Here is a profile of Duke Ellington (1899 – 1974) as it appeared in a popular American picture magazine during the early Forties:
“The top man in Negro music climbed on the bandwagon when he and his band played a hot spot called the Kentucky Club. That was twenty years ago, in New York City’s Harlem. This year, Duke Ellington made another debut, at Carnegie Hall, goal of the great in music…Piano lessons bored Ellington when he was six years old. He never learned to play conventionally, but he was only a youngster when his flare for improvisation reaped attention and landed him a job in a Washington theater…one by one, his compositions hit the jackpot: ‘Mood Indigo’, ‘Sophisticated Lady’, ‘Ebony Rhapsody’, ‘Solitude’, ‘Caravan'”.
“Ellington calls his work Negro Music, avoids the terms ‘jazz’ or ‘swing'”.
Duke Ellington enjoyed a diverse taste in music, find out which musicians he listened to….
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