Barbara Wright-Pryor: Performances of Ellington's 'My People' in 1963 coincided with 'historic March on Washington'

[Duke Ellington's My People Original Cast Album; Contact Records.]

Duke Ellington (1899-1974) is profiled at AfriClassical.com. Barbara Wright-Pryor, President, Chicago Music Association, writes about the historic timing of the Chicago performances of Duke Ellington's 1963 musical revue My People:

“Dear Bill,

Thank you again. I would love to see this period piece re-staged for newer audiences to enjoy. It was performed during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

"'My People' was being performed in Chicago (August 16-September 2) when the historic March on Washington took place August 28, 1963 during which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the legendary 'I Have a Dream' speech.

Musically yours,

Barbara”

Barbara Wright-Pryor: in 1998 “I was privileged to...restage his 1963 musical revue, 'My People'” with Mercedes Ellington

[“A Century of Negro Progress Exposition, McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill., August 16th – September 2nd, 1963. Duke Ellington's My People was written for the occasion. Photo from Barbara Wright-Pryor, President, Chicago Music Association]

On June 17, 2011 AfriClassical posted: “Barbara Wright-Pryor: 'I was Duke Ellington's choral director for the 1968 Sacred Concert held in Chicago's Auditorium Theater.'” Barbara Wright-Pryor responds to the post with a fascinating look at My People, another historic concert in which she was involved with Duke Ellington (1899-1974), who is profiled at AfriClassical.com. Today we present Part 1 of her story:

“Dear Bill,

Thank you so much for including my "Duke Ellington experience" in AfriClassical. Working with "The Duke" was certainly one of the greatest highlights of my life and I had that privilege twice, which was more than I could have ever dreamed. I have several precious mementoes of the Sacred Concert experience and also the final Christmas card Duke sent to relatives, friends and colleagues in April, 1974, shortly after he learned his death was imminent and he wouldn't be around for Christmas, 1974.

During the final stages of his bout with lung cancer, Duke was hospitalized at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC and had a keyboard in his room on which he continued to compose and play daily until too ill to do so. His "sax man," Paul Golsalves died during that time (May 14, 1974) and the news was kept from him due to his critical condition.

In May, 1998, twenty-four years after his death, I was privileged to re-create, produce and restage his 1963 musical revue, My People, at Chicago's New Regal Theater with his granddaughter Mercedes Ellington as stage director and choreographer, and Dr. Robert L. Morris, founder/conductor the Leigh Morris Chorale of Minneapolis, MN, as choral director for the 16th International Duke Ellington Conference that was held in Chicago.