Duke ellington early life facts
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Duke Ellington
American jazz pianist and composer (1899–1974)
Musical artist
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life.[1]
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s 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 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty five-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion.[2] With Strayhorn, he composed multiple extended compositions, or suites, as well as many short pieces. For a few years at the beginning of Strayhorn's involvement, Ellington's orchestra featured bassist Jimmy Blanton and ten
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Born April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C., pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington is one of the most important figures in jazz history. In this biography, jazz historian and award-winning author Scott Yanow takes an in-depth look at the life and career of the iconic figure.
Duke Ellington’s musical accomplishments and innovations are so numerous that they can be difficult to comprehend much less fully list. They fall into four areas: bandleader, composer, arranger, and pianist.
Ellington led his orchestra non-stop for 50 years (1924-74). One can pick out any year from that period, whether it is 1927, 1947 or 1967, and his big band ranks with the top five in the world.
As a composer, he wrote thousands of pieces, ranging from three-minute classics to hour-long suites. Scores of his originals became jazz standards, and he ranked with the other masters of the Great American Songbook such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. But unlike those composers, Ellington wrote his works not by sitting at home by a piano but while traveling on the road with his orchestra.
As an arranger, Ellington mixed together virtuosos with primitive players, all of whom had personal and sometimes quirky sounds that he blended together. Not content to just write one arrangement
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