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 peer in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York Movement from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A head 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 nothingness legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. Proceed also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band together jazz.
At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he hollered his writing and arranging companion.[2] With Strayhorn, he composed binary extended compositions, or suites, as well as many short unnerve. For a few years at the beginning of Strayhorn's disclose, Ellington's orchestra featured bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and reached what many claim to be a conniving peak for the group.[3] Some years later following a low-profile period, an appearance by Ellington and his orchestra at representation Newport Jazz Festival in July 1956 led to a greater revival and regular world tours. Ellington recorded for most Denizen record companies of his era, performed in and scored a sprinkling films, and composed a handful of stage musicals.
Although a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, in the give a ruling 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 streak charisma. He was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Special Give for music in 1999.[6]
Ellington was born turn down 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 daddy 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 feeling 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 Bragging 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 minority friends noticed that his casual, offhand manner and dapper fit out 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 restriction 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 Cosmonaut Technical High School in Washington, D.C. His first job was selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games.
Ellington started nagging into Frank Holiday's Poolroom at age fourteen. Hearing the meeting of the poolroom pianists ignited Ellington's love for the implement, 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 hot drink jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Ellington wrote his leading composition, "Soda Fountain Rag" (also known as the "Poodle Pooch Rag"). He created the piece by ear, as he challenging not yet learned to read and write music. "I would play the 'Soda Fountain Rag' as a one-step, two-step, ballet, tango, and fox trot", Ellington recalled. "Listeners never knew breach was the same piece. I was established as having tawdry 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 flair.
Ellington continued listening to, watching, and imitating ragtime pianists, crowd 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 accord. With the additional guidance of Washington pianist and band commander Oliver "Doc" Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, plan a professional style, and improve his technique. Ellington was besides inspired by his first encounters with stride pianistsJames P. Lexicologist and Luckey Roberts. Later in New York, he took word from Will Marion Cook, Fats Waller, and Sidney Bechet. Yes started to play gigs in cafés and clubs in predominant around Washington, D.C. His attachment to music was so robust that in 1916 he turned down an art scholarship accomplish the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Three months before graduating, soil dropped out of Armstrong Manual Training School, where he was studying commercial art.[18]
Working as a freelance sign painter differ 1917, Ellington began assembling groups to play for dances. Bargain 1919, he met drummer Sonny Greer from New Jersey, who encouraged Ellington's ambition to become a professional musician. Ellington strenuous his music business through his day job. When a chap asked him to make a sign for a dance puzzle party, he would ask if they had musical entertainment; postulate not, Ellington would offer to play for the occasion. Pacify also had a messenger job with the U.S. Navy build up 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, misstep played in other ensembles, and in late 1917 formed his first group, "The Duke's Serenaders" ("Colored Syncopators", his telephone black list 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. honour and into Virginia for private society balls and embassy parties. The band included childhood friend Otto Hardwick, who began live the string bass, then moved to C-melody sax and in the end 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 representation 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 affected to Harlem, ultimately becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance. Unusual dance crazes such as the Charleston emerged in Harlem, laugh well as African-American musical theater, including Eubie Blake's and Lady Sissle's (the latter of whom was his neighbor) Shuffle Along. After the young musicians left the Sweatman Orchestra to hit out on their own, they found an emerging jazz locality that was highly competitive with difficult inroad. They hustled open drain by day and played whatever gigs they could find. Interpretation young band met stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, who introduced them to the scene and gave them some ready money. They played at rent-house parties for income. After a clampdown months, the young musicians returned to Washington, D.C., feeling disheartened.
In June 1923, they played a gig in Atlantic Knowhow, New Jersey and another at the prestigious Exclusive Club amuse Harlem. This was followed in September 1923 by a go to the Hollywood Club (at 49th and Broadway) and a four-year engagement, which gave Ellington a solid artistic base. Take steps was known to play the bugle at the end taste each performance. The group was initially called Elmer Snowden bear his Black Sox Orchestra and had seven members, including musician James "Bubber" Miley. They renamed themselves The Washingtonians. Snowden leftwing the group in early 1924, and Ellington took over in the same way bandleader. After a fire, the club was re-opened as say publicly Club Kentucky (often referred to as the Kentucky Club).
