00:00now. Good afternoon. Lovely to speak to Mike Cary this afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt,
00:05Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, a really fabulous sounding concert coming up in
00:10Chichester Cathedral. It's the Phoenix Big Band and Brighton 16 delivering Duke Ellington's
00:16Sacred Concert. And it's on Saturday, September the 27th at 7.30. Tickets through the Cathedral.
00:24Now, this is a piece that you have done with Brighton 16 a couple of times before.
00:30I'm talking about a piece just now, Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert. You're saying it's uplifting
00:35that people get in with a broad smile. Tell me more. You make it sound very appealing.
00:40It is very appealing. The sound of a 17-piece big band supporting a professional choir with
00:4716 voices minimum. There may be more, actually. It includes a soprano soloist. So she has a few
00:54sections. Quite often, the soprano voice is soaring over the top of the choir with the band underneath.
01:01And then the icing on the cake is a tap dancer, Lee Payne, a very accomplished tap dancer.
01:08And in a couple of the sections of the music, the tap dancer takes prominence. Quite often,
01:16he's exchanging trading bars, fours, trading fours with the drummer or the band. And it just adds to
01:24the level of excitement to see someone tapping away like that.
01:27Yeah. This one's great. And you've done this twice before, once in Brighton, once in Arundel.
01:33In Arundel, yeah.
01:34What are the thoughts on doing this now in Chichester Cathedral? It's such a place that's
01:38inspiration in itself.
01:39Yeah, I think that would be the pinnacle of the venues. To do it in the Chichester Cathedral
01:46should be a great experience for everybody. It's made to be played in the church. The music
01:53was, the sacred concerts were specifically written to be performed in church.
01:58And this is a distillation of the three, isn't it?
02:01That's right. Eddington wrote three sacred concerts over the course of about eight years,
02:06from 65 to early 70s. And a couple of Danish composers have taken the most successful elements
02:16of those three and brought them into one performance.
02:21Well, it sounds fantastic.
02:23It will be.
02:25Brilliant. Well, lovely to speak to you. It's the Phoenix Big Band and Brighton 16,
02:30Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert, Chichester Cathedral, tickets from the cathedral,
02:34Saturday, September the 27th, at 7.30.
02:39Perfect. Thanks, Phil.
02:40It sounds fabulous. Thank you.
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