The Rev. Alonzo Webster Wright Lyceum Committee at Claflin University will present an evening of jazz featuring the legendary Duke Ellington Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra will perform at Claflin under the direction on Barrie Lee Hall Jr., a member of the orchestra since 1973. Duke Ellington is described as one of the supreme jazz talents in the history of the genre. A prolific composer, Ellington created more than 2,000 pieces of music, including the standard songs "Take the A-Train" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and the longer works "Black, Brown, and Beige," "Liberian Suite" and "Afro-Eurasian Eclipse." With the variously named bands he led from 1919 until his death in 1974, Ellington was responsible for many innovations in the jazz field, such as "jungle-style" use of the growl and plunger and the manipulation of the human voice as an instrument -- singing notes without words.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door and are available at the Claflin University Bookstore, Claflin University Cashier's Office in Tingley Memorial Hall and at the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center.

Special to The T&D

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