Novel Jazz Septet, one of Maine’s premiere jazz groups, is now in their 20th year of keeping the musical legacy of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn alive and swinging. The band embarked on a project to go through the massive archive of compositions by Ellington and Strayhorn, transcribe some lesser known gems for the band and reinterpret them with a 21st century sound. This has resulted in 3 CDs and a special PBS interview about the project. In addition, several two-hour programs dedicated to Novel Jazz have been broadcast on Maine Public Radio’s jazz show, “Jazz Tonight” over the years.
Novel Jazz will perform standard tunes from the Ellington/Strayhorn repertoire plus more compositions that they have recently unearthed from original recordings at the Ellington Archives of the Smithsonian Museum of American History as well as the Strayhorn Collection at the Library of Congress, both in Washington D.C.
The musicians of Novel Jazz, Herb Maine (bass), Mickey Felder (piano), David Clark (Guitar), Nathaniel Johengen (reeds), Michael Mitchell (trumpet), Barney Balch (trombone) and Bill Manning (drums), travel far and wide, keeping the spirit of Duke and “Sweet Pea” alive and swinging.
Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and $10 for students/children and will be available at the church office, Gulf of Maine Books, or online at ticketstripe.com.
