Preview: Jazz Planets - Pete Long and The Echoes of Ellington Orchestra

Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1 9DQl Saturday, September 8 at 7.30pm

(Press release) 

September 2018 is the centenary of the premiere of Gustav Holst’s much-loved composition ‘The Planets.’  In a unique celebration, bandleader Pete Long (Ronnie Scott’s Orchestra / Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra) has re-written Holst’s masterwork in the style of Jazz’s greatest composer Duke Ellington.

Pete Long’s ‘Jazz Planets’ will be performed live in concert by The Echoes of Ellington Orchestra in the beautiful Cadogan Hall, one of London’s best concert venues just off Chelsea’s Sloane Square.

 The inspiration for this unusual concept arrived by chance during a long car journey, as Long explains: “Venus from The Planets Suite came on the radio. It suddenly struck me how Ellingtonian the curves of the melody were, and how Holst's warped, flowing harmonic symmetry was so redolent of that of Ellington's composing partner, Billy Strayhorn.  By the time I'd reached my destination, the broad idea of re-orchestrating the whole suite for an Ellington-style orchestra had coalesced.”

An Ellingtonian re-working of classical masterpieces is not without precedent. In 1960, the Duke recorded his very distinctive versions of Tchaikovsky's ‘Nutcracker Suite” and Greig’s ‘Peer Gynt’.  Both will be performed by Echoes of Ellington in the first half of the concert.

Long’s admiration for the work of Ellington has given him a deep knowledge and understanding of what makes Duke’s music sound the way that it does. “Ellington and Holst share the ability to pull off the same clever trick. Both composers use a very high degree of sophisticated harmony and rhythm, but have the ability to infuse the whole thing with a high level of humanity with their incredible abilities as melodists. It’s this, and the extra magic ingredient of ‘genius’, that hooks the listener in.”

Joining Long on the night will be fifteen of the UK’s best jazz musicians, perfectly placed to recreate the uniqueness of the great Ellington orchestra’s sidemen such as Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Harry Carney and Cat Anderson (whose stratospheric trumpeting is brilliantly recreated by the youngest member of the orchestra, 23 year old Louis Dowdeswell). Listening to the Echoes of Ellington perform is the closest you’ll ever come to the experience of hearing the original Ellington band live in all its majesty and glory.

We hope you’ll be able to join us for this very special triple celebration: 10 years of The Jazz Repertory Company at Cadogan Hall, 25 years since the formation of the Echoes of Ellington Orchestra and 100 years since the premiere of The Planets: https://www.jazzplanets.com/

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I've already booked my seat on the A Train. I'll let you know what Autumn is like on Jupiter and Mars.

Lance.

·  Pictures by Phil Nash – Pete Long as Neptune, the mystic (top left), Jay Craig as Jupiter, bringer of jollity (bottom left), James Davison as Mercury, the winged messenger (top right), Colin Good as Uranus, the magician (bottom right).