The pianist combines his interpretations with Gordon Parks’ photography to salute Duke Ellington at the Apollo Theater.
Pianist and composer Jason Moran’s Ellington in Focus performance, at the historic Apollo Theater in New York City on April 11, is a one-night-only event that actually pays tribute to two great African American artists: Duke Ellington and Gordon Parks.
Ellington (1899-1974) has been a primary influence on Moran throughout his career. While he was Born in Houston, Texas, the year after Ellington died, the 50-year-old Moran is old enough to have experienced the work of photographer Parks (1912-2006) in the moment.
Ellington in Focus will feature Moran’s narration about the legendary bandleader, plus re-imaginations of several of the compositions within Ellington’s thousands-deep catalog, combined with rarely seen photographs of Ellington by Parks.
Both Ellington and Parks made names for themselves in Harlem after arriving there from disparate birthplaces. Ellington hailed from Washington, D.C.; Parks from Fort Scott, Kansas. And despite being the lesser-known of the two, the ahead-of-his-time photographer and 20th Century Renaissance Man had a comparable career.
Focusing on race relations, poverty and urban life, Parks broke the professional photographer color line with extraordinary shots of Ellington, civil rights warrior Malcolm X and boxing champion Muhammad Ali, among other iconic figures. Parks also earned fame behind the camera as director of the hit 1971 film Shaft, starring Richard Roundtree; earned a National Medal of Arts in 1988 and directed and composed the music for a 1989 ballet, Martin, dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.
Moran’s lengthy solo and session recording career inspired Rolling Stone to call him “the most provocative thinker in modern jazz.” With both classical training and open-minded jazz elegance and sophistication, the pianist remains a great ambassador for Ellington’s legacy, as evidenced by shows like Solo Ellington last year at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Duke Ellington: My Heart Sings last month at the Wortham Center in Houston.
For further information, visit jasonmoran.com. For ticket information, visit https://www.apollotheater.org/event/ellington-in-focus.
Photo by Jati Lindsay
