29 September 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Gustav Holst’s premier of his ground-breaking ‘The Planets’; a suite of sheer classical brilliance, which to this day has proven to be enduringly popular, widely performed and highly influential. Now, exactly 100-years since that first premier, ‘The Planets’ will be refreshed and presented to modern-day audiences as a jazz interpretation in the style of Duke Ellington; as Peter Long* (leader of the Ronnie Scott Orchestra, featured sax star of the Jools Holland Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and Musical Director of The Jazz Repertory Company) and his Echoes of Ellington Jazz Orchestra** release ‘Jazz Planets’ on 28 September. BBC Radio 3 will be recording a live performance of ‘Jazz Planets’ at Ronnie Scott’s on 8 July for broadcast in September, alongside a forthcoming BBC documentary; whilst the band will be unveiling their live public premiere at Cadogan Hall on Saturday 8 September.

A Cosmic Collision of Two Musical Worlds:
In 1914, a young man called, Edward Ellington, wrote a simple piano piece entitled ‘Soda Fountain Rag’. Over the next sixty years, he would compose a cannon of work which made him widely recognised as the foremost American composer of any genre. Duke Ellington’s music contains a unique blend of contrasts and contradictions. At once visceral and elegant, intimate and shouting, traditional and progressive; the music is unique, exciting, earthy and refined.

….In the same year, 1914, the English composer, Gustav Holst, began writing what was set to become one of the world’s most famous suites of classical music, ‘The Planets’; each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and it’s corresponding astrological character, as defined by Holst. The individual compositions were presented for the first time ever as their complete ‘suite’ on 29 September 1918 at The Queen’s Hall.

Now, exactly 100 years since that first premiere, Peter Long and his Echoes of Ellington Jazz Orchestra bring the work of those two great musical legends together in a glorious fusion of cosmic Ellington-esque jazz, with the release of ‘Jazz Planets’. But why the fusion?...
A year ago, whilst listening to ‘Venus’ during a long car journey, it suddenly struck Long how Ellingtonian the curves of Holst’s melody were and how Holst's warped, flowing harmonic symmetry was so redolent to that of Ellington's composing partner, Billy Strayhorn. Ellington playing the classics is not without precedent. In 1960, he recorded two suites of pieces; a Christmas release of Tchaikovsky's ‘Nutcracker’, and a shorter but very effective treatment if ‘Peer Gynt’ by Greig. Long had a template! By the end of that car journey, the re-orchestration of the whole suite for an Ellington-style ‘Planets’ had coalesced; little did Long know how timely his future release would be!

Long explains: “Ellington and Holst share the ability to pull off the same clever trick. Both composers use a very high degree of sophisticated harmony and rhythm, but have the ability to infuse the whole thing with a high level of humanity with their incredible abilities as melodists. It’s this, and the extra magic ingredient of ‘genius’, that hooks the listener in.”

Holst's setting was astrological, his music reflecting the mythical properties of the planets, rather than anything physical. The jazz through the solar system differs in that, being the post Star Trek generation, we’re at ease with the concept of sailing-along between heavenly bodies. Consequently, the ‘Jazz Planets’ journey starts in orbit, above our home planet, and reaches out as far as Pluto. Pluto wasn’t known to Holst at the time, and so is absent from his work.

Long comments, “Each movement is a tribute to one of The Echoes of Ellington Orchestra’s stellar soloists. Each demonstrate the symbiosis which exists in the mutual influence between composer and musician, jointly celebrating the genius inherent in both Ellington and Holst. On top of which, there’s a seam of humour running through the entire suite. It seems to me that people are always amused hearing these famous classical melodies in fancy dress.”

From the messenger Mercury and the loving Venus, through to the rage of Mars and the changing moods of the watery Neptune, the entire Planet Suite lines-up in cosmic unison, pulling on their celestial jazz cloaks for this masterful Ellington-esque re-working by Peter Long and his Echoes of Ellington Jazz Orchestra. ‘Jazz Planets’ is set to become a classic of our time.
The album ‘Jazz Planets’ by Echoes of Ellington Jazz Orchestra is released on Right Track Records on 28 September 2018