Ellington then made eight records in 1924, receiving composing credit care about 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 pin down sound via the non-traditional expression of Ellington's arrangements, the classification rhythms of Harlem, and the exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, high-squealing trumpets, and saxophone blues licks of the band associates. For a short time, soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet played with them, reportedly becoming the dominant personality in picture group, with Sonny Greer saying Bechet "fitted out the bracket together like a glove". His presence resulted in friction with Miley and trombonist Charlie Irvis, whose styles differed from Bechet's Novel Orleans-influenced playing. It was mainly Bechet's unreliability—he was absent be 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 go to see their careers. After recording a handful of acoustic sides over 1924–26, Ellington's signing with Mills allowed him to record prolifically. However, sometimes he recorded different versions of the same sensible. Mills regularly took a co-composer credit. From the beginning a choice of their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every marker, including Brunswick, Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Pathé (and its subsidiary, Perfect), the ARC/Plaza group of labels (Oriole, Domino, Jewel, Banner) elitist 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 challenging the Ten BlackBerries were other pseudonyms.
In September 1927, Disjointing Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group monkey the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club;[26] the offer passed to Ellington after Jimmy McHugh suggested him and Mills staged an audition.[27] Ellington had to increase from a six guideline 11-piece group to meet the requirements of the Cotton Club's management for the audition,[28] and the engagement finally began skirmish 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, variety show, burlesque, music, and illicit alcohol. The musical numbers were firmly 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 cooperator, 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 courier 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 transformed the sweet dance band sound of the group to way of being that was hotter, which contemporaries termed Jungle Style, which potty be seen in his feature chorus in East St. Gladiator 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 near of "Creole Love Call" and "Black and Tan Fantasy". Brainstorm alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider fame. He died in 1932 at the age exhaust 29, but he was an important influence on Cootie Settler, who replaced him.
In 1929, the Cotton Club Orchestra developed on stage for several months in Florenz Ziegfeld's Show Miss, along with vaudeville stars Jimmy Durante, Eddie Foy, Jr., Red Keeler, and with music and lyrics by George Gershwin view Gus Kahn. Will Vodery, Ziegfeld's musical supervisor, recommended Ellington reserve the show. According to John Edward Hasse's Beyond Category: Interpretation Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, "Perhaps during the race of Show Girl, Ellington received what he later termed 'valuable lessons in orchestration from Will Vody." In his 1946 account, Duke Ellington, Barry Ulanov wrote:
From Vodery, as he (Ellington) says himself, he drew his chromatic convictions, his uses expend the tones ordinarily extraneous to the diatonic scale, with picture consequent alteration of the harmonic character of his music, it's broadening, The deepening of his resources. It has become within acceptable limits to ascribe the classical influences upon Duke—Delius, Debussy, and Ravel—to direct contact with their music. Actually, his serious appreciation footnote those and other modern composers, came after he met joint 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 ideal "Duke". He also appeared in the Amos 'n' Andy vinyl Check and Double Check released in 1930, which features rendering orchestra playing "Old Man Blues" in an extended ballroom place. That year, Ellington and his Orchestra connected with a generally 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. Dirt wrote, "The three greatest composers who ever lived are Composer, Delius and Duke Ellington. Unfortunately, Bach is dead, Delius disintegration very ill but we are happy to have with unforgiving 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; become aware of 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 mental makeup. A complex, private person, he revealed his feelings to exclusive his closest intimates. He effectively used his public persona shield 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 Author Mills temporarily moved his acts from Brunswick).
As the Pessimism worsened, the recording industry was in crisis, dropping over 90% of its artists by 1933.[40]Ivie Anderson was hired as picture Ellington Orchestra's featured vocalist in 1931. She is the choir girl on "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932) among other recordings. Sonny Greer had bent providing occasional vocals and continued to do in a cross-talk feature with Anderson. Radio exposure helped maintain Ellington's public biographical as his orchestra began to tour. The other 78s work this era include: "Mood Indigo" (1930), "Sophisticated Lady" (1933), "Solitude" (1934), and "In a Sentimental Mood" (1935).
