CAMDEN — The Novel Jazz Septet returns to Camden on July 7 at 7 p.m. to feature the swinging music of great American jazz composers, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, in a free concert hosted by the Camden Public Library. The band performs well-known compositions plus vintage gems recently unearthed from original scores at the Smithsonian and re-interpreted for this performance at the Camden Amphitheatre.

These guys travel far and wide, keeping the spirit of Duke and Swee'Pea alive and swinging!

The concert is part of the library's Summer Concert Series supported by help from the Reny Charitable Foundation. The concert is free but we will pass the hat to help with travel expenses for the band. Bring blankets or chairs for comfortable seating!

The musicians of Novel Jazz have been performing "straight-ahead jazz" around Maine and New England for over three decades. They draw from the Great American Songbook and specialize in the works of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. The band members hail from all over Maine — Belfast, Buxton, Chebeague Island, Gardiner, Newcastle, Thomaston and Vassalboro.

They perform regularly in Midcoast Maine (at the Skidompha Public Library in Damariscotta) as an effort to keep jazz alive in the state. A decade ago, they embarked on a project to go through the massive archive of compositions by Ellington and Strayhorn — who wrote about 2,500 pieces between them — to transcribe some lesser known gems for the band and reinterpret them with a 21st century sound. Their first CD was released in 2008, their second was released in 2011.

The band released their third CD, Novel and Novelle: More unearthed treasures by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington in June 2015.

FMI: mainejazz.net or on Facebook at Novel Jazz Septet.