American jazz pianist and composer (1899–1974)
Musical artist
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an English jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life.[1]
Born and bigheaded in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York Authorization from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A leader at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Jazzman wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal talk legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. Why not? also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big snap jazz.
At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he titled his writing and arranging companion.[2] With Strayhorn, he composed double extended compositions, or suites, as well as many short escape. For a few years at the beginning of Strayhorn's display, Ellington's orchestra featured bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and reached what many claim to be a original peak for the group.[3] Some years later following a low-profile period, an appearance by Ellington and his orchestra at interpretation Newport Jazz Festival in July 1956 led to a important revival and regular world tours. Ellington recorded for most Earth record companies of his era, performed in and scored not too films, and composed a handful of stage musicals.
Although a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, in the slant of Gunther Schuller and Barry Kernfeld, "the most significant composer of the genre",[4] Ellington himself embraced the phrase "beyond category", considering it a liberating principle, and referring to his sonata as part of the more general category of American Music.[5] Ellington was known for his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, as well as for his eloquence esoteric charisma. He was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Special Present for music in 1999.[6]
Ellington was born pipe dream April 29, 1899, to James Edward Ellington and Daisy (née Kennedy) Ellington in Washington, D.C. Both his parents were pianists. Daisy primarily played parlor songs, and James preferred operatic arias. They lived with Daisy's parents at 2129 Ida Place (now Ward Place) NW, in D.C.'s West End neighborhood.[8] Duke's paterfamilias was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on April 15, 1879, and in 1886, moved to D.C. with his parents.[9] Daisy Kennedy was born in Washington, D.C., on January 4, 1879, the daughter of two former American slaves.[8][10] James Ellington prefab blueprints for the United States Navy.
When Ellington was a child, his family showed racial pride and support in their home, as did many other families. African Americans in D.C. worked to protect their children from the era's Jim Gloat laws.[11]
At the age of seven, Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners and teach him elegance. His girlhood friends noticed that his casual, offhand manner and dapper freedom gave him the bearing of a young nobleman,[12] so they began calling him "Duke". Ellington credited his friend Edgar McEntee for the nickname: "I think he felt that in in a row for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. So he called me Duke."[13]
Though Jazzman took piano lessons, he was more interested in baseball. "President [Theodore] Roosevelt would come on his horse sometimes, and "stop and watch us play," he recalled.[14] Ellington went to Spaceman Technical High School in Washington, D.C. His first job was selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games.
Ellington started worrying into Frank Holiday's Poolroom at age fourteen. Hearing the symphony of the poolroom pianists ignited Ellington's love for the appliance, and he began to take his piano studies seriously. Amidst the many piano players he listened to were Doc Commodore, Lester Dishman, Louis Brown, Turner Layton, Gertie Wells, Clarence Bowser, Sticky Mack, Blind Johnny, Cliff Jackson, Claude Hopkins, Phil Wurd, Caroline Thornton, Luckey Roberts, Eubie Blake, Joe Rochester, and Medico Brooks.[15]
In the summer of 1914, while working as a tonic jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Ellington wrote his cap composition, "Soda Fountain Rag" (also known as the "Poodle Canine Rag"). He created the piece by ear, as he locked away not yet learned to read and write music. "I would play the 'Soda Fountain Rag' as a one-step, two-step, valse, tango, and fox trot", Ellington recalled. "Listeners never knew argue with was the same piece. I was established as having tidy own repertoire."[16] In his autobiography, Music is my Mistress (1973), Ellington wrote that he missed more lessons than he accompanied, feeling at the time that piano was not his faculty.
Ellington continued listening to, watching, and imitating ragtime pianists, jumble only in Washington, D.C. but also in Philadelphia and Ocean City, where he vacationed with his mother during the summer.[16] He would sometimes hear strange music played by those who could not afford much sheet music, so for variations, they played the sheets upside down.[17] Henry Lee Grant, a Dunbar High School music teacher, gave him private lessons in unanimity. With the additional guidance of Washington pianist and band chief Oliver "Doc" Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, plan a professional style, and improve his technique. Ellington was as well inspired by his first encounters with stride pianistsJames P. Lbj and Luckey Roberts. Later in New York, he took admonition from Will Marion Cook, Fats Waller, and Sidney Bechet. Earth started to play gigs in cafés and clubs in presentday around Washington, D.C. His attachment to music was so welldefined that in 1916 he turned down an art scholarship come up to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Three months before graduating, misstep dropped out of Armstrong Manual Training School, where he was studying commercial art.[18]
Working as a freelance sign painter bring forth 1917, Ellington began assembling groups to play for dances. Get 1919, he met drummer Sonny Greer from New Jersey, who encouraged Ellington's ambition to become a professional musician. Ellington secure his music business through his day job. When a buyer asked him to make a sign for a dance improve party, he would ask if they had musical entertainment; hypothesize not, Ellington would offer to play for the occasion. Blooper also had a messenger job with the U.S. Navy standing State departments, where he made a wide range of put in order.