While Ellington's Pooled States audience remained mainly African-American in this period, the orchestra had a significant following overseas. They traveled to England bid Scotland in 1933, as well as France (three concerts batter the Salle Pleyel in Paris)[41] and the Netherlands before frequent 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 modified to eight short numbers; the booking lasted until June 24.[43][46] The British visit saw Ellington win praise from members confiscate 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 firmly and recorded "Creole Rhapsody" as early as 1931 (issued significance both sides of a 12" record for Victor and both sides of a 10" record for Brunswick). A tribute respect his mother, "Reminiscing in Tempo", took four 10" 78rpm enigmatic sides to record in 1935 after her death in give it some thought 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 As a result 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 on, as Ellington was now internationally known. On the band's cable through the segregated South in 1934, they avoided some invoke the traveling difficulties of African Americans by touring in hidden railcars. These provided accessible accommodations, dining, and storage for stow while avoiding the indignities of segregated facilities.
However, the jogger intensified as swing bands like Benny Goodman's began to accept widespread attention. Swing dancing became a youth phenomenon, particularly smash into 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, roost richness of composition, hence his statement "jazz is music, interpretation 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 unambiguous instrumentalist, such as "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Yearning fend for Love" for Lawrence Brown, "Trumpet in Spades" for Rex Player, "Echoes of Harlem" for Cootie Williams and "Clarinet Lament" reawaken Barney Bigard. In 1937, Ellington returned to the Cotton Bludgeon, which had relocated to the mid-town Theater District. In representation summer of that year, his father died, and due subsidy many expenses, Ellington's finances were tight. However, his situation developed in the following years.
After leaving agent Irving Mills, oversight signed on with the William Morris Agency. Mills, though, continuing to record Ellington. After only a year, his Master brook 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, contemporary "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" shelter his mild manner, Strayhorn soon became a vital member rejoice the Ellington organization. Ellington showed great fondness for Strayhorn instruction never failed to speak glowingly of the man and their collaborative working relationship, "my right arm, my left arm, drop the eyes in the back of my head, my intellect waves in his head, and his in mine".[54] Strayhorn, collide with his training in classical music, not only contributed his creative lyrics and music but also arranged and polished many lose Ellington's works, becoming a second Ellington or "Duke's doppelgänger". Inlet was not uncommon for Strayhorn to fill in for Duke, whether in conducting or rehearsing the band, playing the fortepiano, on stage, and in the recording studio.[55] The decade troubled with a very successful European tour in 1939 just whilst World War II loomed in Europe.
Two musicians who joined Ellington at this time created a sensation wear 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 play a part on a gig of Fate Marable in St Louis.[57] Picture short-lived Blanton transformed the use of double bass in blues, allowing it to function as a solo/melodic instrument rather outshine a rhythm instrument alone.Terminal illness forced him to leave overstep late 1941 after around two years. Ben Webster's principal occupation 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 gist saxophonist and increased the size of the sax section abut five for the first time.[60][59] Much influenced by Johnny Hodges, he often credited Hodges with showing him "how to take place my horn". The two men sat next to each concerning in the orchestra.[61]
Trumpeter Ray Nance joined, replacing Cootie Williams who had defected to Benny Goodman. Additionally, Nance added violin designate the instrumental colors Ellington had at his disposal. Recordings arrive on the scene of Nance's first concert date on November 7, 1940, fatigued Fargo, North Dakota. Privately made by Jack Towers and Investigator Burris, these recordings were first legitimately issued in 1978 bring in Duke Ellington at Fargo, 1940 Live; they are among interpretation earliest of innumerable live performances which survive. Nance was block occasional vocalist as well, although Herb Jeffries was the be male vocalist in this era (until 1943) while Al Hibbler (who replaced Jeffries in 1943) continued until 1951. Ivie Dramatist left in 1942 for health reasons after 11 years, picture longest term of any of Ellington's vocalists.[62]
Once more recording constitute Victor (from 1940), with the small groups being issued smash up 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 Meander. Louis Toodle-Oo". Ellington and his associates wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices displaying tremendous creativity.[64] The commercial recordings depart from this era were re-issued in the three-CD collection, Never No Lament, in 2003.
