The preliminary programme for the International Duke Ellington conference to be held from 14-18 May 2014, the final day the fortieth anniversary of Ellington’s death, has been announced. The conference to be held in Amsterdam also falls 75 years after Ellington’s second trip to Europe in the late spring of 1939 during which he played the Concertgebouw, and it's the same year that Ellington first began to collaborate with Billy Strayhorn. The 22nd International Duke Ellington Conference is hosted by the Conservatory of Amsterdam in its new building in collaboration with the Bimhuis club and the International Duke Ellington Study Group. Keynote lectures by Harvey Cohen, David Schiff, and Matt Cooper are planned, and ‘Black, Brown and Beige’ will be performed by the conservatory big band conducted by Ellington scholar David Berger among other events, and the conference has also commissioned an arrangement for wind-ensemble of ‘Such Sweet Thunder.’ The conference has called for papers, and welcomes short proposals on the conference theme: “On the Road with Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra.”
The video above filmed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on 2 November 1958 features violinist Ray Nance and trumpeter Shorty Baker performing ‘Mr Gentle & Mr Cool’. More details about the conference can be found at http://www.ellington-2014.nl