Ellington moved out of his parents' home and bought his own as he became a successful pianist. At first, dirt played in other ensembles, and in late 1917 formed his first group, "The Duke's Serenaders" ("Colored Syncopators", his telephone atlas advertising proclaimed).[18] He was also the group's booking agent. His first play date was at the True Reformer's Hall, where he took home 75 cents.[19]
Ellington played throughout the D.C. apartment and into Virginia for private society balls and embassy parties. The band included childhood friend Otto Hardwick, who began performing the string bass, then moved to C-melody sax and ultimately settled on alto saxophone; Arthur Whetsel on trumpet; Elmer Snowden on banjo; and Sonny Greer on drums. The band thrived, performing for both African-American and white audiences, rare in description segregated society of the day.[20]
When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New Royalty City, Ellington left his successful career in D.C. and enraptured to Harlem, ultimately becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance. Fresh dance crazes such as the Charleston emerged in Harlem, significance well as African-American musical theater, including Eubie Blake's and Aristocrat Sissle's (the latter of whom was his neighbor) Shuffle Along. After the young musicians left the Sweatman Orchestra to throb out on their own, they found an emerging jazz place that was highly competitive with difficult inroad. They hustled mere by day and played whatever gigs they could find. Say publicly young band met stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, who introduced them to the scene and gave them some medium of exchange. They played at rent-house parties for income. After a bloody months, the young musicians returned to Washington, D.C., feeling demoralized.
In June 1923, they played a gig in Atlantic Discard, New Jersey and another at the prestigious Exclusive Club dense Harlem. This was followed in September 1923 by a have in stock to the Hollywood Club (at 49th and Broadway) and a four-year engagement, which gave Ellington a solid artistic base. Earth was known to play the bugle at the end arrive at each performance. The group was initially called Elmer Snowden near his Black Sox Orchestra and had seven members, including instrumentalist James "Bubber" Miley. They renamed themselves The Washingtonians. Snowden keep steady the group in early 1924, and Ellington took over tempt bandleader. After a fire, the club was re-opened as representation Club Kentucky (often referred to as the Kentucky Club).
Ellington then made eight records in 1924, receiving composing credit connotation three including "Choo Choo".[22] In 1925, Ellington contributed four songs to Chocolate Kiddies starring Lottie Gee and Adelaide Hall,[citation needed] an all–African-American revue which introduced European audiences to African-American styles and performers. Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra grew to a group of ten players; they developed their extremely bad sound via the non-traditional expression of Ellington's arrangements, the path rhythms of Harlem, and the exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, high-squealing trumpets, and saxophone blues licks of the band chapters. For a short time, soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet played with them, reportedly becoming the dominant personality in depiction group, with Sonny Greer saying Bechet "fitted out the unit like a glove". His presence resulted in friction with Miley and trombonist Charlie Irvis, whose styles differed from Bechet's Additional Orleans-influenced playing. It was mainly Bechet's unreliability—he was absent send off for three days in succession—which made his association with Ellington short-lived.[23]
In October 1926, Ellington made an agreement with agent-publisher Irving Mills,[24] giving Mills a 45% interest in Ellington's future.[25] Mills had an eye for new talent and published compositions by Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, and Harold Arlen early put in their careers. After recording a handful of acoustic sides textile 1924–26, Ellington's signing with Mills allowed him to record prolifically. However, sometimes he recorded different versions of the same accurate. Mills regularly took a co-composer credit. From the beginning confiscate their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every baptize, including Brunswick, Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Pathé (and its subsidiary, Perfect), the ARC/Plaza group of labels (Oriole, Domino, Jewel, Banner) bracket their dime-store labels (Cameo, Lincoln, Romeo), Hit of the Period, and Columbia's cheaper labels (Harmony, Diva, Velvet Tone, Clarion), labels that gave Ellington popular recognition. On OKeh, his records were usually issued as The Harlem Footwarmers. In contrast, the Brunswicks were usually issued as The Jungle Band. Whoopee Makers gift the Ten BlackBerries were other pseudonyms.
In September 1927, Regent Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group considerably the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club;[26] the offer passed to Ellington after Jimmy McHugh suggested him and Mills prearranged an audition.[27] Ellington had to increase from a six difficulty 11-piece group to meet the requirements of the Cotton Club's management for the audition,[28] and the engagement finally began junction December 4.[29] With a weekly radio broadcast, the Cotton Club's exclusively white and wealthy clientele poured in nightly to watch them. At the Cotton Club, Ellington's group performed all say publicly music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers, burlesque, burlesque, music, and illicit alcohol. The musical numbers were calm by Jimmy McHugh and the lyrics were written by Dorothy Fields (later Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler), with some Jazzman originals mixed in. (Here, he moved in with a pardner, his second wife Mildred Dixon). Weekly radio broadcasts from picture club gave Ellington national exposure. At the same time, Jazzman also recorded Fields-JMcHugh and Fats Waller–Andy Razaf songs.
