Gradually it occurred to him, though, to refurbish "Twelfth Night" as a Harlem fantasy, with the Ellington songs centrally deployed to advance the plot and develop character.

Ms. Ellington, who was the assistant choreographer for the 1981 "Sophisticated Ladies," a revue also based on Ellington songs, said that again with "Play On!

"I often used to think, as I uncovered this Ellington song or that one for the show, that the Duke himself was sometimes leading me to them," said Mr. Epps.

And Barbara Lea, an unusually knowledgeable and sensitive jazz vocalist who sings regularly with the Schoenberg band, will sing Ellington songs in arrangements written by Benny Carter.

Many Ellington songs are fragments of something larger and orchestrally conceived.

The hall was astir with emotion and expectation; three of the contest's 20 finalist bands performed a few Ellington songs, waiting to find out which would be the winner.

The most unexpected of Mr. Torme's Ellington songs was "Reminiscing in Tempo," an instrumental piece that the Ellington band spread over four 10-inch record sides in 1935.

None of them are very famous; most are based on the templates of better-known Ellington songs.

Dr. John also moved deeper into the Ellington songs.

"Play On," which has 21 Ellington songs, is choreographed by Mercedes Ellington, Duke Ellington's granddaughter.