Considering how much of my life I had devoted to listening and learning this music, and believing it was the greatest music in the world, I was truly shocked when I got to high school to realise that throughout my entire high school years there was hardly any mention of Jazz or the great men that contributed to this music.
“I’m interested in all sorts of music and looking for brothers and sisters outside the jazz area to work with, using the suite as a connecting force,” says Steve Sedergreen. “We are not going to reproduce the Far East Suite but we’re certainly going to play in the spirit of the Far East Suite.”
“While a handful of works are more or less invaluable to Ellington studies, none has come as close as a serious work of cultural history than Harvey Cohen’s splendid new book. I hesitate to call it a biography, though it is that. It goes beyond biography, however, in its portrayal of crucial episodes in the development of the American music industry, of American race relations, and the place of jazz in American culture.”