Although swan Bubber Miley was a member of the orchestra for one a short period, he had a major influence on Ellington's sound.[30] As an early exponent of growl trumpet, Miley denatured the sweet dance band sound of the group to suggestion that was hotter, which contemporaries termed Jungle Style, which crapper be seen in his feature chorus in East St. Prizefighter Toodle-Oo (1926). In October 1927, Ellington and his Orchestra record several compositions with Adelaide Hall. One side in particular, "Creole Love Call", became a worldwide sensation and gave both Jazzman and Hall their first hit record.[32][33] Miley had composed lid of "Creole Love Call" and "Black and Tan Fantasy". Come alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider fame. He died in 1932 at the age pay the bill 29, but he was an important influence on Cootie Colonist, who replaced him.
In 1929, the Cotton Club Orchestra exposed on stage for several months in Florenz Ziegfeld's Show Female, along with vaudeville stars Jimmy Durante, Eddie Foy, Jr., Bloodred Keeler, and with music and lyrics by George Gershwin wallet Gus Kahn. Will Vodery, Ziegfeld's musical supervisor, recommended Ellington confirm the show. According to John Edward Hasse's Beyond Category: Picture Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, "Perhaps during the prod of Show Girl, Ellington received what he later termed 'valuable lessons in orchestration from Will Vody." In his 1946 story, Duke Ellington, Barry Ulanov wrote:
From Vodery, as he (Ellington) says himself, he drew his chromatic convictions, his uses discover the tones ordinarily extraneous to the diatonic scale, with representation consequent alteration of the harmonic character of his music, it's broadening, The deepening of his resources. It has become routine to ascribe the classical influences upon Duke—Delius, Debussy, and Ravel—to direct contact with their music. Actually, his serious appreciation admonishment those and other modern composers, came after he met run off with Vody.[35]
Ellington's film work began with Black and Tan (1929), a 19-minute all-African-American RKO short[36] in which he played the champion "Duke". He also appeared in the Amos 'n' Andy pick up Check and Double Check released in 1930, which features say publicly orchestra playing "Old Man Blues" in an extended ballroom place. That year, Ellington and his Orchestra connected with a largely different audience in a concert with Maurice Chevalier and they also performed at the Roseland Ballroom, "America's foremost ballroom". Australian-born composer Percy Grainger was an early admirer and supporter. Stylishness wrote, "The three greatest composers who ever lived are Organist, Delius and Duke Ellington. Unfortunately, Bach is dead, Delius practical very ill but we are happy to have with grow old today The Duke".[38] Ellington's first period at the Cotton Truncheon concluded in 1931.
Ellington led the orchestra by conducting from the keyboard using piano cues and visual gestures; excavate rarely did he conduct using a baton. By 1932 his orchestra consisted of six brass instruments, four reeds, and a rhythm section of four players.[39] As the leader, Ellington was not a strict disciplinarian; he maintained control of his orchestra with a combination of charm, humor, flattery, and astute thinking. A complex, private person, he revealed his feelings to his closest intimates. He effectively used his public persona harangue deflect attention away from himself.
Ellington signed exclusively to Town in 1932 and stayed with them through to late 1936 (albeit with a short-lived 1933–34 switch to Victor when Writer Mills temporarily moved his acts from Brunswick).
As the Pit worsened, the recording industry was in crisis, dropping over 90% of its artists by 1933.[40]Ivie Anderson was hired as say publicly Ellington Orchestra's featured vocalist in 1931. She is the singer on "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932) among other recordings. Sonny Greer had antiquated providing occasional vocals and continued to do in a cross-talk feature with Anderson. Radio exposure helped maintain Ellington's public thumbnail as his orchestra began to tour. The other 78s comment this era include: "Mood Indigo" (1930), "Sophisticated Lady" (1933), "Solitude" (1934), and "In a Sentimental Mood" (1935).
While Ellington's Combined States audience remained mainly African-American in this period, the orchestra had a significant following overseas. They traveled to England meticulous Scotland in 1933, as well as France (three concerts equal height the Salle Pleyel in Paris)[41] and the Netherlands before reversive to New York.[42][43] On June 12, 1933, the Duke Jazzman Orchestra gave its British debut at the London Palladium;[44] Jazzman received an ovation when he walked on stage.[45] They were one of 13 acts on the bill and were given to eight short numbers; the booking lasted until June 24.[43][46] The British visit saw Ellington win praise from members outandout the serious music community, including composer Constant Lambert, which gave a boost to Ellington's interest in composing longer works.
His longer pieces had already begun to appear. Ellington had unexcitable and recorded "Creole Rhapsody" as early as 1931 (issued introduce both sides of a 12" record for Victor and both sides of a 10" record for Brunswick). A tribute consent his mother, "Reminiscing in Tempo", took four 10" 78rpm make a notation of sides to record in 1935 after her death in ensure year.Symphony in Black (also 1935), a short film, featured his extended piece 'A Rhapsody of Negro Life'. It introduced Billie Holiday, and won the Academy Award for Best Musical Slight Subject.[49] Ellington and his Orchestra also appeared in the characteristics Murder at the Vanities and Belle of the Nineties (both 1934).
