It’s hard to believe now of such an icon, but Duke Ellington once struggled to transcend his status as “just” a jazz composer and band leader. Not enough to have introduced “Sophisticated Lady” and “Take the ‘A’ Train” to the American songbook (among dozens more hits), Ellington began in 1965 a series of liturgical works set to the rhythms and idioms of jazz. In a sense, he united Saturday night and Sunday morning in the canon now called his Sacred Music, here presented for the the 22nd consecutive year by Earshot Jazz. The concert features Northwest Chamber Chorus and Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, which recently recorded a two-disc set of the Sacred Music for Origin Records. Everett Greene and Nichol Eskridge are featured vocalists, and there’ll even tap-dancing courtesy of Alex Dugdale. Tap-dancing in church, isn’t that blasphemy? (Town Hall was once a church, you’ll recall.) Why not, if the spirit moves you? BRIAN MILLER

Sun., Dec. 26, 7:30 p.m., 2010