The orchestra, along with its Youth Gospel Choir, was joined…
By Betsy Scheinbart
The Queens Symphony Orchestra came to Jamaica Saturday night to perform “Duke Ellington and Friends” and pay tribute to Milt Hinton, the renowned jazz bassist and longtime St. Albans resident.
The orchestra, along with its Youth Gospel Choir, was joined on York College’s Performing Arts Center stage by pianist Jason Webb, tenor vocalist Alan Harris, and Derrick Grant, a tap dancer and choreographer from the Broadway show “Bring ‘N Da Noise, Bring ‘N Da Funk.”
Sophia Foglia, the executive director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra, said the event was organized in partnership with several community organizations, including the Black Spectrum Theatre, whose executive director, Carl Clay, narrated the evening’s program.
“We wanted to do something special for Black History Month,” Foglia said, “so we decided to honor Duke Ellington and Mrs. Hinton, whose husband (Milt Hinton) we honored in ‘97.”
Born in 1899, Ellington’s career spanned seven decades, through the eras of big bands, swing, bebop, and progressive jazz. He composed more than 2,000 pieces of music and when he died, in 1974, he was remembered as “A Master of Music,” in a front-page New York Times obituary.
“He is one of the modern composers we have that just happened to be black,” Harris said of Ellington. “He mixed the Euro-style with African-American nuances and made it accessible to the whole world.”
The Queens Symphony Orchestra started the evening with a medley of Ellington favorites, “Caravan-Prelude to a Kiss,” “I’m Beginning To See the Light,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “Solitude,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “A Train,” “Do Nothing till You Hear from Me,” many of which were later sung in full by Harris.
After the medley, Clay spoke about Ellington’s roots as a pianist and introduced “New World A’ Comin’,” the only piano concerto Ellington composed, despite his strong ties to the instrument.
Webb, a young pianist who practices with the Youth Gospel Choir, was featured in the performance, which Ellington adapted into a full-orchestra piece after its original composition.
The choir joined Webb onstage for Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, a trio of song that Ellington wrote late in his career, including “David Danced,” a performance that drew some controversy when it was first performed in 1965, because it featured a tap dancer on stage alongside the choir.
Derrick Grant filled the role of tap dancer in this final sacred piece, and brought the house down with his exuberant performance.
The choir, which is composed of 65 youths between the ages of 13 21, many of them from southeast Queens, is a community group directed by Chantel Wright. It practices at St. John’s University.
The group, which was founded in 1994, has since performed at the Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Jamaica, Flushing Town Hall and just this month at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan.
At the end of the intermission, Harris recognized Hinton’s wife, Mona, who accepted an award from the Queens Symphony Orchestra for her husband, who died in Dec. 19.
“Thank you very much for the tribute,” Mona Hinton said. “Milt had a good life, he lived to be 90, and he and I shared 61 of those years together. I am grateful for the time I spend with him. I don’t think God put life into a kinder person.”
Hinton, who was widely regarded as the “Dean of Bass Players,” invented the slap-bass technique and performed for many years with the legendary Cab Calloway. He later had a long free-lance career in New York City and also played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and the Louis Armstrong All-Stars.
Harris, who played with Hinton several years ago, said the bassist was “a legend in many ways” and was on the jazz scene from the bebop to cool jazz eras.
“He was part of the American mores,” Harris said. “It’s beyond words — I feel as if I have been blessed just to have known him.”
Harris sang several of Ellington’s best-known vocal pieces, including “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing)” as well as some romantic classics, “Prelude to a Kiss,” “Something to Live For,” and “Satin Doll.”
The orchestra finished with the “Black, Brown, and Beige Suite,” a shorter version of Ellington’s musical history of African-Americans.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 138.
