Photos: Songbook Sundays Honored Jazz Icon DUKE ELLINGTON at Dizzy's Club

Songbook Sundays, created and hosted by Deborah Grace Winer, kept on rolling this Sunday, August 18, at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. The bi-monthly series celebrates the American Songbook. This month's edition, Nothin’ But Duke Ellington, paid tribute to jazz’s greatest icon, who celebrated his 125th birthday this year. This Songbook Sundays swung some of Ellington’s greatest songs, like Sophisticated Lady and I’m Beginning to See the Light, to Prelude to a Kiss, I Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good, Come Sunday, and more.

Hosted and curated by leading American Songbook expert Deborah Grace Winer, the set featured jazz and Broadway greats: siblings Aisha de Haas and Darius de Haas, and JALC rising star Anaïs Reno.

Music Director Richard Cummings led a band of all-stars including Damon DueWhite on drums (Branford Marsalis, Hugh Masakela), Kenny Davis on bass (Art Farmer, Geri Allen) and Ed Jackson on Alto Saxophone and flute (Count Basie Band, Illinois Jacquet)

With some breezy stories, it was a sizzling August jam party.

Ms. Winer said: “Dizzy’s Songbook Sundays is a place where audience and performers can have a blast being in each other’s company—a welcoming, fun community that’s a safe respite from the wild world outside.  We’re so grateful Songbook Sundays has taken off, and that every other month, we can celebrate great music and great performances together."

One of New York’s most popular music destinations, Songbook Sundays is in its third year, after premiering spring 2022 with Got Gershwin followed by salutes to Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Lerner and Loewe, Fats Waller, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Cy Coleman, Frank Loesser, Rodgers & Hammerstein and Johnny Mercer. It will continue with a celebration of Hoagy Carmichael on October 13th. All shows are at 5pm and 7:30pm, and feature top vocal talent from Broadway, cabaret and jazz, with a diverse mix of young artists and veteran stars.  Energy, fun, great music—welcoming new Songbook Sundays audiences from all over the world as well as a fresh new offering for JALC’s home audience.

Tickets are available at Jazz.org/dizzys

See highlights from Sunday's show below snapped by photographer Conor Weiss.

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