Text a the “duke” is gone but he’s left us with a rich legacy

Duke Ellington, who died in New York from lung cancer and pneunomia, was 75.

Born in Washington 1899, Edward Kennedy Ellington had first turned fully to music in 1917, when at the age of 18 he declined an art school scholarship to become, briefly, a ragtime pianist and then leader of a small group in his home town.

He arrived in New York in 1923 for a job that failed to materialize.

There has actually been an Ellington band in existence since the very early ‘20s, but the first significant date is December 1927, when he and his men opened at the Cotton Club in Harlem, as a last minute replacement for a King Oliver band.

White audiences flocked to hear the “Jungle Music”, and this last minute replacement played at the Cotton Club until 1932.

The band achieved such success that when it toured Europe for the first time in 1933 it was already the most famous band in the world.

Critic/writer Gunther Schuller, posing the question: “How did Ellington develop into one of America's foremost composers?” also gave an informative answer:

“It was precisely due to the fortuitous circumstances of working five years at the Cotton Club. There, by writing and experimenting with all manner of descriptive production and dance numbers, his inherent talent and imagination found a fruitful outlet...”

Duke Ellington led his band for half a century, no other band in jazz has come close to staying in existence for so long.

He was considered by many as the most accomplished of all jazz musicians. He mastered the art of writing directly for each of his major sidemen.

Billy Strayhorn as arranger was co-author of a great deal of Ellington's music, the most famous being “Take the “A” Train”.

The history of Duke Ellington is vast and constitutes a large place in jazz history. In 1927 he was the first to use the human voice as an instrument. The voice was Adelaide Hall's, the tune – “Creole Love Call”.

In 1937 with a tune called “Caravan” he introduced the combination of Afro-Cuban melodies. We now know it as Cuban jazz or Latin rock.

Today the echo chamber is taken for granted; Ellington was the first to use it on a big band recording. In 1938 Johnny Hodges' solo on “Empty Ballroom Blues” made use of the echo chamber.

Ellington used musical materials that were familiar to concert trained ears, making jazz music listenable to them. It is easy to see what a great influence he was in the shaping of 20th century music.

He turned out countless compositions, musicals, pop songs, suites, tone poems, movie scores, jazz instrumentals, and, of late, sacred music.

Ellington, like Louis Armstrong, was loved and revered by audiences all over the world, both Black and White. Stanley Dance, the author of “The World Of Duke Ellington” said: “He was a rare genius who combined sophistication, primitiveness, irony and child-like innocence. He was a great innovator and paradoxically a conservative”.

He never compromised with the public's taste for “pop songs”. He has been compared with Mozart, Bach, Debussy, Delius – all direct influences.

Writer Francis Newton called him “Haydn of Jazz”, reconstructing all the old material of jazz in terms of the new sounds demanded by his times, as Haydn brought together elements from folk-songs, comic opera, serenade and street music and infused them into the budding symphony.

He became the first jazz musician to receive the French Legion of Honour, the African republic of Togo put his picture on a postage stamp that included many classical composers and President Nixon awarded him America's highest civilian honour – the Medal of Freedom.

Like him or not, he came, secured a place in musical history and left us with a rich legacy of sounds. He is listed in the Oxford Dictionary of Music as “Ellington, “Duke”. Famous American Negro jazz composer and pianist”.

Proper Names

Edward Kennedy Ellington [‘edwqd ‘kenidi ‘eliNtqn]

King Oliver band [‘kiN ‘Olivq ‘‘bxnd]

Gunther Schuller [‘gAnTq ‘Sulq]

Billy Strayhorn [‘bili ‘streihLn]

Adelaide Hall [‘xdqleid ‘hLl]

“Creole Love Call” [‘krJoul ...]

Johnny Hadges [‘GOni ‘hxGiz]

Louis Armstrong [‘lHi ‘RmstrON]

Stanley Dance [‘stxnli ‘dRns]

French Legion of Honour [‘frentS ‘lJGqn qf ‘Lnq] – Французский Орден Почетного Легиона

Togo [‘tougou]