Two talks on Jazz

Catherine Tackley will be giving two invited talks in May. The first, ‘Art or Debauchery’: the reception of Ellington in the UK’ is part of the 22nd International Duke Ellington Study Group Conference, hosted by the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In this paper she will explore the impact of Duke Ellington in the UK, focussing on his 1933 tour of the country, his 1948 appearances without his orchestra, his performances at the Royal Festival Hall and the Leeds Festival in 1958 and finally the three Sacred Concerts which were staged in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. At the end of the month, Catherine will present some reflections on her ongoing work on British jazz in a paper entitled ‘Encountering a tiger: researching pre-1945 responses to jazz in Britain’ at a one-day conference ‘New Jazz Conceptions: History, Theory and Practice’ at the University of Warwick.