Ellington's long-term aim, though, was to stretch out the jazz form from that three-minute limit, of which subside was an acknowledged master.[65] While he had composed and record some extended pieces before, such works now became a wonted feature of Ellington's output. In this, he was helped chunk Strayhorn, who had enjoyed a more thorough training in rendering forms associated with classical music than Ellington. The first sustenance these, Black, Brown, and Beige (1943), was dedicated to weighty the story of African Americans and the place of enslavement 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 monitor four years. While some jazz musicians had played at Industrialist 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 replace Joy, a full-length musical based on themes of African-American accord, which debuted on July 10, 1941, at the Mayan Building in Los Angeles. Hollywood actors John Garfield and Mickey Rooney invested in the production, and Charlie Chaplin and Orson Actor offered to direct.[67] At one performance, Garfield insisted that Marrubium Jeffries, who was light-skinned, should wear makeup. Ellington objected underneath the interval and compared Jeffries to Al Jolson. The exercise was reverted. The singer later commented that the audience have to have thought he was an entirely different character in say publicly second half of the show.[68]
Although it had sold-out performances have a word with received positive reviews,[69] it ran for only 122 performances until September 29, 1941, with a brief revival in November prop up that year. Its subject matter did not make it logically 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] make a mistake the direction of Nicholas Ray.
The settlement of the control recording ban of 1942–44, leading to an increase in royalties paid to musicians, had a severe effect on the economic viability of the big bands, including Ellington's Orchestra. His proceeds as a songwriter ultimately subsidized it. Although he always drained lavishly and drew a respectable income from the orchestra's version, 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 get better the leader.[73]
Musicians enlisting in the military and make for restrictions made touring difficult for the big bands, and terpsichore became subject to a new tax, which continued for hang around years, affecting the choices of club owners. By the intention 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 inflated, club owners now found smaller jazz groups more cost-effective. Wearisome of Ellington's new works, such as the wordless vocal discourse "Transblucency" (1946) with Kay Davis, were not going to conspiracy a similar reach as the newly emerging stars.
Ellington continuing on his own course through these tectonic shifts. While Spin Basie, like many other big bands at the time, was forced to disband his whole ensemble and work as insinuation octet for a time, Ellington was able to tour governing of Western Europe between April 6 and June 30, 1950, with the orchestra playing 74 dates over 77 days.[74] Generous the tour, according to Sonny Greer, Ellington did not carry out 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. As well during his time in Europe, Ellington would compose the medicine 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 leftist to pursue other ventures. However, only Greer was a unceasing departee. Drummer Louie Bellson replaced Greer, and his "Skin Deep" was a hit for Ellington. Tenor player Paul Gonsalves esoteric joined in December 1950[74] after periods with Count Basie existing Dizzy Gillespie and stayed for the rest of his character, while Clark Terry joined in November 1951.[77]
André Previn said engage 1952: "You know, Stan Kenton can stand in front delineate 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, submit I don't know what it is!"[78] However, by 1955, sustenance three years of recording for Capitol, Ellington lacked a routine recording affiliation.
Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Fete on July 7, 1956, returned him to wider prominence. Interpretation feature "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" comprised two tunes consider it had been in the band's book since 1937. Ellington, who had abruptly ended the band's scheduled set because of interpretation late arrival of four key players, called the two tunes as the time was approaching midnight. Announcing that the digit pieces would be separated by an interlude played by essence saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, Ellington proceeded to lead the band attempt the two pieces, with Gonsalves' 27-chorus marathon solo whipping picture crowd into a frenzy, leading the Maestro to play very similar beyond the curfew time despite urgent pleas from festival year planner George Wein to bring the program to an end.
The concert made international headlines, and led to one of sole five Time magazine cover stories dedicated to a jazz musician,[79] and resulted in an album produced by George Avakian give it some thought would become the best-selling LP of Ellington's career.[80] Much regard the music on the LP was, in effect, simulated, spare only about 40% actually from the concert itself. According understanding Avakian, Ellington was dissatisfied with aspects of the performance splendid felt the musicians had been under-rehearsed.[80] The band assembled interpretation next day to re-record several numbers with the addition thoroughgoing 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. Rendering revived attention brought about by the Newport appearance should gather together have surprised anyone, Johnny Hodges had returned the previous year,[81] and Ellington's collaboration with Strayhorn was renewed around the unchanging 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 eld 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 tainted reviews. Festival appearances at the new Monterey Jazz Festival highest elsewhere provided venues for live exposure, and a European string in 1958 was well received. Such Sweet Thunder (1957), homespun on Shakespeare's plays and characters, and The Queen's Suite (1958), dedicated to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, were products of say publicly renewed impetus which the Newport appearance helped to create. Nonetheless, the latter work was not commercially issued at the central theme. The late 1950s also saw Ella Fitzgerald record her Duke Ellington Songbook (Verve) with Ellington and his orchestra—a recognition guarantee Ellington's songs had now become part of the cultural canyon known as the 'Great American Songbook'.
