Brooks Kerr Salutes Duke Ellington (An Album of Blues)

Brooks Kerr was known as the premier protege and expert on the music of Duke Ellington. One day before Ellington's birthday, in 2018 Kerr himself passed away due to an ongoing bout with kidney disease. Born in 1951 with partial blindness he became totally blind by age 28. He was known for being both an expert on Ellington's music, as well as being a very interesting stride-style pianist, and a general jazz historian. He was fortunate enough to become a personal protege of Duke, often sitting in with the band as a 'relief' pianist, especially toward the end of Ellington's life, as he was battling cancer. In 1982 on his own label, Blue Wail, he started recording his own projects to document much of the music he studied and loved so much. On this first time CD and digital release, Brooks Kerr has dedicated a album's worth of Ellington 'blues' compositions, to show the variety of textures and formats with which Duke could create. Featured in a duo setting with the legendary bassist George Duvivier, Kerr creates a very happy, old fashioned mood that is quite enjoyable, listening after listening.