Duke Elington: Master of Jazz
Duke Eliington was a famous Jazz Musician who was very well known in Harlem and Harlem history. His professional career forever influenced Jazz and music and his music was enjoyed by millions of people from the US, Europe, Africa, the middle east, India, and all the way to Japan. Not only was he a prominent figure in jazz and music, being a pianist, but he was also a lyricist, conductor, composer, poet, philosopher, and civil rights activist.
Duke Ellington was born on April 26, 1899, in Washington D.C. Though he was more interested in playing baseball than practicing the piano, Duke Ellington fell in love with music. But Music wasn’t his only passion. He was also a skilled artist even winning a poster contest held by the NAACP. He eventually was offered a scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York but he rejected the offer and decided to pursue his music career and started performing live at 17. (Britannica, Current)
He started off his career when moving to Harlem in New York City in 1923. In the beginning, he started playing in various Broadway nightclubs, gathering up different musicians along the way to play with him, all with their own individual skills, talents, and style of music. In 1927 he gathered over ten new musicians to play with him and started playing in the famous Cotton Club. (Britannica) The true genius behind Duke Ellington’s music was his group of multiple musicians that each themselves were skilled and well known musicians, such as the trumpeter Cootie Williams and saxophonist Harry Carney. Because of this, every musician was able to include their own personal styles and Duke Elington heavily encouraged his members to do solos which in turn created a very unique style of jazz which was almost impossible to replicate. (Britannica, Current) Duke Elington and his band would go on to travel the world after the second world war to places such as South America, Asia, and South Africa, showing off their musical talents. He would also go on to make music with other famous and renowned musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Coleman Hawkins. (Britannica)
Writing about Duke Ellington was personally exciting. For the last couple of years I’ve had an interest in jazz. I love listening to the smooth sound of the music while relaxing or calmly going about my tasks and focusing on the separate instruments that are being played. Jazz puts me in a calm and happy mood, helps bring out my positive emotions, while I look around and realize how beautiful my life and the world around me really is. It helps me be more positive and grateful, even in stressful and tough times. I even noticed I listen to it more in the harsh New York winter because it helps make the awful weather a little better. I usually only look for songs I like rather than artists because I worry more about the quality of the sound rather than the fame behind a musician, so Duke Ellington was my first experience exploring a specific jazz artist. The two songs I enjoyed the most are “In a Sentimental Mood” and “Take the ‘A’ Train”. “In a Sentimental Mood” contains a very slow and calm saxophone and piano rhythm that’s soothing to my ears. It’s relaxing, soft, delicate, and romantic. The piano is beautifully played throughout the song however the saxophone dominates, quickly going up and down scales while also playing long smooth notes. This song really impressed me and I quickly added it to my playlist. “Take the ‘A’ Train” was a little different. At first it seems to be just a happy and quick piano song but, unexpectedly, Duke Ellington’s whole orchestra blows up in an explosion playing a beautiful melody that’s lively. It continues throughout the rest of the song turning it from a simple piano tune to an incredibly colorful song that enriches your ears and wakes you up.
Duke Ellington will forever be remembered as one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time and his music is widely available to prove that. No other musician that I’ve listened to has come anywhere near to what Ellington has created and I encourage all people that cherish music to give him and his orchestra a chance.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Duke Ellington”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Feb. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Duke-Ellington. Accessed 3 March 2024.
Current, Gloster B. “Duke Ellington.” The Black Perspective in Music, vol. 2, no. 2, 1974, pp. 173–78. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1214233. Accessed 12 Mar. 2024.
