Johnson, and the Birth of Concert Jazz and many of the essays collected in Mark Tucker’s seminal The Duke Ellington Reader, emphasize the composer’s lifelong commitment to the creation of a “negro music” in quasi- (or explicitly) symphonic forms, and his efforts to present these extended works in Carnegie Hall and other iconic venues for European concert music. Do efforts to differentiate the compositional vision Ellington pioneered within jazz from classical concert music represent a surrender to the racist white hegemony that has kept black music in the artistic and financial ghetto of “popular” music? Or do claims of commensurability between jazz and classical spheres pander to white conceptions of cultural legitimacy at the expense of the jazz tradition and Ellington’s own individual artistry? Some latter-day writings on Ellington, such as John Howland’s Ellington Uptown: Duke Ellington, James P. They even form the basis for a central tension within jazz criticism.
Such proclamations by Lambert and his European peers were pounced on by American journalists, who responded with headlines like “Harpsichords and Jazz Trumpets” and “‘Hot Damn!’ Says Ellington When Ranked with Bach.” Ellington’s media image was reborn.Ĭomparisons between the black jazz giant and white European classical composers have been a touchy issue ever since. The following year, British music critic Constant Lambert proclaimed that Ellington was “skillful as compared with other jazz composers,” but that his music could stand alongside that of the European masters: “I know of nothing in Ravel so dexterous nothing in Stravinsky more dynamic.” The names of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Paul Hindemith, and César Franck were dropped in as well.
IN 1933, HAVING BUILT a national reputation as the composer-bandleader toiling nightly for white audiences at the Cotton Club, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington and his “jungle” orchestra embarked on their first European tour. Among his best-known songs are "Sophisticated Lady" (1933, lyric by Mitchell Parish), "In A Sentimental Mood" (1935, lyric by Manny Kurtz, with artistically meaningless co-credit given in this, as in many other songs, to publisher Irving Mills), "Prelude To A Kiss" (1938, lyric by Irving Gordon), "I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart" (1938, lyric by Henry Nemo), "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)" (1941, lyric by Paul Francis Webster), "Don't Get Around Much Any More" (1942, lyric by Bob Russell), "Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me" (1943, lyric by Bob Russell), "I Didn't Know About You" (1944, lyric by Bob Russell), and "Satin Doll" (1958, written with Billy Strayhorn, lyric by Johnny Mercer).ĭuke Ellington died in New York on May 24, 1974.This article originally appeared on the L.A. Nevertheless, many of them remain remarkable as songs. Nevertheless, Ellington continued to keep the band together through all the years that followed, subsidizing the band from his royalties as a composer.Įllington was primarily an instrumental composer, and most of his songs were originally written as instrumental pieces, with words tacked on at a later date. In the years that followed, Ellington continued to grow musically, and the quality of his band continued to improve, reaching what many consider to be a peak from 1939 through the early 1940s.Īfter the end of World War II, big bands went out of fashion, and, like other bands, Ellington's band suffered financially. In 1931, he was invited to visit the White House, and in 1933 his band made its first European tour, a huge triumph. And even as early as this, Ellington was beginning to be recognized as an important serious composer. Cotton Club performances were broadcast almost nightly, and by 1930 Ellington and his band were famous. Soon he was recording, and in 1927 Ellington's band was hired to play regularly at the Cotton Club, where he stayed for five years. In 1923 he moved to New York and early in 1924 he became the leader of his band. Soon he was part of a small jazz band in Washington. Johnson's "Carolina Shout" from a piano roll. Ellington originally had ambitions of becoming a painter, but he became interested in music in his early teens and learned James P. His father was a butler in a wealthy household, and he is said to have sometimes worked at White House affairs. on April 29, 1899, into a middle class black family. He was born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, D.C.
His influence on classical music, popular music, and, of course, jazz, simply cannot be overstated. Duke Ellington was one of the most important creative forces in the music of the twentieth century.
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