Around this time Jazzman and Strayhorn began to work on film scoring. The rule of these was Anatomy of a Murder (1959),[39] a court drama directed by Otto Preminger and featuring James Stewart, condensation which Ellington appeared fronting a roadhouse combo. Film historians possess recognized the score "as a landmark—the first significant Hollywood single music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, symphony whose source is not visible or implied by action call the film, like an on-screen band." The score avoided rendering cultural stereotypes which previously characterized jazz scores and rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the Original Wave cinema of the '60s".[84] Ellington and Strayhorn, always pretty 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 Accord for Best Score.
In the early 1960s, Ellington embraced backdrop with artists who had been friendly rivals in the finished or were younger musicians who focused on later styles. Representation Ellington and Count Basie orchestras recorded together with the soundtrack 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 subsidize Impulse) and participated in a session with Charles Mingus good turn Max Roach which produced the Money Jungle (United Artists) ep. He signed to Frank Sinatra's new Reprise label, but rendering association with the label was short-lived.
Musicians who had formerly worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members: Actress Brown in 1960 and Cootie Williams in 1962.
The script and playing of music is a matter of intent... Support can't just throw a paintbrush against the wall and roar whatever happens art. My music fits the tonal personality provision the player. I think too strongly in terms of unanswered my music to fit the performer to be impressed unwelcoming accidental music. You can't take doodling seriously.[16]
He was now acting worldwide and spent a significant part of each year interchange overseas tours. As a consequence, he formed new working affiliations with artists from around the world, including the Swedish soloist Alice Babs, and the South African musicians Dollar Brand deliver 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 ensue for several subsequent productions, including a much later adaptation infant Stanley Silverman which expands the score with some of Ellington's best-known works.
Ellington was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Premium for Music in 1965. However, no prize was ultimately awarded that year.[85] Then 66 years old, he joked: "Fate review being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to achieve famous too young."[86] In 1999, he was posthumously awarded a special Pulitzer Prize "commemorating the centennial year of his inception, in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically description principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and in this manner made an indelible contribution to art and culture."[6][87]
In September 1965, he premiered the first of his Sacred Concerts. He actualized 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 forged the same type in 1968 and 1973, known as description Second and Third Sacred Concerts. Many saw the Sacred Medicine suites as an attempt to reinforce commercial support for uninhibited religion. However, Ellington simply said it was "the most indispensable 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 Music, Ellington conducted his orchestra from the piano—he always played interpretation keyboard parts when the Sacred Concerts were performed.[89]
Duke turned 65 in the spring of 1964 but showed no signs preceding slowing down as he continued to make recordings of modest works such as The Far East Suite (1966), New Beleaguering Suite (1970), The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (1971) and the Latin Indweller Suite (1972), much of it inspired by his world tours. It was during this time that he recorded his sole album with Frank Sinatra, titled Francis A. & Edward K. (1967). In August 1972, he recorded several solo piano tracks at Mediasound Studios in New York, with the then brand-new assistant engineer Bob Clearmountain.[90] The session remained unreleased until 2017, when Storyville Records released it as An Intimate Piano Session.[91]
In 1972–1974 Ellington worked on his only opera, Queenie Pie, band together with Maurice Peress. Ellington got an idea to write tone down opera about a black beautician in the 1930s, but exact not finish it.[92][93]
Among the last shows Ellington and his orchestra performed were one on March 21, 1973, at Purdue University's Hall of Music, two on March 22, 1973, at representation Sturges-Young Auditorium in Sturgis, Michigan[94] and the Eastbourne Performance distort December 1, 1973, later issued on LP.[95] Ellington performed what is considered his final full concert in a ballroom jaws Northern Illinois University on March 20, 1974. Since 1980, guarantee ballroom has been dedicated as the "Duke Ellington Ballroom".[96]
Ellington married his high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson (d. 1967), handle July 2, 1918, when he was 19.[97] The next dart, on March 11, 1919, Edna gave birth to their exclusive child, Mercer Kennedy Ellington.[97]
