Duke Ellington: A Guide to His Life and Music

Duke Ellington was an American composer, arranger, pianist, and bandleader who played an elemental role in shaping jazz and big band music. Born in Washington, DC, and based in New York City, Ellington was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance and one of the leading Black American artists of the twentieth century.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra, his most famous ensemble, was a fixture at The Cotton Club in Harlem and toured the world many times over. Through classics like "Take the A Train," "Sophisticated Lady," "Caravan," "In a Sentimental Mood," and "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart," the group transcended race and class. It commanded affluent white audiences at Carnegie Hall, Broadway clubs, and the Newport Jazz Festival, but it also was renowned in the Black enclaves of Harlem and Brooklyn. (Note that the Cotton Club, although located in Harlem, had a nearly all-white clientele; Black Harlem residents took in music elsewhere.)

Ellington also played in smaller ensembles, leading a piano trio on the acclaimed Money Jungle record with Charles Mingus and Max Roach. Along with his writing partner, Billy Strayhorn, Ellington found Hollywood success by scoring films like Anatomy of a Murder. Late in life, he led a series of "sacred concerts," applying his musical techniques to liturgical compositions.

Born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, DC, in 1899, Duke Ellington was immersed in music from his earliest days. His parents regularly played music on the family piano, and they enrolled the young Ellington in piano lessons at the age of 7.

• Ragtime roots: At the age of 15, Ellington wrote his first piece, "Soda Fountain Rag,” which he also called the "Poodle Dog Rag." Ragtime music would be a steady influence on Ellington’s early career, especially his piano playing.
• A start in NYC: After completing Armstrong Technical High School, Ellington began a professional music career with a group called The Duke's Serenaders. Ellington left segregated Washington, DC, in 1923 for New York City, where he would spend the rest of his career. In an homage to his roots, he named his first New York group The Washingtonians, which featured several players who would stay with Duke deep into his career.
• Ellington’s early orchestra: An early version of the Duke Ellington Orchestra coalesced at the Kentucky Club in 1924, and Ellington began recording regularly. In 1926, he signed with agent-publisher Irving Mills, who promoted Ellington's work but claimed a sizable chunk of royalties for himself. In 1927, the orchestra accepted a regular gig at the famed Cotton Club, which further elevated the group's stature.
• Duke Ellington Orchestra’s heyday: The 1930s and 1940s saw the greatest success for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. By this point, Ellington had joined forces with Billy Strayhorn, a classically trained composer and lyricist who wrote some of the Orchestra's most famous pieces including "Take the A Train," "Lush Life," and "Satin Doll" (co-written with Ellington himself). The group also featured some of its most legendary members, such as trumpeter Cootie Williams, for whom Ellington composed the seminal "Concerto for Cootie." Some of these prominent members would depart for solo careers in the 1950s, which—combined with the emergence of R&B and rock music—would dampen the orchestra's reach.
• Films and sacred music: In his later career, Ellington took an interest in film scoring and sacred music, bringing jazz to formats more commonly associated with classical music. He also performed and recorded with giants of the era, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, and John Coltrane.

In his later years, Ellington won the 1966 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the 1969 Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1974, Ellington fell ill with lung cancer and passed away; he was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1999.

As a composer, arranger, and bandleader, Duke Ellington was known for several signature traits.

1. 1. Highlighting soloists: Ellington mastered the art of writing for featured soloists. He attracted many virtuosic players, from saxophonists Ben Webster, Paul Gonsalves, and Johnny Hodges to trumpeters Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams to clarinet player Barney Bigard. Ellington would then specifically compose featured solos, or entire pieces, to highlight the players's remarkable talent.
2. 2. Short form and suites: Ellington (and his co-composers, such as Billy Strayhorn and his son, Mercer Ellington) had a knack for pumping out short, pithy hits like "Cotton Tail," "Satin Doll," and "Ko-Ko." Yet, Ellington was also fond of long instrumental suites, such as Black, Brown and Beige and "Creole Rhapsody." He also wrote jazz adaptations of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt.
3. 3. Finding drama in music: As both a bandleader and a composer, Ellington had a flair for finding dramatic elements in music and accentuating them. He did this in concert pieces, like his "Black and Tan Fantasy," and in film scores, such as that for Anatomy of a Murder.
4. 4. Reimagining the jazz orchestra: Duke Ellington did not invent the jazz orchestra, but he expanded its horizons, making novel use of dynamics and tempo. His practice of writing pieces to highlight specific players' virtuosity made the Duke Ellington Orchestra stand out as the most prodigious of the jazz orchestras.

Famous compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington include:

1. 1. "Mood Indigo" (1930)
2. 2. "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932)
3. 3. "Take the A Train" (1941)
4. 4. "Black and Tan Fantasy" (1927)
5. 5. "Cotton Tail" (1940)
6. 6. “Satin Doll” (1953)
7. 7. "Ko-Ko" (1940)
8. 8. "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" (1927)
9. 9. "Solitude" (1934)
10. 10. "Caravan"(1936)
11. 11. "In a Sentimental Mood" (1935)
12. 12. "Sophisticated Lady" (1933)
13. 13. "Prelude to a Kiss" (1938)
14. 14. "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" (1937)
15. 15. "Concerto for Cootie" (1940)
16. 16. Black, Brown and Beige (1943)
17. 17. The Far East Suite (1968)
18. 18. Anatomy of a Murder soundtrack (1959)

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