Black

Duke Ellington, "Black" from Black, Brown & Beige, performed live at Carnegie Hall, January 23, 1943
NOTE: Duke Ellington's 45-minute, three-movement concert work, Black, Brown and Beige, which is subtitled A Tone Parallel to the History of the Negro in America, was premiered at his orchestra's Carnegie Hall debut and represents Ellington's most ambitious effort at combining his interest in symphonic-length composition and subtle social commentary on both American race relations and the art of African American popular music.

New World a Comin'

Duke Ellington, "New World a Comin'," performed live at Carnegie Hall, December 11, 1943
NOTE: As the central extended composition at Ellington's second annual Carnegie Hall concert, the 1943 quasi-piano concerto New World a Comin' both promoted his lifelong social hopes for racial equality and represented his most self-consciously rhapsodic piano composition.

A Tone Parallel to Harlem

Duke Ellington, A Tone Parallel to Harlem (Harlem Suite), from the 1951 album Ellington Uptown
NOTE: While Duke Ellington's 1951 big band composition A Tone Parallel to Harlem was designed as a musical travelogue of the composer's beloved Harlem community, the subsequent big-band-plus-symphony orchestration (by Luther Henderson) of this masterful 14-minute composition also became Ellington's most widely performed "symphonic" work.

Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody

James P. Johnson, Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody, performed by Marcus Roberts (piano) with orchestra
NOTE: As the first major black concert jazz composition, and as a work that was notably composed by the father of Harlem stride piano, James P. Johnson's 1927 Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody opens a valuable window on the vibrant legacy of the 1920s symphonic jazz idiom as it existed beyond the George Gershwin and Paul Whiteman circle.

Jazzamine Concerto

James P. Johnson, Jazzamine Concerto, recorded by James P. Johnson as a piano solo in 1945
NOTE: James P. Johnson's 1945 solo piano recording of his 1934 piano-and-orchestra Jazzamine Concerto (a.k.a. Concerto Jazz a Mine) ideally illustrates his personal vision for translating the Harlem stride piano idiom to the compositional ideals of the concert hall.

In a Baptist Mission

Movement IV, "In a Baptist Mission," from James P. Johnson's Harlem Symphony, premiere performance by the Brooklyn Civic Orchestra, Dr. Paul Kosok, conductor, March 11, 1939, broadcast over WYNC, New York. Property of the James P. Johnson Estate and the James P. Johnson Foundation, Riverside, CA.
NOTE: This rare transcription recording captures the vibrant premiere performance of the Harlem Symphony, James P. Johnson's rich musical travelogue of the Harlem community and his most-performed concert work.