Duke Ellington UW–Madison Residency 50th Anniversary Celebration

Concert and Panel Discussion: Duke Ellington UW Residency 50th Anniversary Celebration
Free and Open to the Public
Friday, June 17, 2022
5:30-10:30pm
Hamel Music Center, UW–Madison, 740 University Ave

Talk: “Duke and Paul” by Patricia Willard
Free and Open to the Public
Sunday, June 19, 2022
1:30-2:30pm
Memorial Union Play Circle, 800 Langdon St.

These two events are in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Duke Ellington’s 1972 UW–Madison Residency, and are part of the 2022 Madison Jazz Festival, presented by Arts + Literature Laboratory and Wisconsin Union Theater. We aren’t among the sponsors, but we want to acknowledge the significance of both the residency and this celebration. UW–Madison’s School of Music hosted Duke Ellington and his orchestra for its Duke Ellington Festival, also billed as “Duke Ellington Week,” which included five days of concerts, workshops and masterclasses in what would be the longest university residency of Ellington’s career.

June 17 Concert and Panel Discussion Schedule:
5:30pm: Sun Prairie and Middleton High School Jazz Bands perform Duke’s music with Guest Artist Victor Goines
7:00pm: Panel Discussion with Emeritus Professor Jim Latimer (organizer of the 1972 Ellington Residency), award-winning jazz journalist and former Ellington publicist Patricia Willard, and former Ellington vocalist and current Madison resident Jane Coyne
8:30pm: Concert of Duke Ellington’s music, including The Uwis Suite (composed for the 1972 residency), performed by the UW-Madison Jazz Faculty and Alumni Band

June 19 Talk Details:
1:30pm: Jazz journalist, historian, and former Ellington publicist Patricia Willard will share her first-person account of Duke Ellington and his Orchestra being at UW–Madison 50 years ago. She was here for the residency as a student and as a journalist for DownBeat.

The June 17 Panel Discussion is a reprise of sorts of the Panel Talk the Mead Witter School of Music presented in April, when Lecturer of Ethnomusicology Luci Mok hosted Emeritus Professor of Music James Latimer and Jane Coyne to reminisce on the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Duke Ellington UW–Madison residency. Having Patricia Willard on hand promises to enhance the memories being shared!

Speaking of Patricia Willard’s memories, she published an account of the Duke Ellington Festival, along with photos she took, in the October 12, 1972 issue of DownBeat under the title “Love and Learn: The Ellingtonians at UW.” We have the issue in our holdings, but it’s not available online via any of the full-text databases to which we subscribe.

We look forward to new memories being made as old ones are shared and Duke Ellington’s music is performed!