Duke Ellington

Overview

Biography

Duke Ellington (1899–1974) was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader who led his orchestra for nearly fifty years and became the most important composer in the history of jazz. Born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington D.C. into a middle-class African American family, he was playing professionally in his teens and formed his own bands in the early 1920s. His residency at the Cotton Club in Harlem (1927–1931), broadcast nationally on radio, made him a household name across America.

Ellington's genius lay in his ability to write specifically for the individual musicians in his band — their unique timbres, technical strengths, and improvisational personalities became the palette he composed for. His long partnership with arranger Billy Strayhorn, who composed Take the A Train (the band's signature tune) and dozens of other works, was one of the great creative collaborations in American music. Together they blurred the boundaries between composition and arrangement, between classical and jazz, between American and global influences.

His output was astonishing: beyond the famous standards — Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, Satin Doll, It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) — he composed extended works that pushed jazz toward the concert hall: Black, Brown and Beige (1943), premiered at Carnegie Hall, was a musical portrait of African American history. His three Sacred Concerts (1965–1973) set jazz rhythms to religious texts in a Carnegie Hall setting. Ellington was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 and remains one of the defining American artists of the twentieth century.