Duke Ellington

Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson‘s stirring rendition of “Come Sunday” prompted two clergymen to write Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974) to do a sacred music concert at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Duke promised to pray about it. The invitation interested him, given that he longed to break down walls between secular and sacred. One biographer wrote, “His great passion and work sprung from an awareness of the presence of God in all of life.” He accepted the invitation and called his assistant to compose a tune to match the first four words of the Bible, “In the beginning, God.” They opened the 1965 concert with this twenty-minute piece that included the memorable lyrics, “No heaven, no earth, no nothing…no night, no day, no bills to pay…no symphony, no jive, no Gemini Five.” Duke followed it with the song, “Will You Be There?” unleashing the preacher in him. There are eleven songs in all, including Duke’s rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer” and “David Dancing Before the Lord with All His Might.” Surely the sight of Bunny Biggs tap dancing before the altar of Grace Cathedral raised a few eyebrows!
For Duke, performing the sacred concert was returning full circle to his childhood roots in Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal churches. He said of the sacred music concert, “This music is the most important thing I have ever done. Now I can cry out loud to all the world what I’ve been saying to myself for years on my knees.” “Come Sunday,” a song he wrote in the early 40’s, was also featured in the concert. Its prayerlike quality petitions God to lead his people through: