Duke Ellington brought a level of style and sophistication to Jazz that it hadn't seen before. 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.
1899 Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born on the April 29th in Washington D.C and blessed with wonderful parents and a happy childhood in a middle class, religious family.
1917 Duke began playing music professionally in Washington. His piano technique was influenced by stride piano players like James P. Johnson, and Willie "The Lion" Smith.
1922 Duke first visited New York, playing with Wilbur Sweatman, but the trip was unsuccessful.
1923 Returned to New York, but this time with a group of friends from Washington D.C. He became the bandleader; this group was called The Washingtonians. This Band worked at the Hollywood Club in Manhattan, during this time Sidney Bechet played with the band briefly, never recording with them though.
After this Trumpet player Bubber Miley joined the band with his unique plunger mute style, this sound came to be called the "Jungle Sound" and was largely responsible for Duke's early success.
1924 The group recorded their first record ("Choo Choo" and "Rainy Nights").
1927 Washingtonians hit the big time, they re-recorded "East St Louis Toodle-Oo" and did there first recording of "Black and Tan Fantasy" and "Creole Love Call".
But the thing that really put Ellington's band 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.
Musicians tended to stay with the band for long periods of time. For example, saxophone player Harry Carney would remain with Duke nonstop from 1927 to Ellington's death in 1974.
1928 Clarinetist Barney Bigard left King Oliver and joined the band. Ellington and Bigard would later co-write "Mood Indigo" in 1930.
1929 Bubber Miley fired because of alcoholism and he was replaced by Cootie Williams. Duke also appeared in his first film "Black and Tan" later that year.
Duke recorded Jazz's music's first two-sided, six minute song. (Tiger Rag)
1931 The Duke Ellington Orchestra left the Cotton Club (although he would return on an occasional basis throughout the rest of the Thirties) and toured the U.S. and Europe. Composed "Creole Rhapsody".
The Ellington Orchestra was able to make the change from the Hot Jazz of the 1920s to the Swing music of the 1930s. The song "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" even came to define the era. This ability to adapt and grow with the times keep the Ellington Orchestra a major force in Jazz up until Duke's death in the 1970s, only Louis Armstrong managed to sustain such a career.
1939 Billy Strayhorn joined the band as arranger, composer, occasional piano player, best friend and musical alter ego.
1940-50 Ellington's fame and influence continued to grow. They continued to produce Jazz standards like "Take the 'A' Train", "Perdido", "The 'C' Jam Blues", and "Satin Doll".
1960's Duke wrote several religious pieces, and composed "The Far East Suite". He also worked with a very diverse group of musicians whose styles spanned the history of Jazz. He played in a trio with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, sat in with both the Louis Armstrong All-Stars and the John Coltrane Quartet, and he had a double big-band date with Count Basie.
1969 President Nixon gave Duke the highest civilian award of the United States, the Presidential "Medal Of Freedom"
1970's Duke was award Honorary Doctorate by the University of Columbia. Many of Ellington's long time band members had died, but the band continued to attract outstanding musicians even after death in 1974, when his son Mercer Ellington took over the rains of the band.
Duke Ellington produced music of extraordinary diversity, his themes were startling in their simplicity, and the tonal qualities of the band -the unique Ellington sound- were based on the life and soul of its individuals.
Duke Ellington was a gentleman, he spoke eloquently, dressed fashionably, wrote approx. 3000 original works, and was the most important American composer of the 20th century.
But in the late spring of 1973 came a chilling diagnosis for Duke, lung cancer. As usual, Duke battled on, till a concert in January 1974, when he collapsed.
On May 24, he died in hospital.
�Duke Ellington
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