While Duke Ellington is best remembered as perhaps the finest and most influential composer in the history of American jazz, he was also a man of deep spiritual convictions, and late in his career, he wrote several programs of inspirational music that blended his peerless tonal artistry with the celebratory energy of classic gospel music. Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts features a concert by the Swiss jazz ensemble The Lausanne Big Band with guest soloists Jon Faddis on trumpet, Adam Nussbaum on drums, and Michele Hendricks and Allan Harris on vocals, as they perform a program of 13 of Ellington's best religious works at the Lugano Cathedral. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi