His infamous name the "Duke" was born is his childhood, when his friends noticed that Ellington had a "casual, offhand manner and dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman", or a duke. This ultimately stuck with him for the rest of his life, as it became a staple of his different yet skillful talent. He started his illustrious career making a name for himself as a piano player, playing in other people's ensembles. He later formed his band named "The Duke's Serenaders", compiled of childhood friends and talent musicians he had met during his freelance. After a couple of successful years of travel around D.C., he left and moved to Harlem, to join what is now known today as the Harlem Renaissance. He quickly made his name there, working day and night in clubs, and playing gigs wherever he could. He then formed the group he is known for, "The Washingtonians" as his group was hired by Harlem's famous Cotton Club to regular play there, as he stayed there for five years. They performed every night, where they were broadcasted on TV. By 1930, Ellington and his group were famous, as it became a major turning point in his career.
In 1931, he left the Cotton Club and began a series of extended tours that would continue till the end of his career. He was invited to the White later in 1931 and made its first European tour in 1933 that cemented his musicality around the world. His philosophy on how a band was built was what made his stand out. He believed that a band was not just made up of instruments that were made to make sound, but rather individuals. That the dissonant voices that the band creates are stronger than creating a unified voice, like most composers at the time. He focused mainly on his talented soloists. He had a strong sense of musical drama, where blends of melodies, rhythms, and subtle sonic movements gave the audience a new experience, which can be seen in all of his songs. He received 12 Grammys over 40 years, sadly only seeing 9 of them when he was alive.
At the age of 75, Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia, leaving his loving wife Edna Thompson who he met in high school and married at the age of 19, and his son, Mercer Kennedy Ellington. His final words were, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered", as he was surrounded by over 12,000 admirers at his funeral. He was inducted in the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1978, and has been and will be known as one of the pivotal figures in the history of jazz.
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I really like how thorough you were in presenting the details of his life, from his beginning years to the height of his career. I also found the impacts that he had on music and the public as a whole very interesting. It's also worth noting that he was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame along with winning numerous awards.
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https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/duke-ellington
I think that it's also important to recognize the contributions of Billy Strayhorn to Ellington's music. Many of Ellington's works can actually be attributed to Strayhorn, including some of his more famous works such as "Take the A Train", which Strayhorn composed on his own. Overall, the contributions of both these men to the advancement of music is very fascinating.
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Another important reason that Ellington was such an influential and successful musician is that he always had a keen sense of the public's taste in jazz. Jazz during the time was constantly changing, and bands that played the same style for more than ten years were almost guaranteed to become obsolete. Ellington, however, kept up with every alteration of the public's taste in jazz, and was able to "transcend the different eras" of jazz with his "fresh" music.
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https://www.biography.com/news/duke-ellington-facts-duke-ellington-day
This is a really interesting topic because of how someone who is given a disadvantage in society at the time is able to become such an influential figure. It is also important to consider how technology contributed to the spread of Ellington's music. For example, up until around the 1940s where the LP came into existence, music could only be listened to 78 rpm records that only contained a maximum of five minutes of audio and often had to be turned several times to play more music. Duke Ellington was one of the first musicians to release music that required the use of several sides of a 78, but it still required multiple records to listen to his suites. However, his music had to be greatly condensed in order to accommodate to consumers who were unwilling to pay for multiple records that only played one suite.
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