A Portrait of Duke Ellington By Tracy Frech
Duke Ellington is considered to be one of the greatest figures in the history of
American music. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born in Washington D.C. on
April 29, 1899. His parents were James Edward and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. They raised Duke as an only child, until his sister, Ruth, was born when Duke was sixteen years old. Duke, even as a teenager, had a great talent for music. In the beginning of his musical life, Duke began to take a promising interest in a new type of music that would later be called jazz. Choosing to base his career on a new idea may not have been smart, but Duke did take this chance and in turn became one of the most famous musicians in America.
Duke's
…show more content…
In the Autumn of 1927, luck had crossed paths with Duke again. The manager of Duke's band, Irving Mills, had heard that the prestigious cotton club was looking for a new band and immediately Irving began campaigning for Duke. Duke and his band opened on December 4, 1927 to meet a mad rush of spectators who eagerly awaited to hear Dukes newest pieces. Duke's band became very prosperous and they had their own spot on the Cotton Club floor with special lighting and accommodations. At the year of 1928 the band consisted of Bubber Miley, Freddy Jenkins, and Arthur
Whetsol on trumpet, joined with Tricky Sam Nanton, and Juan Tizol on trombone.
Johnny Hodges, now on alto sax, with Barney Bigard doubled on tenor sax and clarinet, and finally Harry Carney at seventeen years old joined on bari sax.
Carney was known as one of the first people in a band ever to use the bari sax as a solo instrument. While Duke's band was performing at the Cotton Club, his band participated in more than sixty-four recording sessions.
In 1931 Duke grew so tired of the show-business routines that he decided to try his luck again on his own. When he arrived in New York his band grew to almost three times what it originally had been at the Cotton Club.
Duke feared that this would become a very serious problem considering how the stock market crashed in late 1929 and millions of people across the United States were out of work. Somehow, though,
dancing at the age of two. His parents were also musicians, actor and dancer.Hines had
B.B. King or ‘The King of Blues’ was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi. His young parents unfortunately divorced, and his mother passed away when he was 9 years old which left him to be raised by his grandmother. King attended school until the 10th grade when he dropped out of school and started to work at a cotton gin near his hometown. Despite dropping out of school he continued to teach himself math and different languages well into his later life. He worked at the cotton gin earning a penny a pound and singing gospel music on street corners. His musical career started when he was studying under his cousin Bukka White. King met a woman and was married at 17 years old. “I guess I was looking for love, because I never had anybody I believed truly loved me” (B.B. King). The marriage quickly came to end when they got a divorce months later. “Since my early childhood, I had a problem trying to open up. Please open me up. Look inside!
As time went on Miles Davis III became a part of the music society. He first played
Duke met Oliver “Doc” Perry and Louis Brown who helped teach him how to read music and helped improve his overall piano playing skills. Duke found some jobs playing at clubs and cafes in the Washington area. Three months before Duke graduated he dropped out of school and began his professional music career.
“Like The Duke’’, In a sentimental Mood’’ ‘’Take the A train’’ where songs that made me like jazz, that made me sit down and listen this genre of music, there are a lot of great jazz composers in history of music but Duke Ellington was one of the best till this day we still hear his music play. His type of jazz was really relax very smoothing extremely unorthodox.
music while others had a taste for the old, more familiar styles. Ned Williams, who became Ellington’s publicist, commented on Ellington’s first performance at the Cotton
to use jazz rhythms and dialect to depict the life of urban blacks in his work (The
Most of Gershwin's early childhood was spent playing sports, which he was good at, and it interested him. It wasn't until Gershwin was 12
Instead of keeping with his studies, Miles was more concerned with his career as a musician in a band. Miles made some of his first recordings in 1945 and also joined Charlie Parker's quintet. Though Miles was not as developed during this time, his style was already easily recognizable and distinguished. In 1949, Miles had the opportunity to lead a band which consisted of nine players, also known as a nonet. The band used non-traditional instruments in a jazz setting. Many consider this to be the birth of. That same year Miles visited Europe and played at that year's Paris Jazz Festival in May.
Out of the streets of New Orleans, a new form of music arose. This new type of music was not known as African or European, but simply American. It was jazz. In 1900 jazz first developed, but it wasn’t until the
Nps.gov states that some of the greatest musician in America History has come from the jazz side of the world. Artist such as Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday and Jelly “Roll” Morton, pave the way for jazz to reach its height as it did in the early 20’s with the upbeat tempo and smooth classical sound. These artist brung a unique sound to jazz that was not there. Louis Armstrong contribute to jazz is so remarkable, he played the trumpet like no other. His sound was so soothing to the ears. When you think about jazz, Louis Armstrong is one of the first names most people relate to jazz. Jelly “Roll” Morton was probably the most influence artist there is. An innovative piano stylist and composer, began his odyssey outside of New Orleans as early as 1907. He continue his work throughout the 1920’s and was mainly consider the reason of the swing era.
Langston Hughes was one of the first black men to express the spirit of blues and jazz
to create new kinds of jazz. The most popular result of this trend to variety
King’s celebrated music career emerged from very modest beginnings. At the age of 18, King started to perform his renditions of traditional Delta blues music at churches around local areas in Mississippi; but his talents saw him gradually travel further up north over the years, as many blues musicians, and many other African-Americans
The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What made Jazz such a different perspective of traditional music was its act of improvising. There was a widespread use of improvisation often by more than one player at a time. Songwriters would write the music down on a piece of paper, and then the Jazz musicians would try their best to play the music. Usually in a Jazz piece, musicians would use the song as a starting point to improvise around. Jazz musicians would play a familiar song to the audience, and by the time they were done with the piece they would stir up a totally different feeling away from the