Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington composed more than two thousand pieces of music over the course of his fifty-five-year career. Although he was known primarily as a jazz musician, his scores include sacred music and incidental music (songs composed specifically for drama or movies ).

Most of his music was written for his own bands, which he led from 1918 until his death. Ellington and his musicians introduced features such as the growl (when a trumpeter uses his voice while playing to make the instrument “growl”) and the use of mutes and plungers to change a trumpet's tone, and he used the human voice as an instrument by having people sing without using words. Ellington has been called the greatest single talent in the history of jazz.

Middle-class childhood

Duke was a nickname; the musician was born as Edward Kennedy Ellington on April 29, 1899. His father made blueprints for the U.S. Navy but worked nights as a butler so he could provide his two children and wife with a comfortable life.

Ellington learned to play piano at an early age. When he was seven, his piano teacher refused to keep him as a pupil because she did not appreciate the way he experimented with off-tone chords. By the time he was in high school, he was studying the piano seriously with a teacher who recognized his natural ability.

Ellington dropped out of school his senior year to play with jazz bands; he supported himself by painting commercial signs. He formed his own band, Duke's Serenaders, in 1918. He married that same year. The union would end before long, but it resulted in the birth of Mercer Ellington (1919–1996), later a famous trumpeter.

Ellington moved his band to New York in 1923, where they played mainly in Harlem clubs. In 1927, they began a five-year engagement at the Cotton Club, a highly popular night spot. Their performances were broadcast live over the radio, and Ellington's music found its way into American homes and hearts.

Ellington and his band traveled to Europe twice during the 1930s. One of his most popular songs of the era was “It Don’t Mean a Thing.” The band also performed in many films during that decade. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Ellington composed and conducted jazz concerts at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Ellington received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 on his seventieth birthday.