Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born in Washington, D.C., on the twenty-ninth of April 1899. His father, James Edward Ellington, made blueprints for the United States Navy and on occasion served as a butler; both of his parents played the piano, and music was woven into the household from the beginning. He began piano lessons at the age of seven, and in his teens was given the nickname "Duke" for the easy elegance of his bearing — a title he would spend a lifetime earning.

By his mid-twenties Ellington was leading his own orchestra, and from 1924 until his death he never let that band go dark. The residency at Harlem's Cotton Club, begun in 1927, carried his sound across the nation by radio, and there he forged the shimmering "jungle style" and the deep partnership with players like Johnny Hodges and Billy Strayhorn that gave his music its unmistakable voice.

Across half a century he composed or collaborated on more than a thousand works — from "Mood Indigo," "Sophisticated Lady," and "Take the 'A' Train" to ambitious extended suites and sacred concerts. He treated the orchestra itself as his instrument, writing to the particular tone of each musician, and lifted jazz to the standing of a serious American art. The largest recorded personal legacy in the music is his.

Honored in his lifetime and beyond — with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, and the enduring devotion of listeners the world over — Duke Ellington remains among the most important composers his country has produced. He carried a band, and an art, on his shoulders for fifty years, and set it down only when he could carry it no further. May his music keep his name in light.