The Making of a Maestro: Duke Ellington's Education and Musical Journey
Duke Ellington, an originator of big-band jazz, led his band for more than half a century and composed thousands of scores. He created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in all of Western music. His journey to becoming one of the greatest American composers is a story of early influences, formal and informal education, and relentless dedication to his craft.
Early Life and Influences in Washington, D.C.
Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C., during a challenging period for African Americans. Despite the pervasive segregation, Ellington grew up in a secure middle-class family that instilled in him a strong sense of racial pride and supported his artistic interests. His family had strong roots in Washington. His mother, Daisy Kennedy Ellington, was born in D.C. and came from a secure middle-class family. His father, James Edward Ellington, worked as a butler for a prominent Washington doctor and sometimes served at the White House, also running his own catering business. This environment nurtured Ellington's early development and exposed him to the values of elegance, dynamism, and cultural richness.
Both of Ellington's parents were pianists. Daisy primarily played parlor songs, and James preferred operatic arias. At the age of seven, Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales, but he confessed in his autobiography, Music Is My Mistress, that he did not take to the piano in childhood. He apparently wanted to play baseball. Subsequently, his first job was as a peanut vendor at Washington Senators' games. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners and teach him elegance. His childhood friends noticed that his casual, offhand manner and dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman, so they began calling him "Duke". Ellington credited his friend Edgar McEntee for the nickname: "I think he felt that in order for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. Though Ellington took piano lessons, he was more interested in baseball.
Formal Education and Artistic Exploration
Ellington's formal education played a crucial role in shaping his artistic sensibilities. He attended Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, D.C. During his high-school years, he became engrossed in studying art, and he was awarded, but did not accept, a scholarship to the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. This early interest in visual arts likely contributed to his later ability to "paint tonal pictures" with his ensemble.
Immersion in the Ragtime Scene
Ellington's passion for music ignited during his teenage years when he became captivated by the popular ragtime music scene. He started sneaking into Frank Holiday's Poolroom at the age of fourteen. Hearing the music of the poolroom pianists ignited Ellington's love for the instrument, and he began to take his piano studies seriously. He began frequenting pool halls and dance parties, absorbing the sounds and rhythms of ragtime. He would play the 'Soda Fountain Rag' as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango, and fox trot. Listeners never knew it was the same piece. This immersion in the vibrant ragtime culture of Washington, D.C., fueled his desire to play and create music. He started to play gigs in cafés and clubs in and around Washington, D.C.
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Mentorship and Guidance
Ellington sought guidance from several musicians in Washington. Much of Ellington's musical education came from outside the classroom. Washington to whom Ellington went for direction. music. in clubs and cafes in black Washington. Armstrong High beginning his career as a professional musician. One of the pianists Duke Ellington approached during his high school years was Doc Perry, one of the most popular black bandleaders in town when Ellington was growing up. Conservatory trained, Perry showed versatility as a piano player and his refined personal style put him in demand as a performer at fancy functions. He took an interest in the young Duke Ellington, and began sharing his knowledge with him. Henry Lee Grant, a Dunbar High School music teacher, gave him private lessons in harmony. With the additional guidance of Washington pianist and band leader Oliver "Doc" Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, project a professional style, and improve his technique. These mentors helped him develop his musical skills and refine his professional style.
Early Professional Career
Inspired by ragtime performers, he began to perform professionally at age 17. Working as a freelance sign painter from 1917, Ellington began assembling groups to play for dances. In 1919, he met drummer Sonny Greer from New Jersey, who encouraged Ellington's ambition to become a professional musician. Ellington built his music business through his day job. When a customer asked him to make a sign for a dance or party, he would ask if they had musical entertainment; if not, Ellington would offer to play for the occasion. Ellington moved out of his parents' home and bought his own as he became a successful pianist. At first, he played in other ensembles, and in late 1917 formed his first group, "The Duke's Serenaders" ("Colored Syncopators", his telephone directory advertising proclaimed). He was also the group's booking agent. Ellington played throughout the D.C. area and into Virginia for private society balls and embassy parties. The band included childhood friend Otto Hardwick, who began playing the string bass, then moved to C-melody sax and finally settled on alto saxophone; Arthur Whetsel on trumpet; Elmer Snowden on banjo; and Sonny Greer on drums.
