Edward Duke Ellington was a Washington DC born and raised jazz superstar in the early twenties, thirties, forties, and even into the fifties and sixties. His band was so famous and stable that it passed successfully to his sons before the eldest died of cancer and the youngest concentrated on the orchestra while his mother handled the estate.
Duke was credited in his own lifetime with being one of the most influential jazz figures in America and even won a post-humus Pulitzer Prize for his contribution to music. He melded many jazz giants of his time into a brilliant orchestra which allowed him to showcase his beautiful music, both shorter pieces and even long ones-jazz ballads as it was-with stunning results.
Dukes orchestra was one of the few to make it through the Depression intact, relying on tours and the radio to continue their fame, and is one of the longest living orchestras of all time which also managed to keep its members. Dukes charisma and his musical brilliance made it so.
Duke was born in 1899 and lived with his maternal grandparents in Washington DC. He took piano lessons at an early age and though he was not at first enthusiastic about playing the piano, watching other pianists in places like Frank Holidays Poolroom, sparked his interest and he began to take his music far more seriously.
He imitated musicians he saw in Philadelphia and Atlanta as well, and it was in New York where he would take the advice of musicians such as Will Marion Cook and Fats Waller. When he felt secure in his musical work, at the age of nineteen, he got married and then went on to launch a superstar career that most would rival today.
He produced dozens of records in the twenties and thirties and during the Depression, he and his orchestra survived well by touring and taking full advantage of radio, which was the key form of entertainment for many people who could no longer go out to entertain themselves.
He took an early role in the Harlem Renaissance, which was the artistic and musical renaissance of African Americans living in Harlem, New York. It was through his work in Harlem clubs, such as The Cotton Club that his career truly launched and he was able to work all around the country on tour and in clubs in neighboring cities. He also took part in works meant to introduce the African American sound to a European audience like the Chocolate Kiddies.
Duke is also credited with having the amazing ability, as a composer, of bringing his surroundings to life through music and conveying elegant and powerful messages through his chosen medium.
Through his music, people of all races and ethnicity could be transported to Harlem in the twenties and thirties, the Depression, and the hope that lingered despite everything. He did not even call his own music jazz, instead, referring to as American music because it captured everything American during the times that he wrote and performed.
Decades later, people can listen to his music and go back in time to the periods he lived in and it is for this reason that the numerous awards he has won are so richly deserved. Duke encapsulates the importance of writing what one knows and loves in order to do the best work possible.
His work would influence dozens of musicians, help put Harlem on the map for something other than violence, and be a credit to the creative energy that New York City offered to its residents.
Author Resource:-
Drew Mers is an advertising consultant to to Empire Rehearsal Studios, which rents music rehearsal studios to bands and musicians in Manhattan (New York City) and Queens.
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