Duke Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader who led his own orchestra for roughly fifty years and is widely regarded as one of the most significant composers in American musical history. He treated the orchestra itself as his primary instrument, writing extended, harmonically sophisticated works such as Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, and the multi-part suite Black, Brown and Beige for the specific voices of his longtime musicians. Beginning at Harlem's Cotton Club in the late 1920s, he helped move jazz from popular dance music toward a concert art form, and his catalogue of roughly one thousand compositions spans big-band swing, sacred concerts, and film scores.
Facts
Active From Year Active To Year TrainingBegan piano lessons with Marietta Clinkscales at age seven; later trained under Washington bandleader Oliver "Doc" Perry 1 Connections
In Movement
Foundational jazz bandleader and composer.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Duke Ellington (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead paragraph 1
was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life.
Lead paragraph 1 (birth-death parenthetical)
(April 29, 1899, May 24, 1974)
Lead paragraph 2
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s
Death section
Ellington died on May 24, 1974, of complications from lung cancer and pneumonia, aged 75.
Legacy section: interment
He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx, New York City.
Early life and education section
With the additional guidance of Washington pianist and band leader Oliver "Doc" Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, project a professional style, and improve his technique.
Early life and education section (1914 Soda Fountain Rag)
In the summer of 1914, while working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Ellington wrote his first composition
Gender reference
Duke Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader who led his own orchestra for roughly fifty years and is widely regarded as one of the most significant composers in American musical history.
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