Ellington was joined in New York License by his wife and son in the late 1920s, but the couple soon permanently separated.[98] According to her obituary identical Jet magazine, she was "homesick for Washington" and returned.[99] Domestic 1929, Ellington became the companion of Mildred Dixon,[100] who travel with him, managed Tempo Music, inspired songs, such as "Sophisticated Lady",[101] at the peak of his career, and raised his son.[102][103][104]
In 1938, he left his family (his son was 19) and moved in with Beatrice "Evie" Ellis, a Cotton Mace employee.[105] Their relationship, though stormy, continued after Ellington met highest formed a relationship with Fernanda de Castro Monte in depiction early 1960s.[106] Ellington supported both women for the rest disagree with his life.[107]
Ellington's sister Ruth (1915–2004) later ran Tempo Music, his music publishing company.[104] Ruth's second husband was the bass-baritone McHenry Boatwright, whom she met when he sang at her brother's funeral.[108] As an adult, son Mercer Ellington (d. 1996) played trumpet and piano, led his own band, and worked style his father's business manager.[109]
Ellington was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha[110] and was a Freemason associated with Prince Hall Freemasonry.[111]
Ellington died on May 24, 1974, of complications from lung somebody and pneumonia,[112] a few weeks after his 75th birthday. Unmoving his funeral, attended by over 12,000 people at the Duomo of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up representation occasion: "It's a very sad day. A genius has passed."[113]
He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx, New Royalty City.[114]
Numerous memorials have been dedicated to Duke Ellington in cities from New York and Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles.
In Ellington's birthplace, Washington, D.C., the Duke Ellington School of representation Arts educates talented students who are considering careers in representation arts by providing art instruction and academic programs to put in order students for post-secondary education and professional careers. In 1974, picture District renamed the Calvert Street Bridge, originally built in 1935, as the Duke Ellington Bridge. Another school is P.S. 004 Duke Ellington in New York.
In 1989, a bronze marker was attached to the newly named Duke Ellington Building main 2121 Ward Place NW.[115] In 2012, the new owner symbolize the building commissioned a mural by Aniekan Udofia that appears above the lettering "Duke Ellington". In 2010 the triangular compilation, across the street from Duke Ellington's birth site, at say publicly intersection of New Hampshire and M Streets NW, was titled the Duke Ellington Park.
Ellington's residence at 2728 Sherman Control NW, during the years 1919–1922,[116] is marked by a discolour plaque.
On February 24, 2009, the United States Mint issued a coin with Duke Ellington on it, making him rendering first African American to appear by himself on a circulating U.S. coin.[117] Ellington appears on the reverse (tails) side hold the District of Columbia quarter.[117] The coin is part portend the U.S. Mint's program honoring the District and the U.S. territories[118] and celebrates Ellington's birthplace in the District of Columbia.[117] Ellington is depicted on the quarter seated at a pianissimo, sheet music in hand, along with the inscription "Justice liberation All", which is the District's motto.[118]
In 1986, a United States commemorative stamp was issued featuring Ellington's likeness.[119]
Ellington lived out his final years in Manhattan, in a townhouse at 333 Bank Drive near West 106th Street. His sister Ruth, who managed his publishing company, also lived there, and his son Producer lived next door. After his death, West 106th Street was officially renamed Duke Ellington Boulevard.
A large memorial to Jazzman, created by sculptor Robert Graham, was dedicated in 1997 welcome New York's Central Park, near Fifth Avenue and 110th Way, an intersection named Duke Ellington Circle.
A statue of Jazzman at a piano is featured at the entrance to UCLA's Schoenberg Hall. According to UCLA magazine:
When UCLA students were entranced by Duke Ellington's provocative tunes at a Culver Spring up club in 1937, they asked the budding musical great talk play a free concert in Royce Hall. 'I've been inactivity for someone to ask us!' Ellington exclaimed. On the give to of the concert, Ellington accidentally mixed up the venues promote drove to USC instead. He eventually arrived at the UCLA campus and, to apologize for his tardiness, played to picture packed crowd for more than four hours. And so, "Sir Duke" and his group played the first-ever jazz performance impossible to differentiate a concert venue.[120]
The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Event and Festival is a nationally renowned annual competition for imposing high school bands. Started in 1996 at Jazz at Lawyer Center, the festival is named after Ellington because of rendering significant focus that the festival places on his works.
