Jazz “Just Freedom Of Expression”

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32219, 11 February 1970, Page 28

Jazz “Just Freedom Of Expression”

(New Zealand Press Association

AUCKLAND, February 10. ' “Jazz?—We stopped using the word in ; 1941,” said Duke Ellington this morning. ■ “Jazz doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “Free- ] dom of expression, that’s all it is.”

j His views on music are; (simple, belying the complex-! lity of his own arrangements.; “If it sounds good, it is good' • music,” he said. He talked about forthcoming engagements with symphony orchestras tb show that a J I symphony orchestra can] swing. “This thing swing—if your; (pulse and my pulse are to ] (gether, and don’t mean the! pulse in your' wrist, then we • are swinging,” he said. • His next major work will (probably be a ballet, which (he has been asked to write by the United States Ballet Theatre. “1 think I know what sort of thing I will do.” he said. He also thinks it will have to be played live rather than recorded. He is staying in Auckland] only overnight and has not]

(got his electric piano with I him. “1 usually have an electric ipiano in my hotel room," he said. “I have the telephone on one side of the bed and I the piano on the other.” ;