Sacredness

The Soraya has assembled an entire company of musicians who are 2026 Grammy nominees: pianist and music director Gerald Clayton, Los Angeles-based choir Tonality, and jazz vocalists Christie Dashiell, and Michael Mayo. Opening The Soraya’s fifth annual Jazz at Naz festival, Clayton brings us Sacredness, his rendering of the work Duke Ellington considered his most important, the three Sacred Concerts that were performed between 1965 and 1973 in cathedrals and churches in San Francisco and New York City. Ellington evoked a Cotton Club revue meets the African American Church that has endured as nondenominational and universal. Clayton brings Ellington’s daring masterpiece into the present day with original arrangements, four dancers led by tapper and choreographer Josette Wiggan, an all-star jazz big band, and new spoken word creations.

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