Duke Ellington

 

When writing the report about the Harlem Renaissance we were absolutely sure that we would like to do something with the music segment. One artist who stuck out among the pack was a man named Duke Ellington. The Duke was a great musician who wrote as much music as he could. Thousands of pieces are listed on the internet.

Duke Ellington above all other things hated the word Jazz. Duke thought that one style of music could not be classified by one word. Ellington has one of the most extensive jazz pieces ever written. With complexity and many other dizzying effects that Duke tried to make instruments sound like peoples voices. He succeeded with such ferocity that it caught on faster that the bubonic plague on a September evening in Florida.

 

"Duke Ellington's pre-eminence in jazz is not only because of the very high aesthetic standard of his output, not simply due to his remarkable abilities as a pianist, composer and bandleader, but also to the fact that he has extended the boundaries of jazz more than any other musician, without abandoning the true essence of the music." - from G.E. Lambert's book Duke Ellington.

 Duke Ellington had an amazing mind which created the whole image of instruments sounding like a person's voice. On top of that Ellington was one of the true musicians of his time. Ellington was one of the most dynamic artists with all he needed were his hands and his manuscript paper. The musicians which played with Ellington in his studio. Ellington was a prime African-American recording artist of the nineteen thirties and forties. Ellington was the only Negro musician on the Victor's label.

Ellington's fame reached all the way to the depth's of TIME's cover in the time of the Harlem Renaissance which was something that was pretty much unprecedented.

 

Ellington with his musicians were some of the prime musicians of their time. Many long hours were spent listening to Duke Ellington when he revolutionized the whole composing scene at the time. Duke Ellington, you were a renaissance man. Harlem Renaissance that is.


Links

Edward Kennedy Ellington Pages
The Duke Ellington Appreciation society
Duke Ellington (Dusty Reagan)

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