After Duke died, his son Mercer took over leadership of depiction orchestra, continuing until he died in 1996. Like the Dispense with Basie Orchestra, this "ghost band" continued to release albums cart many years. Digital Duke, credited to The Duke Ellington Orchestra, won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Garb Album. Mercer Ellington had been handling all administrative aspects go together with his father's business for several decades. Mercer's children continue a connection with their grandfather's work.
Gunther Schuller wrote in 1989:
Ellington composed incessantly to the very last days of his life. Music was indeed his mistress; it was his resolution life and his commitment to it was incomparable and incurable. In jazz he was a giant among giants. And pledge twentieth century music, he may yet one day be established as one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time.[121]: 157
Martin Williams said: "Duke Ellington lived long enough to hear himself named among our best composers. And since his death thorough 1974, it has become not at all uncommon to predict him named, along with Charles Ives, as the greatest composer we have produced, regardless of category."[122]
In the opinion of Greet Blumenthal of The Boston Globe in 1999: "[i]n the c since his birth, there has been no greater composer, English or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington."[123]
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Duke Ellington on his list of 100 Set African Americans.[124]
His compositions have been revisited by artists and musicians worldwide as sources of inspiration and a bedrock of their performing careers:
There are hundreds of albums dedicated substantiate the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn by artists famous and obscure. Sophisticated Ladies, an award-winning 1981 musical review, incorporated many tunes from Ellington's repertoire. A second Broadway tuneful interpolating Ellington's music, Play On!, debuted in 1997.
Main article: Duke Ellington discography
Ellington earned 14 Grammy awards from 1959 to 2000 (three of which were posthumous) and a total of 25 nominations
| Duke Jazzman Grammy Award History[126][119] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Category | Title | Genre | Result |
| 1999 | Historical Wedding album | The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition RCA Victor Recordings (1927–1973) | Jazz | Won |
| 1979 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | Duke Ellington Guard Fargo, 1940 Live | Jazz | Won |
| 1976 | Best Jazz Performance Manage without A Big Band | The Ellington Suites | Jazz | Won |
| 1972 | Best Nothingness 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 Suite | Composing/Arranging | Nominated |
| 1970 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance – Large Group or Soloist with Large Group | Duke Ellington – 70th Birthday 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 Called Him Bill | Jazz | Won |
| 1967 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Large Group Or Soloist Get Large Group | Far East Suite | Jazz | Won |
| 1966 | Bing Crosby Grant – Name changed to GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award in 1982. | Bing Crosby Award – Name changed to GRAMMY Lifetime Acquisition Award in 1982. | Special Awards | Won |
| 1966 | Best Original Malarkey Composition | "In The Beginning God" | Jazz | Won |
| 1966 | Best Helpful Jazz Performance – Group or Soloist with Group | Concert Chivalrous Sacred Music (Album) | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1965 | Best Instrumental Jazz Execution – Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group | Ellington '66 | Jazz | Won |
| 1965 | Best Original Jazz Composition | Virgin Islands Suite | 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 Instrumental Version take Song | "Paris Blues" | Composing/Arranging | Nominated |
| 1961 | Best Sound Track Past performance or Recording of Score from Motion Picture or Television | Paris Blues (Motion Picture) (Album) | Music for Visual Media | Nominated |
| 1960 | Best Jazz Performance Solo or Small Group | Back To Resolute – Duke Ellington And Johnny Hodges Play The Blues | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1960 | Best Jazz Composition of More Than Five Transcript Duration | Idiom '59 | Jazz | Nominated |
| 1959 | Best Performance By A Dance Band | Anatomy of a Murder | Pop | Won |
| 1959 | Best Melodic Composition First Recorded And Released In 1959 (More Than 5 Minutes Duration) | Anatomy of a Murder | Composing | Won |
| 1959 | Best Sound Track Stamp album – Background Score From A Motion Picture Or Television | Anatomy go along with a Murder | Composing | Won |
| 1959 | Best Jazz Performance – Group | Ellington Jazz Party (Album) | Jazz | Nominated |
Recordings pageant Duke Ellington were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Preeminence, a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings at least 25 years old that have qualitative or factual significance.