For agent Mills, the attention was a publicity tag along, as Ellington was now internationally known. On the band's cable through the segregated South in 1934, they avoided some liberation the traveling difficulties of African Americans by touring in hidden railcars. These provided accessible accommodations, dining, and storage for press while avoiding the indignities of segregated facilities.
However, the striving intensified as swing bands like Benny Goodman's began to collect widespread attention. Swing dancing became a youth phenomenon, particularly tighten white college audiences, and danceability drove record sales and bookings. Jukeboxes proliferated nationwide, spreading the gospel of swing. Ellington's snap could certainly swing, but their strengths were mood, nuance, extort richness of composition, hence his statement "jazz is music, picture swing is business".[50]
From 1936, Ellington began to make recordings with smaller groups (sextets, octets, and nonets) drawn from his then-15-man orchestra. He composed pieces intended to feature a express instrumentalist, such as "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Yearning endow with Love" for Lawrence Brown, "Trumpet in Spades" for Rex Player, "Echoes of Harlem" for Cootie Williams and "Clarinet Lament" misjudge Barney Bigard. In 1937, Ellington returned to the Cotton Bludgeon, which had relocated to the mid-town Theater District. In picture summer of that year, his father died, and due collide with many expenses, Ellington's finances were tight. However, his situation restored in the following years.
After leaving agent Irving Mills, explicit signed on with the William Morris Agency. Mills, though, continuing to record Ellington. After only a year, his Master innermost Variety labels (the small groups had recorded for the latter) collapsed in late 1937. Mills placed Ellington back on Town and those small group units on Vocalion through to 1940. Well-known sides continued to be recorded, "Caravan" in 1937, point of view "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" say publicly following year.
Billy Strayhorn, originally hired as a lyricist, began his association with Ellington in 1939.[53] Nicknamed "Sweet Pea" go for his mild manner, Strayhorn soon became a vital member drawing the Ellington organization. Ellington showed great fondness for Strayhorn see never failed to speak glowingly of the man and their collaborative working relationship, "my right arm, my left arm, riot the eyes in the back of my head, my thought waves in his head, and his in mine".[54] Strayhorn, touch his training in classical music, not only contributed his starting lyrics and music but also arranged and polished many time off Ellington's works, becoming a second Ellington or "Duke's doppelgänger". Restrict was not uncommon for Strayhorn to fill in for Duke, whether in conducting or rehearsing the band, playing the softly, on stage, and in the recording studio.[55] The decade difficult with a very successful European tour in 1939 just although World War II loomed in Europe.
Two musicians who joined Ellington at this time created a sensation grasp their own right, Jimmy Blanton and Ben Webster. Blanton was effectively hired on the spot in late October 1939, in the past Ellington was aware of his name, when he dropped remit on a gig of Fate Marable in St Louis.[57] Rendering short-lived Blanton transformed the use of double bass in nothingness, allowing it to function as a solo/melodic instrument rather fondle a rhythm instrument alone.Terminal illness forced him to leave induce late 1941 after around two years. Ben Webster's principal holding with Ellington spanned 1939 to 1943. An ambition of his, he told his previous employer, Teddy Wilson, then leading a big band, that Ellington was the only rival he would leave Wilson for.[59] He was the orchestra's first regular drift saxophonist and increased the size of the sax section pare five for the first time.[60][59] Much influenced by Johnny Hodges, he often credited Hodges with showing him "how to chuck my horn". The two men sat next to each added in the orchestra.[61]
Trumpeter Ray Nance joined, replacing Cootie Williams who had defected to Benny Goodman. Additionally, Nance added violin draw near the instrumental colors Ellington had at his disposal. Recordings be of Nance's first concert date on November 7, 1940, learn Fargo, North Dakota. Privately made by Jack Towers and Cock Burris, these recordings were first legitimately issued in 1978 bring in Duke Ellington at Fargo, 1940 Live; they are among rendering earliest of innumerable live performances which survive. Nance was monumental occasional vocalist as well, although Herb Jeffries was the central male vocalist in this era (until 1943) while Al Hibbler (who replaced Jeffries in 1943) continued until 1951. Ivie Physicist left in 1942 for health reasons after 11 years, interpretation longest term of any of Ellington's vocalists.[62]
Once more recording help out Victor (from 1940), with the small groups being issued specialization their Bluebird label, three-minute masterpieces on 78 rpm record sides continued to flow from Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Ellington's son Manufacturer Ellington, and members of the orchestra. "Cotton Tail", "Main Stem", "Harlem Air Shaft", "Jack the Bear", and dozens of nakedness date from this period. Strayhorn's "Take the "A" Train", a hit in 1941, became the band's theme, replacing "East Undertake. Louis Toodle-Oo". Ellington and his associates wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices displaying tremendous creativity.[64] The commercial recordings deseed this era were re-issued in the three-CD collection, Never No Lament, in 2003.
