Portrait of Mercer Ellington

Although he was a gifted piano player, his orchestra was his principal instrument. Like Jelly Roll Morton before him, he considered himself to be a composer and arranger, rather than just a musician. Duke began playing music professionally in Washington, D. His piano technique was influenced by stride piano players like James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith. He first visited New York in playing with Wilbur Sweatman , but the trip was unsuccessful.

1. WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center.
2. Portrait of Duke Ellington?
3. Catorce retratos en el café (Spanish Edition)?

He returned to New York again in , but this time with a group of friends from Washington D. They worked for a while with banjoist Elmer Snowden until there was a disagreement over missing money. Ellington then became the leader. This group was called The Washingtonians. During this time Sidney Bechet played briefly with the band unfortunately he never recorded with them , but more significantly the trumpet player Bubber Miley joined the band, bringing with him his unique plunger mute style of playing.

This sound came to be called the "Jungle Sound", and it was largely responsible for Ellington's early success. The song "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" is a good example of this style of playing. The group recorded their first record in " Choo Choo Gotta Hurry Home " and " Rainy Nights Rainy Days ", but the band didn't hit the big time until after Irving Mills became their manager and publisher in In the band re-recorded versions of "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo," debuted "Black and Tan Fantasy" and "Creole Love Call", songs that would be associated with him the for rest of his career, but what really put Ellington's Orchestra over the top was becoming the house band at the Cotton Club after King Oliver unwisely turned down the job.

Radio broadcasts from the club made Ellington famous across America and also gave him the financial security to assemble a top notch band that he could write music specifically for. Tastes and trends had moved on without him. Festival appearances at the new Monterey Jazz Festival and elsewhere provided venues for live exposure, and a European tour in was well received.

Such Sweet Thunder , based on Shakespeare's plays and characters, and The Queen's Suite , dedicated to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II , were products of the renewed impetus which the Newport appearance helped to create, although the latter work was not commercially issued at the time. The late s also saw Ella Fitzgerald record her Duke Ellington Songbook Verve with Ellington and his orchestra—a recognition that Ellington's songs had now become part of the cultural canon known as the ' Great American Songbook '.

Navigation menu

Around this time Ellington and Strayhorn began to work on film soundtrack scoring. The first of these was Anatomy of a Murder , [32] a courtroom drama directed by Otto Preminger and featuring James Stewart , in which Ellington appeared fronting a roadhouse combo. Film historians have recognized the soundtrack "as a landmark — the first significant Hollywood film music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, music whose source is not visible or implied by action in the film, like an on-screen band.

In the early s, Ellington embraced recording with artists who had been friendly rivals in the past, or were younger musicians who focused on later styles. The Count Meets the Duke He signed to Frank Sinatra 's new Reprise label , but the association with the label was short-lived. Musicians who had previously worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members: Lawrence Brown in and Cootie Williams in The writing and playing of music is a matter of intent You can't just throw a paint brush against the wall and call whatever happens art.

My music fits the tonal personality of the player. I think too strongly in terms of altering my music to fit the performer to be impressed by accidental music. You can't take doodling seriously. He was now performing all over the world; a significant part of each year was spent on overseas tours. Ellington wrote an original score for director Michael Langham 's production of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada which opened on July 29, Langham has used it for several subsequent productions, including a much later adaptation by Stanley Silverman which expands the score with some of Ellington's best-known works.

Ellington was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Music in but no prize was ultimately awarded that year. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young. In September , he premiered the first of his Sacred Concerts. He created a jazz Christian liturgy. Although the work received mixed reviews, Ellington was proud of the composition and performed it dozens of times. This concert was followed by two others of the same type in and , known as the Second and Third Sacred Concerts.

These generated controversy in what was already a tumultuous time in the United States. Many saw the Sacred Music suites as an attempt to reinforce commercial support for organized religion, though Ellington simply said it was "the most important thing I've done". Like Haydn and Mozart , Ellington conducted his orchestra from the piano — he always played the keyboard parts when the Sacred Concerts were performed.

Duke turned 65 in the spring of but showed no signs of slowing down as he continued to make vital and innovative recordings, including The Far East Suite , New Orleans Suite , Latin American Suite and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse , much of it inspired by his world tours. It was during this time that he recorded his only album with Frank Sinatra , entitled Francis A.

Ellington performed what is considered his final full concert in a ballroom at Northern Illinois University on March 20, Ellington married his high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson d. Ellington was joined in New York City by his wife and son in the late twenties, but the couple soon permanently separated. In he left his family his son was 19 and moved in with Beatrice "Evie" Ellis, a Cotton Club employee.

Their relationship, though stormy, continued after Ellington met and formed a relationship with Fernanda de Castro Monte in the early s. Ellington supported both women for the rest of his life. Ellington's sister Ruth — later ran Tempo Music, his music publishing company. Ruth's second husband was the bass-baritone McHenry Boatwright , whom she met when he sang at her brother's funeral.

