Edward K. "Duke" Ellington
Born 29 April 1899 in Washington DC, composer, bandleader, and pianist Edward Kennedy
("Duke") Ellington was recognized in his lifetime as one of the greatest
jazz composers and performers. Nicknamed "Duke" by a boyhood friend who
admired his regal air, the name stuck and became indelibly associated with the finest
creations in big band and vocal jazz. A genius for instrumental combinations, improvisation,
and jazz arranging brought the world the unique "Ellington" sound that
found consummate expression in works like "Mood Indigo," "Sophisticated
Lady," and the symphonic suites Black, Brown, and Beige (which he subtitled
"a Tone Parallel to the History of the Negro in America") and Harlem ("a
Tone Parallel to Harlem").
Beginning keyboard studies at the age of seven, Ellington's earliest influences were
the ragtime pianists. He taught himself harmony at the piano and at 17, made his
professional debut. Encouraged by Fats Waller, he moved to New York in 1923 and,
during the formative Cotton Club years, experimented with and developed the style
that would quickly bring him worldwide success and recognition. Ellington would be
among the first to focus on musical form and composition in jazz using ternary forms
and "call-and-response" techniques in works like Concerto for Cootie (known
in its familiar vocal version as Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me) and Cotton Tail
and classic symphonic devices in his orchestral suites. In this respect, he would
influence the likes of Monk, Mingus, and Evans.
Among Ellington's many honors and awards were honorary doctorates from Howard and
Yale Universities, membership in the American Institute of Arts and Letters, election
as the first jazz musician member of the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm, and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
-notes from G. Schirmer
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