Duke Ellington : The Duke's Serenader

Duke Ellington composed thousands of pieces throughout his career. Ellington's music made him stand out and allowed his listeners to have many experiences they had never had before. One of his most popular songs was “It Don’t Mean a Thing, if It Ain’t Got That Swing”. Duke Ellington’s song, “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” was written in the summer of 1931. The piece was released on February 2, 1932, on the Brunswick Record label. Ellington hired vocalist, Ivie Anderson, to sing the piece and appear on the Ellington record. A number of Ellington’s hits were sung by Ivie Anderson, but “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” broadened both of the artist's’ fame. This piece proved many of Ellington’s hidden talents. For instance, “this song lifted Ellington out of the category of simply ‘bandleader’ to composer” (). “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” is one of Duke Ellington’s best-known pieces.

     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

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) (Tirro 1993). 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.

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

He was born in Washington D.C but later on he moved to New York City.

Count Basie, was born August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. He was a gifted pianist, bandleader, and composer. His mother was a pianist and his father was a mellophonist. His mother, not realizing that he would become an amazing pianist and bandleader, started off his journey by giving him his first piano lessons. Later on, William and his family moved to New York, where he was further influenced by James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. In New York, Waller taught Basie organ playing techniques. Further on in his life Count Basie had many top chart hits such as “One O’Clock Jump” and “Blue Skies” In the 1858 Grammy’s became the first African-American male represent of a Grammy Award. Throughout his career, he won many more. Not only was he a great composer and musician, but he was a good person who influenced many people's lives. This essay will outline the life of Count Basie and all of his

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

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

Duke Ellington's pre-eminence in jazz is not only because of the very high aesthetic standard of his output and not simply due to his remarkable abilities as a pianist, composer and bandleader, but also to the fact that he has extended the boundaries of jazz more than any other musician, without abandoning the true essence of the music. Perhaps no other American musician left such a massive and challenging legacy in composition and performance.

The Cotton Club lost some of its freshness as performers played dazzling, yet emotionless jazz but Ellington brought his own style of music which interested the nation’s

what he became and did not let anything get in the way of becoming a musician. In this

Duke left the security that Washington offered him and moved to New York, in 1923. Through the power of radio, listeners through out New York had heard of Duke Ellington,

Duke Ellington is considered to be one of the most influential African-American composers of the twentieth century. He was a composer, bandleader, songwriter, and a musician.  Duke Ellington was born in Washington D.C on April 29, 1899 and died on May 24, 1974 in New York, New York. Often times,  Duke’s music was called “American Music” because it was for America, later his music was placed under the category of Jazz. After his death, Duke’s musical reputation was widely spread across America gaining more popularity.

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. The pioneer who scouted these new regions of musical space more than any other jazz musician of the time was Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974). (Tirro 1993)

“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.