Duke Ellington was a pianist, a composer, and a bandleader. He was born in Washington, D.C. in 1899 as Edward Kennedy Ellington. Duke was a name he picked up in childhood, given to him to describe his elegant manner. His parents were part of the Black middle class of Washington, D.C., and both played music at home.
Ellington started piano lessons at age seven, but it wasn't the music he was learning at his teacher's side that interested him but instead the ragtime music he heard at dance parties and pool halls when he was a teenager. It took being fired from several bands, however, for Ellington to finally learn how to read music!
Ellington dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music, and the five-piece band he played with, The Washingtonians, moved from Washington, D.C. to New York City in 1923. Listen to them perform Ellington's "East Saint Louis Toodle-oo, opens a new window" recorded in 1927 (or perhaps you'd like to hear the band Steely Dan's rendition of this tune from 1974, opens a new window). Under Ellington's leadership, the band grew and moved up from Times Square to Harlem's Cotton Club in 1927. You can get a feel for what the band sounded like by listening to this recording of the band from 1928 where they play the song "Diga Diga Do, opens a new window" (written by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh). He stayed at the Cotton Club through June of 1931. This popular club featured Black performers, but catered to a wealthy White audience.
Ellington's real fame came in the 1930s. His band started touring nationally, traveling by train and using the train coaches as dormitories since finding hotels that would accept the Black performers was challenging. One of his first hits from this time period was "Don't Mean a Thing", opens a new window from 1932. In 1933, he and his band went on their first International tour, visiting London and Paris, where "Daybreak Express", opens a new window was one of the new works premiered. In 1935, Paramount Pictures released the short film Symphony in Black,, opens a new window which not only was scored entirely by Ellington but also featured a young Billie Holiday. In 1939, Ellington took on Billy Strayhorn as a second composer, arranger, pianist, and lyricist for the band. This collaboration proved to be a great success and featured such hits as Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train", opens a new window in 1941.
World War II saw a recording ban called by the American Federation of Musicians in August 1942, which definitely had an impact on the Ellington band. The ability to tour extensively was constrained by the war in Europe, but Ellington continued to compose and started to put on recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York City. During this time he also returned to movies, appearing in Cabin in the Sky and Reveille. The recording ban ended in 1944, and record labels started putting out recordings again. The hits kept coming: some of them were ones that had been written a few years earlier, and others were brand new, like "I'm Beginning to See the Light, opens a new window," which became a top 10 hit.
When World War II ended, Ellington and his band kept touring. In 1946, he wrote the music for the Broadway musical Beggar's Holiday, and later scored the film Asphalt Jungle. The early 1950s were a difficult time for Ellington and the band, but they came back swinging when they performed at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival on July 7 and wowed the audience with a rendition of "Dimuendo and Crescendo in Blue, opens a new window". The performance at Newport was released as a live recording by Columbia Records as Ellington at Newport, opens a new window, which became the best selling album of his career. That year also saw Ellington on the cover of Time magazine. The success of the showing at Newport opened up more opportunities for touring, and in 1958 he undertook his first large scale tour of Europe. From that point on, Ellington was a busy world traveler.
The rest of Ellington's career continued to see success until his death in 1974. He scored more movie soundtracks, including Anatomy of a Murder in 1959 (which he appeared in and also won three Grammy awards), Paris Blues, opens a new window in 1961 (which was nominated for an Academy Award), Assault on a Queen, opens a new window in 1966, and Change of Mind in 1969. He won several Grammy awards, including for "In the Beginning, God," in 1966 (best original jazz composition), Far East Suite in 1967 (best instrumental jazz performance), And His Mother Called Him Bill in 1969 (best instrumental jazz performance), and The Ellington Suites, opens a new window posthumously in 1976. He never did have a real stage hit during his lifetime, as most of the shows that he was involved with ended after around 100 performances. But the revue Sophisticated Ladies, opens a new window, which opened on Broadway on March 1, 1981, and ran for 767 performances.
Though he has been gone for 50 years now, his legacy lives on in the music he wrote and recorded. Long live the Duke!
Throughout 2024, the Boston Public Library is highlighting revolutionary musicians throughout history. In August, we celebrate the legacy of Duke Ellington, an American composer, pianist, and jazz bandleader whose career spanned more than fifty years. This list of fiction and nonfiction books will appeal to his fans, both new and old.
Books
CDs
Ellington at Newport 1956 (complete)
Streaming Music
Verve Jazz Masters 4: Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington: the Reprise Studio Recordings
DVDs
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra
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