Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington the American pianist, composer and bandleader (1899-1974) who led his orchestra for half a century and wrote some of the most enduring works in jazz, blending sophisticated harmony, distinctive orchestration and a refined sense of mood into a body of music of lasting artistic importance.

Washington Origins

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on 29 April 1899 in Washington, D.C., into a middle-class African-American family. His father worked as a butler and later as a blueprint copier, and his mother surrounded him with music and encouraged his education. He was nicknamed Duke in childhood for his elegant manners, and the name stayed with him for life.

He began piano lessons as a boy, though his early enthusiasm was limited, and he was more drawn to drawing and painting. He attended Armstrong Technical High School and spent his time at the pool hall and later the soda fountain of the True Reformer's Hall, where he listened to the ragtime pianists of the city and absorbed their stride technique.

By his late teens he was playing professionally at dances and parties, and he formed his first small groups. He studied the piano with local teachers and learned to read and write music, an unusual accomplishment for the jazz musicians of his generation that allowed him to compose and arrange on paper.

The Cotton Club and the Orchestra

In 1923 Ellington moved to New York and joined the band of Elmer Snowden, which he soon took over. The group found its great opportunity in 1927, when it was engaged as the house band at the Cotton Club, a fashionable Harlem nightspot that catered to white patrons. Broadcasts from the club made the band nationally famous.

Ellington wrote specifically for the individual talents in his orchestra, a practice that gave his music a distinctive colour. He exploited the growling plunger-muted trumpet of Bubber Miley, the sweet-toned saxophone of Johnny Hodges, the powerful bass of Jimmy Blanton and the elegant baritone of Harry Carney, treating his musicians as a palette of unique voices.

Songs such as Mood Indigo, Creole Love Call and Black and Tan Fantasy became signatures of the band. By the early 1930s Ellington was recognised as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance and as a composer of unusual ambition, and the orchestra began to tour Europe, where it was received with enthusiasm.

Composition and Extended Works

Ellington's ambitions reached beyond the three-minute dance record. In 1931 he composed Creole Rhapsody, a longer piece that showed his appetite for extended form, and in the following decades he wrote numerous suites and programmatic works. Some, such as Black, Brown and Beige, first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1943, attempted to portray the history of African Americans in music.

His harmonic language was rich and personal, full of unexpected voicings and chromatic movement, and his melodies were often lyrical and introspective. He wrote in collaboration with his arranger Billy Strayhorn, whose contributions, including Take the A Train, became inseparable from the band's identity. Their partnership lasted until Strayhorn's death in 1967.

Among his best-known compositions are Satin Doll, Sophisticated Lady, Prelude to a Kiss and Solitude. Whether writing for a small combo or a full orchestra, he brought to jazz an attention to form and texture more usually associated with classical music, without sacrificing the swing that gave his music its life.

Sacred Concerts and Final Years

In the 1960s Ellington turned increasingly to religious music. He composed a series of Sacred Concerts, first performed in 1965 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, which combined jazz, choral writing, dance and spiritual text. These works reflected a deep personal faith and represented a new phase of his creativity late in life.

The death of Billy Strayhorn in 1967 was a heavy blow, and the economics of the big-band era grew ever more difficult. Ellington nevertheless continued to tour the world with his orchestra, performing for heads of state and winning new audiences, and he recorded prolifically with small groups and with the great soloists of the day.

In 1969 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 1970 he was honoured by the city of New York. He died on 24 May 1974 in New York, and his son Mercer Ellington took over the leadership of the orchestra. At his funeral thousands paid tribute to a musician regarded as a national treasure.

Influence and Reputation

Ellington wrote or co-wrote more than a thousand compositions, and his orchestra set a standard for ensemble playing that few bands have equalled. His insistence on writing for individual musicians anticipated the modern practice of tailoring music to a specific ensemble, and his harmonies influenced arrangers and composers far beyond jazz.

He was deeply conscious of the dignity of his people and of his art, and he used his platform to challenge racial barriers, presenting himself with unfailing elegance and refusing to accept second-class treatment. His music, he said, was beyond category, and his refusal to be confined to a narrow label has been vindicated by the breadth of his achievement.

He is remembered as one of the greatest composers in American music, a figure whose output encompasses song, suite, concerto and sacred drama. Together with his orchestra he created a body of work that continues to be studied, performed and enjoyed, and his name stands as a synonym for artistic excellence sustained over a lifetime.

See also

• Billy Strayhorn
• Cotton Club
• Harlem Renaissance
• Big band