Thursday October 18th at 7:00 pm: Duke Ellington & the Harlem Renaissance with Nanette Perrotte

The Duke: who is he? Genius interpreter of Big Band Swing and the Harlem Renaissance moment – melody maker and aficionado of putting on the Ritz – Sir Duke. Will we ever know the real Duke Ellington and will we ever understand the complexity and mystery of his collaboration with the great Billy Strayhorn. Here is a life that is graced in so many ways: a loving supportive family, the ease and confidence of a good education and a desire to maintain the true style of a Duke.  Here is the leader who created the perfect orchestra, building it one superb player at a time. The titles tell a story: Lush Life, Take the A Train, Prelude to a Kiss, It Don't Mean a Thing, Satin Doll…Join us as we sing the great songs and look at the internal workings of the music.  The period of Ellington's intense creativity 1924-1930 gives us a portrait in music of the extraordinary moment we call the Harlem Renaissance:  The Cotton Club, The Savoy… 142nd street and Lenox Avenue, a time when Harlem was the playground of the rich.  Nanette Perrotte, BA Jazz Composition Berklee College of Music, MA Ed Lesley University has been a professional Jazz singer for 25 years and now teaches Music History and Voice at both Endicott College and The New Hampshire Institute of Art.  She is the director and founder of the John Singer Sargent Choir as well as being a member of Hancock's Norway Pond Festival Singers. This program is free and open to all thanks to the Friends of the Hancock Town Library. For more information call the library at 525-4411.