Ellington Orchestra swings with the season

Tommy James clearly remembers his first experience with Duke Ellington’s music.

“My dad had the record of ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing),’” he says. “It was the first jazz record I ever heard. I thought it was genius.”

As music director, arranger and pianist of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, James’ initial impression has only grown stronger with time. Ellington’s music, he says, has never been equaled.

Presented by the San Francisco Symphony and led by James, the 16-piece ensemble comes to Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday to play Ellington classics and holiday favorites.

James — no relation to rocker Tommy James, who fronted the Shondells in the 1960s — has worked with a long list of jazz greats, including Cleo Laine, Lionel Hampton and Joe Williams. Yet, when he got the call to join the Ellington Orchestra, he says he found his dream job.

“I never thought I wanted to be a bandleader,” James admitted in a recent call from New York. “But I’m so happy and proud to be representing Duke Ellington’s music.” The orchestra, he added, has just returned from a European tour, with stops in Rome; Istanbul; and Bucharest, Romania.

At Davies, the program will feature Ellington’s best-known songs, including “Take the ‘A’ Train” and “Satin Doll.” James also likes to introduce selections from long-form pieces such as the “Latin American Suite.”

Born Edward Kennedy Ellington in 1899, Duke Ellington wrote 1,000 original compositions, moving from big-band hits to award-winning film scores and orchestral works. Throughout his 50-year career, he received 13 Grammy awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After his death in 1974, his music was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

According to James, who studied composition at Manhattan School of Music, Ellington was one of a kind. “In music school, you spend years learning the rules you have to use,” he says. “To Ellington, it didn’t matter. He just wrote what he wrote. He had such a distinctive style, and he was always progressing.”

Wherever the orchestra performs, James says it’s gratifying to see a new generation of music lovers discovering Ellington.

“We get kids who play in their high school stage bands, and they’re just crazy about it,” he says. “Others are just checking it out, and they really dig it.

“Ellington said there are two kinds of music — the good kind and the other kind,” he adds. “Kids get that.”

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/music/2011/12/ellington-orchestra-swings-season#ixzz1fzCEIzoE