Move to New York City and the Harlem Renaissance
When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilbur Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington left his successful career in D.C. and moved to Harlem, ultimately becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance. New dance crazes such as the Charleston emerged in Harlem, as well as African-American musical theater, including Eubie Blake's and Noble Sissle's (the latter of whom was his neighbor) Shuffle Along. After the young musicians left the Sweatman Orchestra to strike out on their own, they found an emerging jazz scene that was highly competitive with difficult inroad. They hustled pool by day and played whatever gigs they could find. The young band met stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, who introduced them to the scene and gave them some money. They played at rent-house parties for income. In June 1923, they played a gig in Atlantic City, New Jersey and another at the prestigious Exclusive Club in Harlem. This was followed in September 1923 by a move to the Hollywood Club (at 49th and Broadway) and a four-year engagement, which gave Ellington a solid artistic base. He was known to play the bugle at the end of each performance. The group was initially called Elmer Snowden and his Black Sox Orchestra and had seven members, including trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley. They renamed themselves The Washingtonians. Snowden left the group in early 1924, and Ellington took over as bandleader. Ellington then made eight records in 1924, receiving composing credit on three including "Choo Choo". In 1925, Ellington contributed four songs to Chocolate Kiddies starring Lottie Gee and Adelaide Hall, an all-African-American revue which introduced European audiences to African-American styles and performers. Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra grew to a group of ten players; they developed their own sound via the non-traditional expression of Ellington's arrangements, the street rhythms of Harlem, and the exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, high-squealing trumpets, and saxophone blues licks of the band members. For a short time, soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet played with them, reportedly becoming the dominant personality in the group, with Sonny Greer saying Bechet "fitted out the band like a glove". His presence resulted in friction with Miley and trombonist Charlie Irvis, whose styles differed from Bechet's New Orleans-influenced playing.
The Cotton Club and National Recognition
In September 1927, King Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group as the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club; the offer passed to Ellington after Jimmy McHugh suggested him and Mills arranged an audition. Ellington had to increase from a six to 11-piece group to meet the requirements of the Cotton Club's management for the audition, and the engagement finally began on December 4. With a weekly radio broadcast, the Cotton Club's exclusively white and wealthy clientele poured in nightly to see them. At the Cotton Club, Ellington's group performed all the music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers, vaudeville, burlesque, music, and illicit alcohol. The musical numbers were composed by Jimmy McHugh and the lyrics were written by Dorothy Fields (later Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler), with some Ellington originals mixed in. (Here, he moved in with a dancer, his second wife Mildred Dixon). Weekly radio broadcasts from the club gave Ellington national exposure. Adelaide Hall recorded "Creole Love Call" with Ellington in 1927. Although trumpeter Bubber Miley was a member of the orchestra for only a short period, he had a major influence on Ellington's sound. As an early exponent of growl trumpet, Miley changed the sweet dance band sound of the group to one that was hotter, which contemporaries termed Jungle Style, which can be seen in his feature chorus in East St. Louis Toodle-Oo (1926). In October 1927, Ellington and his Orchestra recorded several compositions with Adelaide Hall. One side in particular, "Creole Love Call", became a worldwide sensation and gave both Ellington and Hall their first hit record. Miley had composed most of "Creole Love Call" and "Black and Tan Fantasy". An alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider fame. In 1929, the Cotton Club Orchestra appeared on stage for several months in Florenz Ziegfeld's Show Girl, along with vaudeville stars Jimmy Durante, Eddie Foy, Jr., Ruby Keeler, and with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Gus Kahn. Will Vodery, Ziegfeld's musical supervisor, recommended Ellington for the show. According to John Edward Hasse's Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, "Perhaps during the run of Show Girl, Ellington received what he later termed "valuable lessons in orchestration from Will Vody". From Vodery, as he (Ellington) says himself, he drew his chromatic convictions, his uses of the tones ordinarily extraneous to the diatonic scale, with the consequent alteration of the harmonic character of his music, it's broadening, The deepening of his resources. It has become customary to ascribe the classical influences upon Duke-Delius, Debussy, and Ravel-to direct contact with their music.
