Journal

The year 2007 was an amazing year.  

Last April I made a trip to Washington, D.C., to study the sacred music of Duke Ellington at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.   The Museum itself was closed, but the Archives Center was open for scholars.

It was the experience of a lifetime.

The time I spent reviewing the Ellington manuscripts was one of the most blessed times I’ve spent in all my life.   It was as close to looking over Duke Ellington’s shoulder that I will ever get.   In this lifetime, anyway.

I found a few new, unpublished pieces of sacred music in Duke’s own hand.

The month of May saw me making two trips to New York City.   One trip to perform, and the other to accompany a promising jazz composition student of mine who won a national award from ASCAP.

I performed “The Walt Whitman Suite” at the International Home Entertainment Expo at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City, on May 13.   It was a concert / CD release party for the Whitman recording, which is now for sale on the Rives Audio label (www.rivesaudio.com).

I made another trip at the end of May, to attend a reception honoring one of my students, fifteen-year-old Jon Snell, from Fairfax, Iowa.   He won one of the “Outstanding Young Jazz Composer” awards sponsored by ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).   Jon was one of twenty-three winners this year, and was the first Iowan ever to win one of these prestigious awards.   I’m proud of him.

I performed the newly-discovered Ellington pieces for the first time in public, in concert at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 30 and July 1.

I’ll taped an interview with Minnesota Public Radio for their use on the “Weekend America” program for American Public Radio.   The interview covered the “new” Ellington pieces I discovered, and aired over the June 30—July 1 weekend.

I’m now finishing work on a new concerto for improvising pianist and orchestra.   And I wrote a symphonic version of “Dinner at Deacon Brodie’s,” which will be premiered this coming April. 

I’ll be completing work on two new recordings projects in 2008.   Both are dear to me.

The first project is “HOMAGE,” a recording of new piano pieces in the style of my piano forefathers.   There’s more description of this project in the “Recordings” section of this website.

The second project is “THE PIANO MUSIC OF BIX BEIDERBECKE.”   This recording will include “The Modern Suite,” as well as several more lesser-known Bix pieces.  

There are several more projects in the works.   I’ll let you know about them in this space, as things progress.

Until then, as always, I am eternally thankful for your support.

 

With every good wish,

 

Dan KNIGHT

January 2008