Ellington's long-term aim, though, was to pour the jazz form from that three-minute limit, of which dirt was an acknowledged master.[65] While he had composed and transcribed some extended pieces before, such works now became a accustomed feature of Ellington's output. In this, he was helped alongside Strayhorn, who had enjoyed a more thorough training in description forms associated with classical music than Ellington. The first exercise these, Black, Brown, and Beige (1943), was dedicated to weighty the story of African Americans and the place of serfdom and the church in their history.Black, Brown and Beige debuted at Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, beginning an yearly series of Ellington concerts at the venue over the trice four years. While some jazz musicians had played at Educator Hall before, none had performed anything as elaborate as Ellington's work. Unfortunately, starting a regular pattern, Ellington's longer works were generally not well received.
A partial exception was Jump make public Joy, a full-length musical based on themes of African-American agreement, which debuted on July 10, 1941, at the Mayan Fleeting in Los Angeles. Hollywood actors John Garfield and Mickey Rooney invested in the production, and Charlie Chaplin and Orson Thespian offered to direct.[67] At one performance, Garfield insisted that Marrubium Jeffries, who was light-skinned, should wear makeup. Ellington objected harvest the interval and compared Jeffries to Al Jolson. The succeed in was reverted. The singer later commented that the audience be compelled have thought he was an entirely different character in interpretation second half of the show.[68]
Although it had sold-out performances beginning received positive reviews,[69] it ran for only 122 performances until September 29, 1941, with a brief revival in November fall foul of that year. Its subject matter did not make it catchy to Broadway; Ellington had unfulfilled plans to take it there.[70] Despite this disappointment, a Broadway production of Ellington's Beggar's Holiday, his sole book musical, premiered on December 23, 1946,[71] covered by the direction of Nicholas Ray.
The settlement of the pull it off recording ban of 1942–44, leading to an increase in royalties paid to musicians, had a severe effect on the pecuniary viability of the big bands, including Ellington's Orchestra. His way as a songwriter ultimately subsidized it. Although he always fatigued lavishly and drew a respectable income from the orchestra's report, the band's income often just covered expenses.[72] However, in 1943 Ellington asked Webster to leave; the saxophonist's personality made his colleagues anxious and the saxophonist was regularly in conflict large the leader.[73]
Musicians enlisting in the military and function restrictions made touring difficult for the big bands, and diversion became subject to a new tax, which continued for hang around years, affecting the choices of club owners. By the period World War II ended, the focus of popular music was shifting towards singing crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Jo Stafford. As the cost of hiring big bands had accumulated, club owners now found smaller jazz groups more cost-effective. Many of Ellington's new works, such as the wordless vocal property "Transblucency" (1946) with Kay Davis, were not going to possess a similar reach as the newly emerging stars.
Ellington continuing on his own course through these tectonic shifts. While Flout Basie, like many other big bands at the time, was forced to disband his whole ensemble and work as brainstorm octet for a time, Ellington was able to tour chief of Western Europe between April 6 and June 30, 1950, with the orchestra playing 74 dates over 77 days.[74] Mid the tour, according to Sonny Greer, Ellington did not advert the newer works. However, Ellington's extended composition, Harlem (1950), was in the process of being completed at this time. Jazzman later presented its score to music-loving President Harry Truman. Along with during his time in Europe, Ellington would compose the penalization for a stage production by Orson Welles. Titled Time Runs in Paris[75] and An Evening With Orson Welles in Frankfort, the variety show also featured a newly discovered Eartha Kitt, who performed Ellington's original song "Hungry Little Trouble" as Helen of Troy.[76]
In 1951, Ellington suffered a significant loss of personnel: Sonny Greer, Lawrence Brown, and, most importantly, Johnny Hodges assess to pursue other ventures. However, only Greer was a constant departee. Drummer Louie Bellson replaced Greer, and his "Skin Deep" was a hit for Ellington. Tenor player Paul Gonsalves difficult to understand joined in December 1950[74] after periods with Count Basie skull Dizzy Gillespie and stayed for the rest of his poised, while Clark Terry joined in November 1951.[77]
André Previn said prize open 1952: "You know, Stan Kenton can stand in front close the eyes to a thousand fiddles and a thousand brass and make a dramatic gesture and every studio arranger can nod his head and say, Oh, yes, that's done like this. But Duke merely lifts his finger, three horns make a sound, accept I don't know what it is!"[78] However, by 1955, puzzle out three years of recording for Capitol, Ellington lacked a ordinary recording affiliation.
Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Commemoration on July 7, 1956, returned him to wider prominence. Description feature "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" comprised two tunes desert had been in the band's book since 1937. Ellington, who had abruptly ended the band's scheduled set because of picture late arrival of four key players, called the two tunes as the time was approaching midnight. Announcing that the bend in half pieces would be separated by an interlude played by gist saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, Ellington proceeded to lead the band attachй case the two pieces, with Gonsalves' 27-chorus marathon solo whipping rendering crowd into a frenzy, leading the Maestro to play model beyond the curfew time despite urgent pleas from festival calendar George Wein to bring the program to an end.
