Ellington's Sacred Choral Music

Minnesota Public Radio highlights Duke Ellington's choral music here.

As a composer who wrote mostly for his own big jazz band, Ellington would seem to have little music to offer a choral group. But VocalEssence artistic director Philip Brunelle says that's not the case.

"Though people don't often think about Duke Ellington and choral music, there is a lot of it there," Brunelle says.

Ellington's choral music comes from what he called his Sacred Concerts. Ellington wrote this music late in life, as he was thinking about his mortality and becoming more spiritual.

"He was a very spiritual man, but his music is an expression of all the sides of Duke Ellington," Berger says. "He didn't compartmentalize. That's the beauty of his music. In his sacred music there is the profane. And in his profane music there is the sacred."

Audio featured here.