American, New York-based prolific, master trumpeter, composer and educator Dave Douglas honored Billy Strayhorn on the debut, self-titled album of his Gifts band (Greenleaf Music, 2025), so it is only logical that the follow-up album, Transcend, is dedicated to Strayhorn’s musical partner, Duke Ellington, whose music was his faith (and his autobiography is called Music Is My Mistress). The Gifts band – with James Brandon Lewis on tenor sax, guitarist Rafiq Bhatia, and drummer Ian Chang became a quintet with the addition of cellist Tomeka Reid. The album was recorded at Second Take Sound in New York in August 2025.
Naturally, Transcend explores the spiritual-transcendental aspects of Ellington’s music, and especially his Sacred Concerts, created between 1965 and 1975, and considered the spiritual culmination of Ellington’s music. Douglas describes the Sacred Concerts as «grand reconciliation between the spirit and the craft, between the individual and a community». Douglas relates directly to Ellington’s explicitness with the holy, the sacred inside and outside the church, his humor and grace in the face of the human condition. «Ellington chose to share a vision of humanity that nourishes our life together on the planet. He said music was his mistress. It was also his faith», Douglas says, and shares a like-minded vision.
Douglas, who shares a similar vision about music and its spiritual role, wanted to create an updated body of works with a deep musical, transcendental vision, relevant to our chaotic, distressful times and its thorny, dissonant sounds. «The feeling that you are part of the holy, the numinous, that art is a communion with that mysterious spirit. No matter how mundane the circumstance, there is always deep love and meaning», he says. «You always want to be trying new things, learning. Music is our path to a romance with the universe».
By now, the Gifts band is a powerful working band, with distinct voices that enrich its most humane vision and complex, layered interplay. This beautiful album begins with a heartfelt arrangement of Ellington’s classic sacred piece and focus track «Come Sunday», originally composed as part of Ellington’s 1943 Black, Brown and Beige Suite (Victor, 1946), and establishes the profound communal dynamics of Gifts. Later on, Douglas’ Gifts band covers Ellington’s «Heaven», with a dreamy, seductive pulsing, and «Oclupaca», with a powerful, soulful groove. Douglas added six compositions, including «Energy Slabs», inspired by visual artist Jack Whitten, who dedicated one of his slab pieces to Ellington. Douglas mentions that Whitten’s works had a sense of movement and flow that has an analog in the endless invention of Ellington. The Gifts band masterfully channels Ellington’s quiet beauty and deep introspection, its own energies into lyrical, fascinating, and nuanced textures that have an immediate, uplifting emotional and motivational effect.
Eyal Hareuveni
Dave Douglas (trumpet), Tomeka Reid (cello), James Brandon Lewis (tenor saxophone), Rafiq Bhatia (guitar), Ian Chang (drums)
