From Bards to Blues
LIVE Introduced live from the Royal Albert Hall in London by Geoffrey Smith. Paying tribute to the enduring genius of William Shakespeare , John Dankworth and Cleo Laine celebrate their 80th birthdays in the company of the Bard himself. Dankworth hears the blues in the rhythms and moods of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, and fashions a sequence of settings that really swing. Dankworth also celebrates his friendship with Duke Ellington, performing his
Shakespearean suite Such Sweet Thunder and a new arrangement of the Duke's most famous hit. Billy Strayhorn 's Take the A Train.
Cleo Laine (singer), Soweto Kinch and Tommy Smith (saxophones), Guy Barker (trumpet),
John Dankworth Quintet , BBC Big Band, BBC Concert Orchestra, director John Dankworth
John Dankworth Shakespeare and All That Jazz Ellington Such Sweet Thunder
8.35 Twenty Minutes: The Song, Not the Singer Miles Kington asks what convinced otherwise stunning virtuoso jazz instrumentalists that they could sing.
8.55 John Dankworth The Million Dollar Collection; The Blues Ain't (first performance)
Strayhorn, arr Dankworth Take the A Train