The concert made international headlines, and led to one of five Time magazine cover stories dedicated to a jazz musician,[79] and resulted in an album produced by George Avakian put off would become the best-selling LP of Ellington's career.[80] Much deadly the music on the LP was, in effect, simulated, run into only about 40% actually from the concert itself. According nod to Avakian, Ellington was dissatisfied with aspects of the performance post felt the musicians had been under-rehearsed.[80] The band assembled representation next day to re-record several numbers with the addition defer to the faked sound of a crowd, none of which was disclosed to purchasers of the album. Not until 1999 was the concert recording properly released for the first time. Depiction revived attention brought about by the Newport appearance should mass have surprised anyone, Johnny Hodges had returned the previous year,[81] and Ellington's collaboration with Strayhorn was renewed around the tie in time, under terms more amenable to the younger man.[82]
The recent Ellington at Newport album was the first release in a new recording contract with Columbia Records which yielded several existence of recording stability, mainly under producer Irving Townsend, who coaxed both commercial and artistic productions from Ellington.[83]
In 1957, CBS (Columbia Records' parent corporation) aired a live television production of A Drum Is a Woman, an allegorical suite which received mongrel reviews. Festival appearances at the new Monterey Jazz Festival sports ground elsewhere provided venues for live exposure, and a European materialize in 1958 was well received. Such Sweet Thunder (1957), household on Shakespeare's plays and characters, and The Queen's Suite (1958), dedicated to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, were products of picture renewed impetus which the Newport appearance helped to create. Banish, the latter work was not commercially issued at the at an earlier time. The late 1950s also saw Ella Fitzgerald record her Duke Ellington Songbook (Verve) with Ellington and his orchestra—a recognition dump Ellington's songs had now become part of the cultural ravine known as the 'Great American Songbook'.
Around this time Jazzman and Strayhorn began to work on film scoring. The regulate of these was Anatomy of a Murder (1959),[39] a court drama directed by Otto Preminger and featuring James Stewart, buy which Ellington appeared fronting a roadhouse combo. Film historians take recognized the score "as a landmark—the first significant Hollywood pick up music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, symphony whose source is not visible or implied by action weighty the film, like an on-screen band." The score avoided interpretation cultural stereotypes which previously characterized jazz scores and rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the Newfound Wave cinema of the '60s".[84] Ellington and Strayhorn, always gorgeous for new musical territory, produced suites for John Steinbeck's contemporary Sweet Thursday, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt.
Anatomy of a Murder was followed by Paris Blues (1961), which featured Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as jazz musicians. For this work, Ellington was nominated for the Academy Bestow for Best Score.
In the early 1960s, Ellington embraced footage with artists who had been friendly rivals in the facilitate or were younger musicians who focused on later styles. Rendering Ellington and Count Basie orchestras recorded together with the single First Time! The Count Meets the Duke (1961). During a period when Ellington was between recording contracts, he made records with Louis Armstrong (Roulette), Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane (both intolerant Impulse) and participated in a session with Charles Mingus stand for Max Roach which produced the Money Jungle (United Artists) lp. He signed to Frank Sinatra's new Reprise label, but depiction association with the label was short-lived.
Musicians who had beforehand worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members: Laurentius Brown in 1960 and Cootie Williams in 1962.
The verbal skill and playing of music is a matter of intent... Pointed can't just throw a paintbrush against the wall and yell whatever happens art. My music fits the tonal personality pattern the player. I think too strongly in terms of unanswered my music to fit the performer to be impressed moisten accidental music. You can't take doodling seriously.[16]
He was now the theater worldwide and spent a significant part of each year worth overseas tours. As a consequence, he formed new working appositenesss with artists from around the world, including the Swedish soloist Alice Babs, and the South African musicians Dollar Brand distinguished Sathima Bea Benjamin (A Morning in Paris, 1963/1997).
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, 1963. Langham has used move on for several subsequent productions, including a much later adaptation soak Stanley Silverman which expands the score with some of Ellington's best-known works.
Ellington was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Accolade for Music in 1965. However, no prize was ultimately awarded that year.[85] Then 66 years old, he joked: "Fate denunciation being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to promote to famous too young."[86] In 1999, he was posthumously awarded a special Pulitzer Prize "commemorating the centennial year of his dawn, in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically picture principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and so made an indelible contribution to art and culture."[6][87]
In September 1965, he premiered the first of his Sacred Concerts. He composed a jazz Christian liturgy. Although the work received mixed reviews, Ellington was proud of the composition and performed it loads of times. This concert was followed by two others attain the same type in 1968 and 1973, known as description Second and Third Sacred Concerts. Many saw the Sacred Opus suites as an attempt to reinforce commercial support for configured religion. However, Ellington simply said it was "the most crucial thing I've done".[88] The Steinway piano upon which the Dedicated Concerts were composed is part of the collection of picture Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Like Haydn and Composer, Ellington conducted his orchestra from the piano—he always played representation keyboard parts when the Sacred Concerts were performed.[89]
Duke turned 65 in the spring of 1964 but showed no signs search out slowing down as he continued to make recordings of fearsome works such as The Far East Suite (1966), New City Suite (1970), The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (1971) and the Latin English Suite (1972), much of it inspired by his world tours. It was during this time that he recorded his exclusive album with Frank Sinatra, titled Francis A. & Edward K. (1967).
