One of the jazz greats - lots of written critiques and glorious music on the internet - a particularly hard choice to take a small sample
Wikipedia
A major figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical .... Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional genres of music ...The Official website is comprehensive with all you would expect including details about the orchestra
At the age of seven, Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners and teach him to live elegantly. Ellington’s childhood friends noticed that "his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman", and began calling him Duke. Ellington credited his "chum" Edgar McEntree for the nickname. "I think he felt that in order for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. So he called me Duke."
2 comments:
Articles like this are important in keeping the mastery of Duke Ellington in the public eye. Duke Ellington is responsible for taking jazz from dance music to a high-art form with long-form pieces such as "Black, Brown, and Beige."
We are so fortunate to have access to all the greats via the Internet. A really good time in modern music as well I think.
Thanks for the contribution Gary.
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