Summary
It's high time, [Mercedes Ellington] believes, for more people to embrace jazz music in America. It's the one musical style that the country can completely call it's own. "I think that jazz or American music, as Duke described it, is American folk music," she said. "It contains a lot of the flavors of the cultures that have come to America. It's like a melting pot of everyone's contribution to rhythm, to tonality, to a lot of things."
Mercedes knows that her grandfather left a "lot of things" to choose from if she ever decided to work a Dukerelated project. She proceeds with caution. "If I took up a [Duke Ellington] project for the rest of my life, I wouldn't finish. I wouldn't even make a dent," she said, giggling. "I have to be very careful what I choose to do because you only have so much time."After laying a wreath at Ellington's statue, Mercedes led a jazz funeral processional through Central Park with baritone horn, tuba, trombone and trumpet players and percussionists producing famous Ellington sounds. Earlier that morning, at the 125th Street train station along the A-train line, members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra boarded a throwback ?-train and played Duke's signature song, "Take the A Train."See the full content of this document
Extract
Mercedes Ellington Honors Duke Ellington
Last Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. at the Duke Ellington Circle at 110th Street and 5th Avenue, Mercedes Ellington spoke on the legacy of her grandfather, Duke Ellington, surrounded...
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