I would like to do my project about Duke Ellington. He appeals to me because, he is  one of the founders of big-band jazz.

     Im like Duke Ellington because i like to play music. Two facts about the person are he did not accept a scholarship to pratt in institute becuse he wanted to perform professionally at age 17. Iwould want to leam about who played in his band. I want to hear his music. 

                                     Duke Ellington

            Duke Ellington was a famous American.  He was famous for jazz.  He was also a famous band leader, piano player and composer.

 In 1899, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born in Washington, D.C.  His father was a butler for a wealthy doctor and had also been a butler at the White House when Teddy Roosevelt was president.   “Duke” learned good manners and good grammar and polished speech from his father.  His mother was very encouraging.  She taught him to be a good person by taking him to two churches every Sunday.  “Duke” was an only child until he was sixteen, when his sister Ruth was born.  He was very protective of his sister.

 As a child “Duke” liked baseball.  He even sold refreshments at Washington Senators’ baseball games.   At age 7 he took piano lessons. He didn’t like practicing and stopped taking lessons.  Later, in his teen years, he became more interested in the piano when he heard the great piano player, Harvey Brooks play.  In High School he developed a new love for the piano and wrote and preformed his first song.  He also loved art, but gave up a scholarship to the Pratt Art Institute to make music his career.  When duke was growing up in Washington D.C., the capital had the largest black community in the U.S.   Washington D.C.  was known for its Black schools, newspapers, theaters, theater groups, and cultural societies.   Duke’s teachers taught him to take pride in the achievements of African Americans and his parents’ lovingly protected him from the pain of racism.

            In 1917, “Duke” formed a band called the Washingtonians.   He married his childhood friend Edna in 1919.   They had one child, a son, named Mercer.  In 1920, “Duke” and his band moved to New York City.  The part of New York City called Harlem was famous for its many creative and talented African Americans who lived there.  In 192, the Washingtonians changed their name to the “Duke” Ellington Orchestra.  A friend had given this nickname to “Duke” because of his gentlemanly and elegant ways.  “Duke” played with great musicians such as Buber Miley, Paul Gonzales, Sonny Greer and Louis Armstrong.  Often, his band travelled in their own private train cars, because at that time, many people were prejudiced against African-Americans.  Sometimes the band had hard times getting hotel rooms or service in a restaurant.  However, his band played in many exclusive clubs including the “Cotton Club”.

His love for art is shown in his music.   Many of his pieces of music are named after colors, like “Mood Indigo”, “Black and Tan fantasy” and “Magenta Haze”.  He also got ideas for songs by listening to train sounds.  In 1943, the “Duke” Ellington Band played at Carnegie Hall in New York City.  “Duke” was the first African-American to conduct a jazz concert in Carnegie Hall.  In 1956, at the Newport, Rhode Island Jazz Festival, the “Duke” Ellington band played.  Saxophonist, Paul Gonzales played one of the greatest solos in jazz history.  In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Ellington composed the score for the films, Anatomy of a Murder, and Assault on a Queen.  His music for Paris Blues was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1969, he played at New York City’s Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room.   During the cold war, his band played in the Soviet Union.  Fans all over the world loved him.

Duke Ellington was a great influence for many people.  He is particularly famous for his unique style of jazz.   He would take pieces of many musical styles and blend them together.  Jazz often has loud brass-band sounds.  It is also known for its exciting rhythm, powerful feelings and comes from ragtime and blues.  “Duke” Ellington showed that jazz was not just popular dance music, but that jazz could be as beautiful and important as classical music.  His music was different because he surrounded himself with the best musicians he could find.    He gave his players a chance to do their own special thing.  He mixed different instrumental sounds, as if mixing colors of paint.  His music often told a story.  His composition, “Harlem Airshaft,” was about the exciting daily activities he saw and heard in a Harlem apartment building.  In Washington D.C. a school of the Arts is named after him.  Graduates from this school, have gone on to colleges and various careers in television, film and recording music.  In 1986, congress appropriated money to acquire, preserve and present to the public, what became known as the Ellington Collection.  In 1988, that collection went to the Smithsonian Institution. Ellington was the recipient of numerous Grammy Awards throughout his career, and in 1959 he was awarded the Springarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  The city of New York gave him a prize, and Yale University awarded him a doctor of music degree in 1967.  Morgan State University and Washington Universities also gave him honorary degrees that year. In 1970 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.   On his seventieth birthday, Ellington was honored by President Richard Nixon at a White House ceremony and was given the Medal of Freedom.  He died, from lung cancer on May 24, 1974, in New York City.         

I would like to do my project about Duke Ellington. He appeals to me because; he is one of the founders of big-band jazz.

     I’m like Duke Ellington because I like to play music. I like to do my project on duke on Duke Ellington. He appeals to me because one of the founders of big-band jazz.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mlke, Venzia.Duke Ellington. Chicago: Children’s press, 1995.

Pinney, Andrea, Davis. Duke Ellington.New York: Hyperion, 1998.

Edward Kennedy Ellington. Encyclopedia of world Biography. 2004, Gale. 4/28/2009. http://go.galegroup.wm.

Listen to AN INTERVIEW WITH DUKE ELLINGTON