For news in the arts, the upcoming concert for the UWO Jazz Ensemble will feature a rare
performance of music by a legendary composer and musician. Joel Nelson has more.
The next concert for the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh’s Jazz Ensemble will include a
noteworthy work of jazz written more than 60 years ago. In an article written by Shane Nyman
of UW Oshkosh Today, The Queen’s Suite, a jazz composition co-composed by Duke Ellington
and Billy Strayhorn in 1959, will be performed on December 9th, at 7:30 at the Arts and
Communications Center’s Music Hall. The composition was dedicated to the Queen of England,
with a single record being produced and sent to her as a gift. The Queen’s Suite would later
appear on the album, The Ellington Suites, in 1976. Two years after the legendary musician’s
death. Ellington’s work took an unusual path to UWO. The written music has never been
published, but UWO jazz professor and jazz ensembles director Marty Robinson has a friend
who transcribed it from the original record, “literally writing every note on paper from careful
listening.” Because it’s unpublished, the full six movements are rarely performed anywhere. The
Queen’s Suite will close the first half of the program. The second half will feature the ensemble’s
seniors and a modern work by composer Maria Schneider. The night concludes with a quick nod back to Ellington with a short movement from his 1960 album The Nutcracker Suite.
