Duke Ellington's Concert of Sacred Music

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Recorded at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, this monumental concert represents the maestro's first major foray into explicitly liturgical composition. The immensely ambitious performance seamlessly integrates his signature big band swing with massive choral arrangements, tap dancing, and soaring vocal solos, treating religious themes with profound dignity and joyous energy. He considered these late-career spiritual suites to be the most important work of his life.