April 23rd, the Feast of St George, is generally recognized as the birthday of Williams Shakespeare. Ironically, we know he died on that day, but can't be 100 percent certain of the day of his birth. The only record we possess that early in his career is that of his baptism, dated 26 April. It being the custom of that time to baptize babies three days after they were born, it has always been assumed, rather poetically, that Shakespeare was born and died on St George's Day.
I've seen a bunch of online tributes to Shakespeare today, and was pondering: what special thing might an American musician share to add to the celebration?
While musing, I realized a couple of things. If America has a genius as towering and as far reaching as William Shakespeare, it is Edward Kennedy Ellington. Like the Bard, he was a commoner whose gift catapulted him through the most popular forms of art to it's highest spheres, culturally. His scope is all of human experience. The blurring of high art vs popular art; the absurd to the sublime; comedy, tragedy, romance; the earthy to the spiritual; and an absolute explosion of language (one English, the other Musical) - Ellington is our parallel.
Significantly, Duke had a profound interest in Shakespeare, and even wrote a full album/suite based inspired by the Bard's work.
Here is the title track: "Such Sweet Thunder" - a quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream, which Ellington reimagines as back story for Othello and Desdemona.
