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| The Duke Ellington Orchestra (acrylic on canvas) 24 x 36" |
Composer and pianist Percy Grainger said of Duke Ellington,
“The three greatest composers who ever lived are Bach, Delius and Duke
Ellington. Unfortunately Bachj is dead, Delius very ill, but we are happy to
have with us today, The Duke.”
Duke Ellington was much more than a composer; he was a
phenomenon. The grandson of a former American slave, Edward Kennedy Ellington
was born in 1899 and began taking piano lessons at the age of nine. His mother,
Daisy, surrounded her son with dignified women which refined his manners,
taught him to live elegantly, and gave him the bearing of a young nobleman.
In his early years, he was more interested in baseball than
in the piano, and wrote his first composition, “Soda Fountain Rag,” by ear,
since he had not yet learned to read music. By the age of 16 he began playing
gigs in cafés and clubs in the Washington DC area while attending Armstrong
Manual Training School.
Ellington thought of his music as “American Music” rather
than “jazz.” He and his group became the “house band” of the Cotton Club in Harlem,
New York in 1928, performing all of the music for the revues, which mixed
comedy, dance numbers, vaudeville, burlesque, music, and illegal alcohol.
His popularity continued to grow during the 1930s with many
of his greatest hits being written and performed at the Cotton Club before an
all “white” audience. Ellington wrote many “standards” including: Sophisticated
Lady; In a Sentimental Mood; and Prelude to Kiss. He also composed many songs
in collaboration with pianist and arranger Billy Strayhorne, including “Lush
Life”; “Satin Doll” and “Take the A Train.”
The music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorne is beyond
genre, and lives on in performances of their songs by many of today’s most
popular singers, jazz groups and orchestras. Duke remained extremely, active in
his later years, and created and performed his “Sacred Concerts” series between
1968 and his death in 1973.
He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1965, but turned it
down, saying” Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be famous too
young.” Ellington later received a posthumous Pulitzer for his life-long body
of work.
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