 | Former Yale President Kingman Brewster greets Duke Ellington at the inaugural Duke Ellington Fellowship concert. This photo was taken by Reggie Jackson, the official photographer for the fellowship, whose images from concerts and other events will be on view in the New Haven Free Public Library to mark the anniversary celebration. |
Program marks 30 years of bringing jazz to area audiences
Thirty years ago, shortly after joining the Yale School of Music faculty, French-horn player and bassist Willie Ruff acted on his determination to expose the Yale and New Haven communities, including area schoolchildren, to the nation's rich African-American musical heritage.
He founded the Duke Ellington Fellowship, which has since introduced young children and older audiences to some of the greatest jazz artists of all time: Eubie Blake, Marion Anderson, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Slam Stewart, Dizzy Gillespie, Paul Robeson and Duke Ellington himself.
The University will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Duke Ellington Fellowship on Friday, Oct. 25, on the same Woolsey Hall stage where a group of jazz "greats" -- including all of the above-named musicians -- gathered three decades ago to mark the fellowship's creation. This event will also feature a renowned jazz band and other noted performers, including some former members of the Duke Ellington Band, as well as a Yale School of Music graduate who will play on the bass that once belonged to jazz bassist Slam Stewart.
In the program notes for the fellowship's inaugural concerts on Oct. 7, 1972, Ruff said that his goal in creating the Duke Ellington Fellowship was to "try to capture the essence and spirit" of the tradition of African-American music, which, he noted, dates back to the early work chants and ceremonial songs of the African slaves. That heritage -- including blues, jazz and gospel music -- was begun by performers who were the recipients of a flourishing oral tradition rather than of formal education or training, what Ruff called a "Conservatory Without Walls."
"Traditionally, the performers who have studied in this unstructured institution have developed their talents beyond the confines of a classroom -- in cotton fields, in the ghetto, in night clubs and in churches," Ruff wrote in the program. "Membership in this school involves paying heavy dues. No degrees are conferred, and there are no Phi Beta Kappa keys awarded for excellence. There is, however, a rather loosely knit society of performers who are recognized by their peers as truly great musicians. These great musicians exert informal leadership and become 'Professors' in the 'Conservatory,' providing inspiration and giving guidance to the next generation of students."
The fellowship has helped preserve that tradition as it sponsors campus concerts featuring noted performers and routinely brings these performers -- called Ellington Fellows -- to New Haven public schools for concerts and discussions about the music and its history. In addition, the fellowship awards Duke Ellington Medals to those who have made a major contribution to American music.
More than 180,000 New Haven schoolchildren have had the opportunity to listen to and learn from Duke Ellington Fellows over the past 30 years, according to Ruff. In that same time, more than 50 jazz "giants," including Ellington, Stewart, Mingus, Gillespie, Roach, Anderson and Dave Brubeck, have received the Ellington Medal.
Continuing that tradition, the Duke Ellington Fellowship's anniversary performance will feature the renowned Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, led by trumpeter, band director and composer Jon Faddis, along with such former members of the Duke Ellington Band as Slide Hampton, Frank Wess and Jerry Dodgion.
In addition, Sean McClowry, a double bassist and composer who earned his Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music earlier this year, will perform "Parting the Waters: for solo bass," his musical interpretation of the history of the American civil rights movement. He will play on the bass that once belonged to Slam Stewart.
The event will also feature videos on a big screen of Jon Faddis on trumpet and Slam Stewart on bass as they performed at the original Ellington Fellowship concerts in Woolsey Hall in 1972.
Faddis was only 18 years old when he was invited to perform at the Ellington Fellowship's inaugural concert. Over the next few years, he went on to work with Gil Evans and Mingus and recorded with Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. His distinctive trumpet sounds have been heard on albums by Ellington, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, Quincy Jones, Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Stanley Clarke, as well as in the theme of "The Cosby Show." In 1977, Faddis toured Europe with Gillespie, performing and recording with him at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and in 1982 he accompanied Gillespie on a visit to the White House for the PBS series "In Performance at the White House."
Faddis began conducting the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band in 1991. The band is known for its new arrangements of landmark works, for its thematic programs that salute jazz legends and introduce new jazz styles, and for showcasing established artists alongside emerging talent. The band performs an annual series at Carnegie Hall, tours internationally and has recorded two acclaimed CDs.
In addition to his work with the band, Faddis also teaches clinics and master classes to provide guidance and perspective for the next generation of jazz musicians.
McClowry took the name for "Parting the Waters" from the title of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Taylor Branch, which documents the history of the American civil rights movement. The Yale alumnus says that his composition is meant to recall the American struggle through a "musical timeline."
"I focused particular attention on the non-violent versus the violent activity that occurred during the civil rights movement," he says, noting that the composition includes references to Martin Luther King Jr., particularly his "I Have a Dream" speech, as well as to the spiritual "We Shall Overcome."
The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in Woolsey Hall, corner of Grove and Prospect streets. Tickets are $15 and $10; $8 for students, and can be purchased from the School of Music concert office by phone at (203) 432-4158 or in person at 435 College St. between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. During the week, tickets will also be available in the Woolsey Hall rotunda, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, call the Concert Office or visit the School of Music website at www.yale.edu/music.
The main branch of the New Haven Free Public Library is also celebrating the 30-year anniversary of the Duke Ellington Fellowship with an exhibit of photographs by Reggie Jackson, who since 1972 has captured the Ellington Fellows' Yale performances and their visits with New Haven schoolchildren.
The exhibit is on view during the month of October. Admission is free.
Of his first assignment, at the inaugural concert at Yale, Jackson said, "I tried to capture the flavor and magic of Duke Ellington and his band, and those 32 other jazz legends. For three unforgettable days, they created shining moments of sight and sound, a magical atmosphere."
A former U.S. Army photographer, Jackson studied percussion in Chicago before moving to New Haven in 1955, where he attended the Paier School of Art. After working as a designer and photographer in New Haven, he performed with the USO throughout France and Germany as a jazz drummer. He later returned to New Haven in the early 1970s, when he met Ruff and began his long association with the Duke Ellington Fellowship.
For further information on the exhibit and library hours, call (203) 946-8125.
Ruff, who earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in music at Yale, has been performing since 1955 with his friend, pianist Dwike Mitchell. The Mitchell-Ruff Duo has shared the stage with such jazz performers as Ellington, Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie. They introduced jazz to audiences in the Soviet Union as far back as 1959 and traveled to China in 1981. Before each trip, Ruff learned the native languages of those countries so that he could explain the roots and lineage of American jazz to his listeners.
His hope is for the Duke Ellington Fellowship to continue for another 30 years -- and beyond -- to make possible the sharing of the ever-expanding traditions of performers from the "Conservatory Without Walls" with new audiences.
Through Ruff's outreach efforts and those of the Duke Ellington Fellows and Medalists, Yale, too, has become a sort of "Conservatory Without Walls" as it inspires, through music, young men and women who will become its future "Professors," says Ruff. The Yale musician won the Govenor's Arts Award in 2000 for introducing thousands of young children to music through the Duke Ellington Fellowship.
T H I S
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Continuing the tradition
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