In 1972–1974 Ellington worked on his only opera, Queenie Pie, together with Maurice Peress. Ellington got an idea grip write an opera about a black beautician in the Decennium, but did not finish it.[90][91]
Among the last shows Ellington perch his orchestra performed were one on March 21, 1973, wristwatch Purdue University's Hall of Music, two on March 22, 1973, at the Sturges-Young Auditorium in Sturgis, Michigan[92] and the Eastbourne Performance on December 1, 1973, later issued on LP.[93] Jazzman performed what is considered his final full concert in a ballroom at Northern Illinois University on March 20, 1974. Since 1980, that ballroom has been dedicated as the "Duke Jazzman Ballroom".[94]
Ellington married his high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson (d. 1967), on July 2, 1918, when he was 19.[95] Rendering next spring, on March 11, 1919, Edna gave birth stalk their only child, Mercer Kennedy Ellington.[95]
Ellington was joined in Original York City by his wife and son in the put together 1920s, but the couple soon permanently separated.[96] According to present obituary in Jet magazine, she was "homesick for Washington" illustrious returned.[97] In 1929, Ellington became the companion of Mildred Dixon,[98] who traveled with him, managed Tempo Music, inspired songs, specified as "Sophisticated Lady",[99] at the peak of his career, contemporary raised his son.[100][101][102]
In 1938, he left his family (his cuddle was 19) and moved in with Beatrice "Evie" Ellis, a Cotton Club employee.[103] Their relationship, though stormy, continued after Jazzman met and formed a relationship with Fernanda de Castro Cards in the early 1960s.[104] Ellington supported both women for interpretation rest of his life.[105]
Ellington's sister Ruth (1915–2004) later ran Beat Music, his music publishing company.[102] Ruth's second husband was depiction bass-baritone McHenry Boatwright, whom she met when he sang claim her brother's funeral.[106] As an adult, son Mercer Ellington (d. 1996) played trumpet and piano, led his own band, concentrate on worked as his father's business manager.[107]
Ellington was a member elect Alpha Phi Alpha[108] and was a Freemason associated with Consort Hall Freemasonry.[109]
Ellington died on May 24, 1974, of complications getaway lung cancer and pneumonia,[110] a few weeks after his 72 birthday. At his funeral, attended by over 12,000 people bonus the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion: "It's a very sad day. A expert has passed."[111]
He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, the Borough, New York City.[112]
Numerous memorials have been dedicated to Duke Jazzman in cities from New York and Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles.
In Ellington's birthplace, Washington, D.C., the Duke Ellington Secondary of the Arts educates talented students who are considering games in the arts by providing art instruction and academic programs to prepare students for post-secondary education and professional careers. Subtract 1974, the District renamed the Calvert Street Bridge, originally big and strong in 1935, as the Duke Ellington Bridge. Another school shambles P.S. 004 Duke Ellington in New York.
In 1989, a bronze plaque was attached to the newly named Duke Jazzman Building at 2121 Ward Place NW.[113] In 2012, the another owner of the building commissioned a mural by Aniekan Udofia that appears above the lettering "Duke Ellington". In 2010 description triangular park, across the street from Duke Ellington's birth specification, at the intersection of New Hampshire and M Streets NW, was named the Duke Ellington Park.
Ellington's residence at 2728 Sherman Avenue NW, during the years 1919–1922,[114] is marked be oblivious to a bronze plaque.
On February 24, 2009, the United States Mint issued a coin with Duke Ellington on it, fabrication him the first African American to appear by himself the wrong way round a circulating U.S. coin.[115] Ellington appears on the reverse (tails) side of the District of Columbia quarter.[115] The coin psychiatry part of the U.S. Mint's program honoring the District alight the U.S. territories[116] and celebrates Ellington's birthplace in the Region of Columbia.[115] Ellington is depicted on the quarter seated test a piano, sheet music in hand, along with the engraving "Justice for All", which is the District's motto.[116]
In 1986, a United States commemorative stamp was issued featuring Ellington's likeness.[117]
Ellington quick out his final years in Manhattan, in a townhouse orangutan 333 Riverside Drive near West 106th Street. His sister Book, who managed his publishing company, also lived there, and his son Mercer lived next door. After his death, West 106th Street was officially renamed Duke Ellington Boulevard.
A large cenotaph to Ellington, created by sculptor Robert Graham, was dedicated pin down 1997 in New York's Central Park, near Fifth Avenue stand for 110th Street, an intersection named Duke Ellington Circle.
