A Fresh Dawn for the Duke’s ‘Sunrise’

Hannah Gill ‘I Like the Sunrise’Turtle Bay Music Robbie Lee‘Daydreaming’ T2 MusicDuke Ellington composed “I Like the Sunrise” in 1947 as part of his extended work, “The Liberian Suite,” written to celebrate the centennial of that African nation’s independence. The suite consisted of one song with words, a relatively rare example of a lyric by Ellington himself, in addition to five instrumentals titled only as numbered dances. Ellington intended it as an anthem of Pan-African solidarity, and provided a stunning background for his superlative baritone Al Hibbler, who sang it as both an incantation and a hymn. “I Like the Sunrise” was an optimistic ode to a brave new world that was surely a-comin’.Over the years, the song has never risen to the top of the list of the Duke’s most popular works, but it is notable for the quality if not the quantity of the interpretations it has inspired: Mel Tormé (1960), Nina Simone (1962), Ella Fitzgerald (1965), and the song’s more recent popularity might be more directly inspired by Sinatra (1967) and Kurt Elling (2006 and 2024). After Sinatra sang it on his only collaboration with Ellington, he later called Hibbler (who told me the story many years later) and said, “Al, you’re the only one who can sing that damned thing.”Eighty years later, the tables have turned somewhat, and “Sunrise” is gradually becoming one of Ellington’s more popular works, and, as such, it is heard in two new albums, both of which are by singers under 30.Hannah Gill is a prolifically recorded vocalist and bandleader who is one of the shining stars of the current swing dance scene. Most of her albums and appearances are geared toward dancing. But the jazz singer’s latest, an Ellington songbook collection which she has titled “I Like the Sunrise,” is a breakthrough. This is the first of her projects that seems designed primarily for contemplative listening. The new release presents us with a more thoughtful and mature Hannah Gill than the constantly-in-motion party-girl persona she has generally embodied until now. That she’s done an Ellington program without a piano is also telling; the whole rhythm section, guitarist Luis Salcedo, bassist Phil Ambuel, and drummer Adam Ray, becomes a kind of collective keyboard. Ms. Gill is at her danciest and bounciest on “Love You Madly,” another Duke lyric, where she’s further propelled by tenor saxophonist Ricky Alexander. Her “Sunrise” opens with Mr. Ray using mallets in a percussion intro that suggests the dawn coming up like thunder. This leads to a dramatic chord from Mr. Salcedo, who then accompanies Ms. Gill, intoning the lyrics in a manner that’s close to a whisper — more internal than anything, as if she were praying aloud, but just barely.Robbie Lee, who also plays piano, has been featured in concerts at Jazz at Lincoln Center and more recently launched his premiere album, “Daydreaming,” with a Saturday show at Pocket, a new venue on West 46th Street. “Daydreaming” also utilizes a guitarist, Spencer Hoefert, a bassist, Felix Moseholm, and drummer, in addition to his own piano. The set includes a few jazz standards, including two by Oscar Hammerstein II — one of which is the gemlike “When I Grow Too Old to Dream” — as well as a Carter Family country classic, “Wildwood Flower,” and Mose Allison’s bluesy polemic, “Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy.” Mr. Lee begins his “Sunrise” with rubato piano, a meandering intro that almost seems designed to lead listeners away from the song rather than to it, making his eventual entrance with the familiar text even more welcome. Mr. Lee is reverent but still playful, whimsically altering the notes and the intervals in Ellington’s melody. Still, he retains the full meaning, and the full impact, of the song; the track gets louder, brighter, and more affirmative as its six minutes progresses, as he gradually builds to a rapturous moment of pure sunshine.Both artists bring us to a point where it becomes clear that God is looking down on us and smiling. And they both also prove that Sinatra, for once, was wrong: other people can sing this damned thing.

A Fresh Dawn for the Duke’s ‘Sunrise’

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