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Tag: Pennsylvania

‘Nine Lives,’ Chris Coles’ Magnum Opus, Gets New Life

Chris Coles

After my freelance music gig for a newspaper in Erie, Pennsylvania had vanished in 2020 and I had moved to Cleveland, I resolved to document the local jazz scene, one that was all but ignored by media outlets in northeast Ohio. Good people making interesting music is catnip to a culture reporter, and I found a subject right away.

This was Chris Coles whose “Nine Lives” project became the first post in my documentary project covering the local scene. That was November 2021. Now, 30 months later “Nine Lives” is back for a performance Friday at Tri-C. And just like a familiar melody that is transformed by a master improvisor, Coles’ magnum opus returns reimagined as a new work.

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Edward Kennedy Ellington, April 29, 1899-May 24, 1974

Duke Ellington Orchestra 1928

This is the most valuable object I own, a photo of the Duke Ellington Orchestra given by Ellington to my father after one of the three engagements my dad presented in Erie, PA between 1931 and 1933. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that my dad knew Ellington, and that I have touched this object that was once touched by the hand of genius.
Today, on the 122nd anniversary of his birth and every day, Ellington is forever.

 

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