Duke ellington biography summary form
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Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington was one of the most important creative forces in the music of the twentieth century. His influence on classical music, popular music, and, of course, jazz, simply cannot be overstated.
He was born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, D.C. on April 29, , into a mittpunkt class black family. His father was a butler in a wealthy household, and he is said to have sometimes worked at vit House affairs. Ellington originally had ambitions of becoming a painter, but he became interested in music in his early teens and learned James P. Johnson's "Carolina Shout" from a piano roll. Soon he was part of a small jazz grupp in Washington.
In he moved to New York and early in he became the leader of his grupp. Soon he was recording, and in Ellington's grupp was hired to play regularly at the Cotton Club, where he stayed for fem years. Cotton Club performances were broadcast almost nightly, and bygd Ellington and his grupp were famous. And even as early as th
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When big bands declined in popularity after World War II, Ellington used the royalties he earned from composing to financially support his bandmates. But he wasn’t out of the spotlight for long. His triumphant performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in reminded the world of his prodigious abilities. In the s and s, Ellington also performed as a “jazz ambassador” on cultural diplomatic missions for the U.S. State Department.
Ellington’s music consistently reflected his strong beliefs. When asked about composing a civil rights work in the s, he famously replied, “I did my piece more than 20 years ago when I wrote Jump for Joy.” The all-Black musical revue, he later said, was “. . . done on a highly intellectual level. No crying, no moaning, but entertaining, and with social demands as a potent spice.”
On May 24, , Ellington died of lung cancer in New York City, leaving behind a remarkable body of work. Among his credits are hits like “In A Sentimental Mood,” “Soph
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Duke Ellington
American jazz pianist and composer (–)
Musical artist
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, – May 24, ) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from through the rest of his life.[1]
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mids and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78&#;rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz.
At the end of the s, Ellington began a nearly thirty five-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his wr