etnobofin » duke ellington http://www.richardcotman.com/etnobofin A Kiwi in Paris, sweating on the metro Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:43:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 John Dankworth, 1927-2010 http://www.richardcotman.com/etnobofin/2010/02/john-dankworth-1927-2010/ http://www.richardcotman.com/etnobofin/2010/02/john-dankworth-1927-2010/#comments Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:23:02 +0000 Richard http://www.richardcotman.com/etnobofin/?p=4022 John Dankworth passed away on Saturday. Here’s a recent performance of his arrangement of Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing, still going strong at 81 at the 2008 North Sea Jazz Festival, and only hung up his saxophone in December.

This clip epitomises a lot of what Dankworth’s music meant to me – his close partnership with his wife Cleo Laine (one of the great voices of the 20th Century), his penchant for tight, witty ensemble writing, and his consistent ability to connect with a wide audience well beyond the regular jazz public.

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