‘Spring of Jazz’ Concert Series: Nasar Abadey & Supernova

In collaboration with Georgetown University-Qatar, the ‘Spring of Jazz’ series begins on Sunday 21 April with a concert at the PUE Theater in Education City.

Guests are invited to experience the sounds of hard bop, modal, fusion, and avant-garde jazz with SUPERNOVA, led by visionary drummer and composer Nasar Abadey.

We pay tribute to one of America’s and the world’s greatest composers and musicians. This concert is part of a long history of paying tribute to Ellington’s genius.

Twenty-five years ago on April 29, 1999, Ellington’s 100th birthdate his ‘Concert of Sacred Music’ was presented at the Washington National Cathedral, the church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached his final Sunday sermon before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.

The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (SJMO) performed along with vocalists Queen Esther Morrow and Kevin Mahogany. Ellington’s last concert was held at Georgetown University on February 10, 1974, fifty years ago. The orchestra played over 20 of his compositions. Ellington died in New York on May 24, 1974, a few weeks after his 75th birthday.

It is fitting that Georgetown University in Doha along with the US Embassy in Qatar presents Ellington’s fellow Washingtonian, Nasar Abeday with Supernova, fifty years after his death and 125 years after his birth. Millions throughout the world will be joining us this April, International Jazz History Month, as we celebrate the ‘DUKE.’

Organised in collaboration with the US Embassy Doha, and in honor of Jazz Appreciation Month, the event will take place on Sunday, 21 April, 6 pm, at Qatar Academy’s PUE Theater in Education City.

Admission is free with registration at qatar.georgetown.edu/event/nasar-abadey-supernova/