Paul Mercer Ellington will conduct the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the opening of the Mosaic Music Festival

PAUL Mercer Ellington, who has been leading the Duke Ellington Orchestra since 1996, gives you a sneak peek of what he and his bandmates are planning for their Mosaic Music Festival gig here on March 9.

But, as Duke Ellington was all about spontaneity, the 15-piece band has been known to decide on what to play just half an hour before showtime. So the following is not yet writ in stone:

Among the orchestra's classic standards it will play are In A Sentimental Mood, Mood Indigo, Satin Doll, Caravan and, of course, the orchestra's anthem, Take The "A" Train.

If you're lucky, you'll get to hear Paul's own well-received compositions, too, especially The Many Sides Of Ellington and L'le Jam.

Paul will conduct the orchestra, and maybe plink out a few tunes on the ivories, too. But the man he's handing the orchestral baton to after this gig, veteran orchestral trumpeter Barry Lee Hall, will not play here.

Drummer Rocky White, who played with Duke Ellington in the early 1970s, is set to appear here, despite having undergone surgery recently.

Other veterans headlining the gig will be chanteuse Freda Payne, who has sold more than two million singles and sung with Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones and Sammy Davis Jr, and trumpeter Byron Stripling, who's also the artistic director of the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.