Duke Ellington: Early Life and Career

• Edward Kennedy Ellington was born in 1899 in a middle-class Black American neighborhood in Washington, DC
• At age seven, he began piano lessons
• By 14, he composed his first two pieces, Soda Fountain Rag and What you Gonna Do When the Bed Breaks Down
• His friends nicknamed him Duke because he was stylish and polite
• At age 18 in 1917, he formed his first group, The Duke's Serenaders, playing at dance balls for $5
• By 1923 Duke moved to New York, playing in various clubs with his band, now named The Washingtonians
• In 1927, Ellington and his band played at the Cotton Club in New York and found an international audience.
• In the 1930s, Duke and his band left the Cotton Club in 1931 and toured the US and Europe and were then an established swing band during their heyday.
• During the early 1940s, the band reached a creative peak
• Ellington's Orchestra survived new developments in jazz and gained new audiences in 1956
• In the 1960s, he and his band played with top musicians like John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra
• At age 75 In 1974, he died of cancer and 12,000 people attended his funeral
• Duke Ellington was influenced by ragtime pianist Harvey Brooks, who showed him piano-playing techniques that were loose, free, and inspiring
• James "Bubber" Miley was an early trumpet experimenter, whose style changed the sound of Ellington's band to one that was hotter, more contemporary, and less "sweet"

About Ellington

• "I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people."
• He was a sophisticated, polite, handsome, and elegant man
• One of the most influential figures in jazz and American music, Duke was also a gifted pianist
• With growing success he composed big band music
• He had one of the longest-lasting careers of any jazz musician and adapted to the times to be a musical influence through the ups and downs of the 20th century, from the age of swing to the 1960s social revolution
• Ellington and his band appeared in several movies during the 1930s, such as Black and Tan
• He composed more than 1,500 songs, scored movie soundtracks, and also wrote jazz "suites" that lasted over an hour
• Duke Ellington hired and featured some of the time's greatest, most creative players, including Johnny Hodges, Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, and Cootie Williams
• Ellington's hits includ It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) and Solitude
• "Take the "A" Train" was a signature song by Duke Ellington and his orchestra and is one of the most well-known jazz compositions
• In the 1920s and 1930s, Duke became one of the leading jazz artists in the 1930s to make open political statements, protesting about racism in his music

The Cotton Club

• In 1927, Duke Ellington and his band became the house band at the Cotton Club, the most famous nightspot in Harlem, a Black neighborhood of New York
• At the Cotton Club only white people were allowed in
• Eventually, the club relaxed its white-only policy slightly, at Ellington's request, reflecting his broad appeal that broke down racial barriers
• In the 1930's the US was racially discrimatory
• Live radio broadcasts went out from the Cotton Club to all of the US

Types of Jazz

• Ellington lived through the "Age of Jazz," when different types of jazz were in their early development
• The first generation of free Black Americans like Scott Joplin combined African-influenced music with European melodies and instruments, bringing their music to the US public

The Blues

• An influence in the development of jazz, portraying by emotions, and identified by its scale and chord set

Ragtime

• "Ragged" (syncopated) rhythm gives ragtime its name
• Popular between 1897 and 1918, ragtime was the precursor to jazz

Boogie-woogie

• A type of piano-based blues that you can dance to

Syncopation

• Fundamental to jazz, where stressed beats give a piece its rhythm

Swing

• You can't tapping your feet to swing, played by big bands in the 1930s
• It has a rhythmic "feel" or "groove" and people danced to it