A figure of Ellington at a piano is featured at the right of entry to UCLA's Schoenberg Hall. According to UCLA magazine:
When UCLA students were entranced by Duke Ellington's provocative tunes at a Culver City club in 1937, they asked the budding harmonious great to play a free concert in Royce Hall. 'I've been waiting for someone to ask us!' Ellington exclaimed. Be bounded by the day of the concert, Ellington accidentally mixed up representation venues and drove to USC instead. He eventually arrived console the UCLA campus and, to apologize for his tardiness, played to the packed crowd for more than four hours. Boss so, "Sir Duke" and his group played the first-ever blues performance in a concert venue.[118]
The Essentially Ellington High School Wind Band Competition and Festival is a nationally renowned annual take part for prestigious high school bands. Started in 1996 at Malarkey at Lincoln Center, the festival is named after Ellington now of the significant focus that the festival places on his works.
After Duke died, his son Mercer took over directorship of the orchestra, continuing until he died in 1996. 1 the Count Basie Orchestra, this "ghost band" continued to break albums for many years. Digital Duke, credited to The Duke Ellington Orchestra, won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Lax Jazz Ensemble Album. Mercer Ellington had been handling all administrative aspects of his father's business for several decades. Mercer's domestic continue a connection with their grandfather's work.
Gunther Schuller wrote in 1989:
Ellington composed incessantly to the very last years of his life. Music was indeed his mistress; it was his total life and his commitment to it was frightening and unalterable. In jazz he was a giant among giants. And in twentieth century music, he may yet one indifferent be recognized as one of the half-dozen greatest masters carefulness our time.[119]: 157
Martin Williams said: "Duke Ellington lived long enough do as you are told hear himself named among our best composers. And since his death in 1974, it has become not at all exceptional to see him named, along with Charles Ives, as rendering greatest composer we have produced, regardless of category."[120]
In the picture of Bob Blumenthal of The Boston Globe in 1999: "[i]n the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington."[121]
In 2002, pundit Molefi Kete Asante listed Duke Ellington on his list present 100 Greatest African Americans.[122]
His compositions have been revisited by artists and musicians worldwide as sources of inspiration and a bed of their 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 1981 musical revue, incorporated many tunes from Ellington's repertoire. A alternative Broadway musical interpolating Ellington's music, Play On!, debuted in 1997.
Main article: Duke Ellington discography
Ellington earned 14 Grammy awards from 1959 to 2000 (three replicate which were posthumous) and a total of 25 nominations
| Duke Ellington Grammy Award History[124][117] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Category | Title | Genre | Result |
| 1999 | Historical Album | The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition RCA Victor Recordings (1927–1973) | Jazz | Won |
| 1979 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | Duke Ellington At Fargo, 1940 Live | Jazz | Won |
| 1976 | Best Talking Performance By A Big Band | The Ellington Suites | Jazz | Won |
| 1972 | Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band | Togo Brava Suite | Jazz | Won |
| 1971 | Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band | New Orleans Suite | Jazz | Won |
| 1971 | Best Instrumental Composition | New Orleans Decide | Composing/Arranging | Nominated |
| 1970 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance – Large Set or Soloist with Large Group | Duke Ellington – 70th Date Concert | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1968 | Trustees Award | National Trustees Award – 1968 | Special Awards | Won |
| 1968 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance – Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group | ...And His Mother Hailed Him Bill | Jazz | Won |
| 1967 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group | Far East Suite | Jazz | Won |
| 1966 | Bing Crosby Award – Name changed to GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Present in 1982. | Bing Crosby Award – Name changed to GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award in 1982. | Special Awards | Won |
| 1966 | Best Original Jazz Composition | "In The Beginning God" | Jazz | Won |
| 1966 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance – Group or Soloist with Grade | Concert Of Sacred Music (Album) | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1965 | Best Utilitarian Jazz Performance – Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group | Ellington '66 | Jazz | Won |
| 1965 | Best Original Jazz Composition | Virgin Islands Series | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1964 | Best Original Jazz Composition | Night Creature | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1964 | Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental) | First Time! (Album) | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1961 | Best Instrumental Theme or Supporting Version of Song | "Paris Blues" | Composing/Arranging | Nominated |
| 1961 | Best Ambiance Track Album or Recording of Score from Motion Picture pleasing Television | Paris Blues (Motion Picture) (Album) | Music for Visual Media | Nominated |
| 1960 | Best Jazz Performance Solo or Small Group | Back To Back – Duke Ellington And Johnny Hodges Play Say publicly Blues | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1960 | Best Jazz Composition of More Rather than Five Minutes Duration | Idiom '59 | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1959 | Best Details By A Dance Band | Anatomy of a Murder | Pop | Won |
| 1959 | Best Musical Composition First Recorded And Released In 1959 (More Than 5 Minutes Duration) | Anatomy of a Murder | Composing | Won |
| 1959 | Best Atmosphere Track Album – Background Score From A Motion Picture Or Make sure | Anatomy of a Murder | Composing | Won |
| 1959 | Best Jazz Performance – Group | Ellington Jazz Party (Album) | Jazz | Nominated |
Recordings of Duke Ellington were inducted into the Grammy Hallway of Fame, a special Grammy award established in 1973 know honor recordings at least 25 years old that have qualitative or historical significance.