Barbara Wright-Pryor: “I remember Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington (April 29, 1899-May 24, 1974) with great love and affection.”

[The Irving Bunton Singers (Photo from Duke Ellington's 1963 musical revue My People provided by Barbara Wright-Pryor, President, Chicago Music Association)]

The life and career of Duke Ellington (1899-1974) are featured at AfriClassical.com. This is Part 3 of the commemoration by Barbara Wright-Pryor of Duke Ellington's 1963 musical revue My People:

In 1963, Robert Morris was a young undergraduate music major at DePaul University's School of Music and a member of the Irving Bunton Singers. Duke appointed him arranger for all of the choral music for My People.

The Irving Bunton Singers were Duke's hand-picked chorus for the 1963 production which included Alvin Ailey and his Dance Company, the Talley Beatty Dancers, and briefly, the Arthur Mitchell Dance Company. Mr. Bunton, a pianist and conductor par excellence, was Duke's choral director for that production and subsequently became Supervisor of Music for the Chicago Public Schools.

I remember Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899-May 24, 1974) with great love and affection. He was indeed a "genius beyond compare" and America's most prolific composer with an oeuvre of more than 3000 compositions. His autobiography, Music is My Mistress, is yet available at online book stores.

Barbara Wright-Pryor: "'Duke' never penned the libretto for 'My People' on paper, but...I remembered it from 'curtain to curtain.'"

[ABOVE: Drummer Louis Bellson, bassist Joe Benjamin and saxophone Harold Ashby BELOW: Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and vocalist Lil Greenwood (Photos from 1963 musical revue My People provided by Barbara Wright-Pryor, President, Chicago Music Association)]

Duke Ellington (1899-1974) was an American jazz and classical composer who is profiled at AfriClassical.com. On June 21, 2011 AfriClassical posted: “Barbara Wright-Pryor: in 1998 'I was privileged to...restage his 1963 musical revue, “My People”' with Mercedes Ellington.” Here is Part 2 of our post on Barbara Wright-Pryor's recollection, in which the first paragraph is repeated:

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.

"Duke" never penned the libretto for My People on paper, but as a wide-eyed young chorus member of the Irving Bunton Singers, I remembered it from "curtain to curtain." The process of re-creating the libretto for "My People" took eleven months.

Duke composed My People for Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Celebration "A Century of Negro Progress Exposition" and the elaborate production ran from August 16 to September 2, 1963 in the Arie Crown Theater at Chicago's McCormick Place. Some photos from the production are posted on my Facebook Wall.