Ellington, Edward (“Duke”)

Ellington, Edward (“Duke”) (1899–1974), composer, bandleader, pianist.Born in Washington, D.C., Duke Ellington learned to play jazz in that city's saloons and clubs. In 1923 he moved to New York City, where in 1927 his band became the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club. Some of Ellington's best‐known songs, such as “East St. Louis Toodle‐Oo,” came from Cotton Club shows. Ellington and his band toured internationally in the 1930s, but periodically returned to the Cotton Club.

Beginning in the 1930s, Ellington traced the history of African‐American life in a series of longer compositions, culminating in a 1943 suite entitled “Black, Brown, and Beige.” Presented as a jazz concert in New York's Carnegie Hall, it showed Ellington's growing interest in classical music. Unlike Benny Goodman, who played jazz and classical music separately, Ellington created an oeuvre combining classical and jazz influences.

Ellington wrote music to fit his players' talents and they in turn improvised on his compositions. Billy Strayhorn became his best‐known collaborator and Ellington's son Mercer cowrote several numbers. Strayhorn's “Take the ‘A’ Train” (1941) became the band's theme. The post–World War II era that nearly wiped out big bands also affected Ellington. Like Ella Fitzgerald, Ellington sold records in the 1960s by rerecording his earlier hits and covering other musicians' songs. He also wrote new long‐form compositions, again toured internationally, and composed religious music. Ellington won his greatest recognition as a composer during the last decade of his life and posthumously, as his work contributed to the growing acceptance of jazz as a serious musical idiom.
See also Harlem Renaissance; Music: Classical Music; Music: Popular Music.

Bibliography

John Edward Hasse , Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, 1993.
Mark Tucker, ed., The Duke Ellington Reader, 1993.

Jonathan Z. S. Pollack