Come Sunday is a sacred jazz piece by Duke Ellington, written in 1943 as part of his extended suite Black, Brown and Beige. It premiered at Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, and the whole concert was later released in 1977 as The Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943. The tune was originally a centerpiece for alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges and exists as a 32-bar AABA section; Ellington later revised the suite and recorded it in full for the 1958 album Black, Brown and Beige, which included a vocal version with new lyrics sung by Mahalia Jackson that greatly boosted its popularity. Since then Come Sunday has become a jazz standard performed by many artists in various settings. Notable recordings include Ellington’s 1943 Carnegie Hall performance (released in 1944), the 1958 Mahalia Jackson vocal version, Dizzy Gillespie’s A Portrait of Duke Ellington (1960), Carmen McRae’s Bittersweet (1964) and Jennifer Holliday’s Say You Love Me (1985). The piece draws on spirituals and gospel textures and remains a landmark of sacred jazz.
