cameron Carpenter

SFJAZZ Season 2 (2014)

Branford Marsalis (2012)

(No photograph on record, however Marsalis released the performance in 2014)

A Concert Of Sacred Music, 50 Years Later

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra consecrated San Francisco's Grace Cathedral with the premiere of "A Concert Of Sacred Music" on September 16, 1965. The concert was filmed (above) by KQED, in partnership with San Francisco Chronicle jazz critic Ralph Gleason.

"I recognized this as an exceptional opportunity," Ellington wrote in his 1973 autobiography Music Is My Mistress. "'Now I can say openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.'"

Read Jesse Hamlin's "Sanctified By Jazz: Music at Grace Cathedral."

25th Anniversary of Duke Ellington's "Concert Of Sacred Music" (Program Book Cover)

25 years later (1990), Jazz In The City (now SFJAZZ) presented the 25th Anniversary of Ellington's "most important work of his career" at Grace Cathedral, featuring The Duke Ellington Orchestra (dir. by Mercer Ellington), Brock Peters, Jimmy McPhail, Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and special guest Bunny Briggs.

Grace Cathedral

And then 50 years later, SFJAZZ presented the 50th Anniversary of Duke Ellington's "Concert Of Sacred Music." What was different this time around? While the 25th Anniversary sought to recreate the music and exact program premiered by Ellington in 1965, the 50th Anniversary was a reworking, with all-new arrangements by acclaimed saxophonist, bandleader and longtime SFJAZZ Collective member Miguel Zenón.

Branford Marsalis: In My Solitude

Marsalis Music and OKeh Records have teamed up to release a recording of the solo "Sacred Space" performance given by saxophone great Branford Marsalis at San Francisco's iconic Grace Cathedral during the 30th Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival on October 5, 2012.
Standing at the top of Nob Hill, Grace Cathedral has been a part of jazz history since it was completed in 1964 and consecrated by the legendary Duke Ellington with his Concert of Sacred Music, performed and recorded at Grace on September 16, 1965.

Concerts at Grace are an SFJAZZ tradition that goes back to the origins of the organization, and Branford joins the illustrious ranks of master saxophonists to perform in the space including Joe Henderson, Jackie McLean, Pharoah Sanders, Charles Lloyd, Dewey Redman, Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Yusef Lateef, and Joshua Redman.

Entitled In My Solitude: Live at Grace Cathedral, Branford's new album captures the feel of the cavernous cathedral and its natural seven-second reverberation – an acoustic environment that Marsalis had to prepare for carefully. "Every room has a sound of its own. There’s a difference between playing in the Village Vanguard, and Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, and Royal Festival Hall in London; and there is definitely a difference playing in Grace Cathedral, with its seven-second delay. Playing solo interludes in other rooms where my quartet performs was not going to prepare me. I had to hear that Grace Cathedral sound in my head."
In My Solitude contains the complete concert, including a selection of originals and standards, a movement from a C.P.E. Bach oboe sonata, and a set of improvisations that blend harmoniously with the unique acoustic properties of Grace Cathedral.

The album is available as a download, on CD and on 180 gram vinyl.

Listen to a sample:




Read more at the Marsalis Music website:
BRANFORD MARSALIS CELEBRATES MELODY AND FEELING ON IN MY SOLITUDE: LIVE AT GRACE CATHEDRAL

Zakir Hussain: On getting into jazz

Tabla master Zakir Hussain reflects on his first encounter with jazz in India, his first collaborations with American jazz artists in the Bay Area, and the similarities between jazz and Indian classical music. A 2014-15 Resident Artistic Director, Zakir Hussain presents two unique weeks of programming at the SFJAZZ Center. Check out what's coming up.

PHOTO: Organist Cameron Carpenter at Grace Cathedral

Last Friday, Cameron Carpenter rocked Grace Cathedral to a crowd well over a thousand! The young organist has been making waves that far surpass the classical community (in which he admittedly feels like an outcast). As savvy with words as his chosen instrument, Cameron Carpenter wittily called his musical mission "queering the organ." Indeed, the performance was anything but conventional--repertoire ranged from J.S. Bach, to Brian Eno, Duke Ellington, and the theme from Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Below are a few photos, courtesy of Chuck Gee.

An Introduction: explaining his work

"Queering the organ"

"Graced With Light" art installation at Grace Cathedral. The ribbons move from heat generated by the audience, as well as the air from the organ!

For more information on SFJAZZ and upcoming events, visit sfjazz.org. For more photos of artists and happenings at the SFJAZZ Center and SF at large, visit SFJAZZ Flickr.