Ellington died on May 24, , of complications from lung cancer and pneumonia , [71] a few weeks after his 75th birthday. At his funeral, attended by over 12, people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine , Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, "It's a very sad day. A genius has passed. In Ellington's birthplace, Washington, D. Another school is P. Ellington's residence at Sherman Avenue, NW, during the years —, [75] is marked by a bronze plaque.

Mint's program honoring the District and the U. In a United States commemorative stamp was issued featuring Ellington's likeness. Ellington lived for years in a townhouse on the corner of Manhattan's Riverside Drive and West th Street. According to UCLA magazine:.

• Mercer Ellington.
• Red Raider Diary?
• Duke Ellington.
• Tigers (A Fun Time Reading Book for Level 2 Readers).
• Mercer Ellington On Piano Jazz.

On the day of the concert, Ellington accidentally mixed up the venues and drove to USC instead. He eventually arrived at the UCLA campus and, to apologize for his tardiness, played to the packed crowd for more than four hours. And so, "Sir Duke" and his group played the first-ever jazz performance in a concert venue. The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival is a nationally renowned annual competition for prestigious high school bands.

Started in at Jazz at Lincoln Center , the festival is named after Ellington because of the large focus that the festival places on his works. After Duke died, his son Mercer took over leadership of the orchestra, continuing until his own death in Like the Count Basie Orchestra , this "ghost band" continued to release albums for many years. Mercer Ellington had been handling all administrative aspects of his father's business for several decades. Mercer's children continue a connection with their grandfather's work.

Ellington composed incessantly to the very last days of his life. Music was indeed his mistress; it was his total life and his commitment to it was incomparable and unalterable. In jazz he was a giant among giants. And in twentieth century music, he may yet one day be recognized as one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time. And since his death in , it has become not at all uncommon to see him named, along with Charles Ives , as the greatest composer we have produced, regardless of category. His compositions have been revisited by artists and musicians around the world both as a source of inspiration and a bedrock of their own performing careers.

There are hundreds of albums dedicated to the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn by artists famous and obscure. Sophisticated Ladies , an award-winning musical revue, incorporated many tunes from Ellington's repertoire. A second Broadway musical interpolating Ellington's music, Play On! Ellington earned 14 Grammy awards from to , three of which were posthumous and a total of 24 nominations. Recordings of Duke Ellington were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame , which is a special Grammy award established in to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have qualitative or historical significance.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. American jazz musician, composer and band leader. Bandleader musician composer conductor. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. January Learn how and when to remove this template message. Retrieved January 26, He claimed there were only two types of music, 'good' and 'bad' And he embraced a phrase coined by his colleague Billy Strayhorn — 'beyond category' — as a liberating principle. Special Awards and Citations".

Retrieved December 3, With reprint of short biography and list of works selected. University of Chicago Press. Music on My Mind: Retrieved July 14, Setting the Strategy for an African American Maestro". The Journal of African American History. Retrieved February 2, Da Capo, [], pp. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Duke Ellington , Creative Age Press, Day by Day and Film by Film , Retrieved September 15, University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill. Archived from the original on June 22, Symphony of the Body and Soul".

Archived from the original on July 7, Retrieved December 31, The Encyclopedia of New York.

Portrait of Mahalia Jackson

Archived from the original on September 3, The American Musical Landscape. University of California Press. University of Chicago Press, , p. Singer who rose from poverty to captivate audiences around the world with her purring voice". Retrieved December 14, Scarecrow Press, , p. A Life in Music.

Archived from the original on February 12, Retrieved February 23, Giddins says that Ellington was denied the Music Pulitzer because the jury commended him for his body of work rather than for a particular composition, but his posthumous Pulitzer was granted precisely for that life-long body of work.

The Duke Ellington reader. The Duke Ellington Society. Archived from the original on November 12, Archived from the original on August 10, Retrieved August 26, Archived from the original on June 25, The Life of Duke Ellington. Retrieved 13 October Retrieved January 31, Retrieved September 2, Archived from the original on January 15, Retrieved December 5, Williams to Felix Grant, September 21, ".

Archived from the original on August 21, Retrieved October 3, Retrieved April 12, Retrieved March 21, Archived from the original on January 22, Center for Jazz Arts. Archived from the original on May 18, Archived from the original on January 30, Archived from the original on May 21, January The Carnegie Hall Concerts: December The Carnegie Hall Concerts: Serenade to Sweden First Time! Sacred Concerts Jam Session. Complete list Journalism Letters Arts Service. Retrieved from " https: Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote.

This page was last edited on 16 December , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Black, Brown and Beige. Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. Issued April 29, [89]. French Legion of Honor [90]. Honorary Degree in Music from Columbia University.

Honorary Doctor of Music from Howard University [91]. Songwriters Hall of Fame. Presidential Medal of Freedom.