An evening with the Novel Jazz Septet is so much more than a musical show. Steeped in the stories and the history surrounding both Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, the band brings the audience into a time and place that informed some of the most iconic and influential music of the 20th century and helps listeners understand the forces that shaped Ellington’s and Strayhorn’s contributions to the jazz world. The septet will bring their compelling program to the Opera House at Boothbay Harbor on Friday, Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m. And, the show will be recorded for a new CD, so the enthusiasm and engagement of the room will be captured as an added element of the experience. 

Band member Barney Balch finds the experience as mesmerizing today as he did 22 years ago when the group first assembled. “It all started in a performance that we were doing an informal thing, and someone called out an Ellington tune that none of us had ever heard of before. And I said, ‘Sheesh, you know, between the seven of us playing here, there’s about two centuries of collective jazz knowledge, and none of us have ever heard of this tune. I wonder how many tunes Duke Ellington wrote?’ and the answer to that is, thousands.”

Balch’s fascination is sustained by the extraordinary access that he has had to precious, and rarely seen, compositions. “Ellington started writing in the mid-20s and, and he died in ‘74 and he was just writing constantly. So I thought, ‘I wonder where all these are?’ And I found out about what's called the Ellington Archives, at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where they have the originals, the penciled manuscripts–lead sheets, they're called; there are 400 book boxes of these that had been in a garage someplace, and had sustained some water damage. So that's when they consulted with the Smithsonian, and the Smithsonian said, ‘Well, we'll take it!’” Balch reflects on the momentous experience of being in the presence of archival gems: “The first time I held the penciled copy of Mood Indigo, my hands were shaking. There's nothing like it and it's really fun.”

Balch shares that Strayhorn, who was quite a bit younger than Ellington, and tragically died very young, also composing at that time, and “There are lots of backstories about how those guys met, and our shows basically deal with both the tunes and the stories. There's a story behind every piece and it's my jazz iceberg, I call it. We've been chipping away at this, as I said, for 22 years and haven't even made a dent.”

Asked about how the collaboration process works with the septet, Balch says, “We start by looking through the collection of tunes that we've been thinking of doing. They have to be down ranged from typically being written for 18-piece orchestras, down to seven pieces. So that's a challenge. After we do a first arrangement, we all get together, and it's probably one of the most fun sessions of the year. We play these things, try them out, and then we sit around and say, ‘Geez, you know, this would sound really cool as a samba. And let's pick up the tempo.’ So we're not necessarily reproducing these songs exactly as they were written in 1928 or 1936. We're dusting them off and bringing them up harmonically and rhythmically. And there will be times where we make a change to one of these tunes and we all just go, ‘Whoa!’”

With regard to the storytelling that places this music squarely in its tumultuous history of absent civil rights, Balch says, “There are a lot of stories tied up in that, and I really try to bring both of those out in our shows–the song as well as the backstory. Because it's just so compelling and we have a lot we can learn. There’s a lot the audience can still learn about music; how it has responded to social issues has never been more relevant than right now in so many ways.”

Advance discounted tickets, $20, are available from the box office at 86 Townsend Ave., Boothbay Harbor or by calling 207-633-5159. The box office is open Wednesday-Friday from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Regular tickets are $25, on the day of the concert and online: https://boothbayoperahouse.com/ Doors for seating open at 7 p.m. Music begins at 7:30. The bar will have cold drinks for sale, cash only.