Viene presentato ufficialmente oggi pomeriggio nella rassegna di podcast Jazz South Spotlight il brano Says The Duke (remembering Duke Ellington) cui hanno lavorato nei mesi scorsi - in modalità da remoto - Kate Westbrook e la sua Granite Band, con Roz Harding, Jesse Molins, Matthew North, Billie Bottle, Coach York e naturalmente Mike Westbrook. Il brano, un blues eterodosso di una ventina di minuti circa, sarà accompagnato da una breve conversazione di Kate con il curatore della serie, Kevin Le Gendre, per essere poi disponibile integralmente tramite Bandcamp.
Scrivono Kate e Mike: "At a time of crisis, public or personal, a jazz musician will often turn to the blues. Duke Ellington once said, when asked how he dealt with the problem of racism “I write another blues”. The threat of Covid-19 led to the cancellation of all our performances, including a tribute to Ellington at Ronnie Scotts on his birthday, April 29th. In response to the situation, we were given by Jazz South the opportunity to write and record a new piece for the Granite Band. We decided to follow Duke’s example and ‘write another blues’. Says the Duke is not a blues in any conventional sense. It does not break down into the familiar 12 or 8 bar choruses. In fact the basic ‘chorus’ is 88 bars long. Yet it is faithful to the mood and spirit of the blues. The lyrics of Says the Duke evoke our memory of the Ellington Orchestra’s final concert in London, at the Rainbow in 1973. Cootie Williams, Paul Gonsalves and Harry Carney were still there and in great form. In our piece there are quotes from the Duke himself, references to his compositions and name-checks for his legendary musicians."
https://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/katewestbrook/saystheduke.shtml
https://katewestbrook.bandcamp.com/says-the-duke
https://jazzsouth.org.uk/jazz-south-spotlight-a-podcast-series
