Ellington at MetroStage this Summer

Direct from sold out performances at Milwaukee Rep

Ellington: The Life and Music of the Duke
July 14-Aug. 6, 2006
By David Scully, Musical Arrangements by John Engerman,
Directed by David Hunter Koch, Music Director William Knowles
Featuring Jimi Ray Malary as The Duke

Swing with Ellington and a jazz quartet this summer at MetroStage.

Celebrate the music of jazz legend Duke Ellington with songs that include “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “Lush Life,” and many other favorites. Actor /singer Jimi Ray Malary will be accompanied by Washington’s finest jazz musicians led by William Knowles on piano, with Yusef Chisholm on bass, Gregory Holloway on drums, and Ron Oshima on sax.

Written by one of America’s greatest jazz composers, the songs range “from low-down blues to novelty patter songs to heartfelt love songs to exuberant swing tunes.” Jimi Ray Malary’s rich baritone, “shaded by a beautifully controlled and judiciously applied vibrato, is sauve in a way wholly in line with the Dukensian ideal of elegance.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Writer David Scully, director David Hunter Koch, and performer Jimi Ray Malary have collaborated on Jazz Royalty; King of Cool: Nat King Cole-The Life, The Man; and Ellington: The Life and Music of The Duke. All are based in Seattle and all the shows have been performed at Milwaukee Rep. Washington DC’s Helen Hayes Award-winning (Dinah Was at Arena Stage) music director William Knowles has music directed their work and was last seen at MetroStage in All Night Strut.

Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8, Saturdays at 5:30 and 8:30, and Sundays at 3 and 7 beginning Friday, July 14. All tickets are $35 (groups of 10+ are $30). For ticket reservations call 703-548-9044 or 1-800-494-8497/www.boxofficetickets.com. Press night is Saturday, July 15 at 8:30.