Musical Style and Innovations
Ellington's unique musical style was characterized by singular blues-based melodies, the harsh, vocalized sounds of his trumpeters (such as Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams), and the distinctive sonorities of trombonists like Joe ("Tricky Sam") Nanton. He illuminated subtle moods with ingenious combinations of instruments; among the most famous examples is “Mood Indigo” in his 1930 setting for muted trumpet, unmuted trombone, and low-register clarinet. His expertise allowed Ellington to break away from the conventions of band-section scoring. Instead, he used new harmonies to blend his musicians’ individual sounds and emphasized congruent sections and a supple ensemble that featured Carney’s full bass-clef sound. Ellington's early "jungle style," as seen in such masterpieces as "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo," further solidified his reputation as an innovative composer and bandleader.
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Extended Works and Soloist Showcases
In 1931 Ellington began to create extended works, including such pieces as Creole Rhapsody, Reminiscing in Tempo, and Diminuendo in Blue/Crescendo in Blue. He composed a series of works to highlight the special talents of his soloists. Williams, for example, demonstrated his versatility in Ellington’s noted miniature concertos “Echoes of Harlem” and “Concerto for Cootie”. Some of Ellington’s numbers-notably “Caravan” and “Perdido” by trombonist Juan Tizol-were cowritten or entirely composed by sidemen. Few of Ellington’s soloists, despite their importance to jazz history, played as effectively in other contexts; no one else, it seemed, could match the inspiration that Ellington provided with his sensitive, masterful settings.
Masterworks and Popular Songs of the 1930s and ’40s
A high point in Ellington’s career came in the early 1940s, when he composed several masterworks-including the above-mentioned “Concerto for Cootie,” his fast-tempo showpieces “Cotton Tail” and “Ko-Ko,” and the uniquely structured, compressed panoramas “Main Stem” and “Harlem Air Shaft”-in which successions of soloists are accompanied by diverse ensemble colours. The variety and ingenuity of these works, all conceived for three-minute, 78-rpm records, are extraordinary, as are their unique forms, which range from logically flowing expositions to juxtapositions of line and mood. Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and bassist Jimmy Blanton, both major jazz artists, were with this classic Ellington band. By then, too, Billy Strayhorn, composer of what would become the band’s theme song, “Take the ‘A’ Train,” had become Ellington’s composing-arranging partner. Not limiting himself to jazz innovation, Ellington also wrote such great popular songs as “Sophisticated Lady,” “Rocks in My Bed,” and “Satin Doll;” in other songs, such as “Don’t Get Around Much Any More,” “Prelude to a Kiss,” “Solitude,” and “I Let a Song Go out of My Heart,” he made wide interval leaps an Ellington trademark.
Classical Forms and Suites
During these years Ellington became intrigued with the possibilities of composing jazz within classical forms. His musical suite Black, Brown and Beige (1943), a portrayal of African-American history, was the first in a series of suites he composed, usually consisting of pieces linked by subject matter. It was followed by, among others, Liberian Suite (1947); A Drum Is a Woman (1956), created for a television production; Such Sweet Thunder (1957), impressions of William Shakespeare’s scenes and characters; a recomposed, reorchestrated version of Nutcracker Suite (1960; after Peter Tchaikovsky); Far East Suite (1964); and Togo Brava Suite (1971). Ellington’s symphonic A Rhapsody of Negro Life was the basis for the film short Symphony in Black (1935), which also features the voice of Billie Holiday (uncredited). Ellington wrote motion-picture scores for The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and composed for the ballet and theatre-including, at the height of the American civil rights movement, the show My People (1964), a celebration of African American life. In his last decade he composed three pieces of sacred music: In the Beginning God (1965), Second Sacred Concert (1968), and Third Sacred Concert (1973).
Collaboration with Billy Strayhorn
During 1939-67 Strayhorn collaborated so closely with Ellington that jazz scholars may never determine how much the gifted deputy influenced or even composed works attributed to Ellington.
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