Duke Ellington Duke Ellington born on April 29, 1899, in Washington D.C. was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader was a huge figure in the history of jazz music, and his career extended more half a century. He composed thousands of songs for stage, screening, and songbooks, he also created one of a unique ensemble sounds in Western music and continued to play his music until his death which spanned over fifty years. Duke Ellington born by musician parents lived in a typical middle-class neighborhood of Washington D.C. In school he was taught that proper speech and good manner were his first obligation. He later began studying piano and earned the nickname “Duke” at the age of 7. At the time he was going to Garnet elementary…show more content… He claimed he worked this job until the end of the war. After his day jobs he kept busy at night with doing music. By 1918 Ellington musical activity had begun to move quickly the city listed him as “musician” and his name appeared in the yellow pages of the telephone book his popularity grew partly because of the new music called “Jazz” and because of good business sense and while that was happening his personal life changed as well when he married his high school lover Edna Thompson at the age of 19 which they attended Armstrong together and she gave birth to the only child, a son Mercer Kennedy Ellington. During the 1920’s Ellington decided to move to New York to perform in nightclubs as a bandleader of a group which had a ten piece ensemble and the band had to be made up of 5 people so he searched for musicians with unique styles like Bubber Miley who did the (wa-wa) using a plunger mute, and trombone Joe Nanton who did the (growl sound) with a mute. Ellington left Washington D.C. For Harlem and he came a big part of the Harlem…show more content… In the 1940’s his career came in at a high point when he composed many songs like, “Concerto for Cootie,” “Ko-Ko, and “Cotton tail.” But his popular songs that he wrote were “Satin Doll”, “Solitude”, etc. and these popular songs were sung by Ivie Anderson a female vocalist in Duke’s Band in the 1930’s. In these years he wrote scores for the motion pictures for The Asphalt Jungle in the 1950, and Anatomy of a Murder in 1959. He also composed for dance like ballet/theatre which included the show My People in 1964 which was about the celebration of African-American life.
Duke Ellington died at the age of 75 on May 24, 1974 of a disease called lung cancer and pneumonia, his last word before he died where, “Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered.” After Ellington’s death his son Merced decided to take over the band but in a couple years it had diminish, so then Mercer wrote a biography about his father and it released unavailable Duke recordings in
