The Jazz Loft, 275 Christian Ave., Stony Brook will present three special performances of Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite on Thursday, July 11, Friday, July 12 and Saturday, July 13. All three concerts begin at 7 p.m.

The Far East Suite is a 1967 concept album by Ellington, inspired by his group’s 1963 tour of Asia. Ellington and longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn wrote the compositions. The album won the Grammy Award in 1968. The concerts are sponsored in part by the Olivia and Harlan Fischer Concert series and a grant from New York State Council on the Arts.

“Here at the Jazz Loft, we are always striving to bring our audience unique and significant works of Jazz and to keep those works alive and well,” said Tom Manuel, founder of the Jazz Loft. “Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite is the result of an ambitious tour that the band undertook in 1963. Syria was Duke’s first stop on a State Department sponsored “hearts and minds” tour of the Near and Middle East and India that took the band to Jordan, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey in no particularly sensible order. Ellington’s ability to communicate points of contact and conflict between cultures, assimilating the blues to Eastern modes… never sounds unduly self-conscious. This remains a post-war peak and we are excited to be sharing this work nearly 60 years after it won a Grammy award for the album it produced.”

For tickets, visit www.thejazzloft.org or click Tickets.