Duke Ellington Essay

With the new jazz sound that came blazing out of the roaring twenties came one of the greatest jazz musicians, Edward “Duke” Ellington. Duke Ellington played a big role in the fame of the Cotton Club and eventually persuaded the club to repeal its whites-only rule. Ellington had contributed to the jazz sound by creating a new style of performing band which he called the “Big Band” sound. Although he was a jazz musician he had a very different style and technique including the new setup style made him a hit for for his long lasting time at the Cotton Club. His uniqueness struck a chord with the people of Harlem and in our own history. The Cotton Club also featured performers like Cab Calloway, Adelaide Hall, Ethel Waters, and Earl “Snakehips” Tucker. These performers are the reason the Cotton Club had so many top revues and it stayed in business for years after the boom of the roaring

to the utmost of his dreams. At such a crucial time in the history of

people. During the Cotton Club years, the Duke Ellington Orchestra began to win distinction for its thorough musicians and homogeneity. Ellington was fighting to be

Edward “Duke” Kennedy Ellington was born April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C. Duke Ellington was born into a typical family with average income and growing up, the future musician was home-schooled by his parents. His father James Edward Ellington and mother Daisy Kennedy Ellington were both pianist. His father played operatic arias while parlor songs were his mother’s first choice. It is an interesting fact that Duke is not actually Ellington’s name, but it is only his nickname, which children gave him when he was a little boy for his aristocratic manners and the ability to dress elegant things. When Duke was seven years old, he began his piano training and took lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. (Ruhlmann) Duke

Duke Ellington was a famous African American musician. He was a very important figure in African American history. In the following we will be talking about his life. Talking about what Duke Ellington accomplished. Finally will be his legacy. I hope by the end of this you will see Duke Ellington like how I see him a legend in African American history. Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 to James and Daisy Ellington in Washington D.C. When he was seven is when he began to study how to play the piano. He worked at Soda Jerk at a young age that inspired him to write his first song "Soda Fountain Rag'' when he was 15. He went to Strongman High School but when he graduated, he declined a scholarship to Pratt Institute so he could focus on

Our music industry would not be what it is today without one of America’s greatest music legends, Duke Ellington. He made major breakthroughs at a time when the odds were against him. He was born Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974).He was a natural and has many life achievements that have contributed to the genre of jazz. He was a catalyst in his era. His music spoke to the soul. He defied the odds with his musical accomplishments. It was not everyday blacks were awarded the opportunity to shine in America’s spot light. He was able to take leaps in an industry when African Americans were not afforded the opportunities other races were privileged to partake in. During this era segregation was prevalent. African Americans were not allowed

As a young boy, Marquise grew up in a bad neighborhood as a African American male. Marquise grew up mentoring the great Blues artist. He learned under the late Henry James Townsend and B.B. King. He released his first album when he was 16 years old. He was part of the Blues and African American culture from a young age.

Duke Ellington grew up in a middle-class neighborhood of Washington D.C by two musically adept parents. Ellington was given the name “Duke”

Growing up in downtown Buffalo, New York, Grover Washington Jr., named after his father Grover Washington Sr., grew up to live with a musically talented family. His father played the tenor saxophone, his mother sang in a choir, his older brother played the organ in a church choir, and his younger brother played the drums. At the age of 10 when Grover Washington Jr. was just a little kid, his father taught him the basic notes and a few songs on the saxophone, and that greatly influenced his desire to grow up to become a musician just like the rest of his family. In 1965, when Grover Washington Jr. was only 22 years old, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey for 1 year. He did this instead of going to college, and as a result, he eventually dropped out and continued to pursue

sixteen years old. Duke, even as a teenager, had a great talent for music. In

When I think of music in the late 1940’s to 1960’s the talented jazz performer, and pop artist that comes to my mind is Nat “King” Cole.

Considered one of the best jazz writers ever, Duke Ellington enormously affected the well known music of the late twentieth century. Among his more than two thousand tunes. Conceived in Washington D.C. in 1899, Edward Kennedy Ellington, his mom managed his instruction of the piano, making him ready to perform professionally at age 17. He then began to create his own music. In 1923 he moved to New York, and the next year shaped his own band, the Washingtonians.By 1927, Ellington's band had found a little base of fans and secured an engagement at Harlem's celebrated Cotton Club. This ended up being a noteworthy defining moment in Ellington's profession, giving him access to bigger groups of onlookers through radio and recordings. In 1931 Ellington

His first compassion ever “Soda Fountain Rag” was at the age of 15, he started playing professionally at 17, Duke Ellington 50 years of compositions, and a lot of his great work came from his teenage years and his late 20s. in 1923 duke and some of his friends came to New York they form the group the Washingtonians, they took part in the Harlem Renaissance and started playing in homes for income.

When it comes to legacies, we look for those that are able to stand the test of time. Duke Ellington was one the many people who have left spectacular legacies. The importance behind his legacy is the way how he took music, exclusively jazz, to a completely new, and higher, degree of complexity and brilliance. He combined his rhythms and patterns into a completely new way that took jazz out of a primitive state of chaos into a highly sophisticated style of perfection. Duke Ellington took a new style of music and not only composed many pieces that are still listened to today, but has inspired countless to make pieces of their own that are still listened to today.

During the 1950’s-1970’s many composers started experimenting film scoring by associating genres such as jazz, funk, and rock. Composers such as Henry Mancini, Duke Ellington and Kenyon Hopkins associated different genres of music into film scoring. Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger. His most notable works include the Jazz-idiom theme to the Pink Panther film series. Mancini also composed the film scoring for Victor Victoria and Oklahoma Crude etc. He also recorded music in styles ranging from big band to classical to pop. Duke Ellington was also an American composer and Pianist and is often considered as the most influential composer and bandleader of the big band era. Ellington composed the film scoring for films