FinishMySong Blog

Seemingly disinterested by early piano lessons in childhood, Duke became one of America’s most celebrated musicians, partly as a result of being inspired by watching Harvey Brooks play whilst on vacation. A pianist, singer and composer, Duke wrote and performed numerous songs that are so well known that they have become standards for jazz vocalists. Among this repertoire are It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), Sophisticated Lady, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, and In a Sentimental Mood, to name just a few of Ellington’s better known tunes. In fact, many of his songs have continued to be popular due to the outings by other performers : Billie Holiday made a very memorable recording of Solitude, for example.

Ellington’s band seemed to be a breeding ground for a whole generation of jazz musicians, having nurtured the careers of many who were later to become famous in their own right, among these Benny Goodman. And music doesn’t seem to have been the only reason for the success of Ellington’s band. The man himself had remarkable charm, wit and charisma, always insisting on the avoidance of categorising anything, from his music to his view of the world. Duke did not like his work to be described as jazz but rather more simply as ‘music’ and felt the same way about the rhetoric surrounding the race issues in America at the time :

“I don’t believe in categories of any kind, and when you speak of problems between blacks and whites in the U.S.A. you are referring to categories again.�

Duke Ellington died on 24^th May 1974 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York’s Bronx. A sculpture of Duke can also be found in New York, in Central Park near 5^th Avenue & 110^th Street, by Duke Ellington Circle.

The Duke Ellington official website is certainly worth a browse as it contains lots of information about the many facets of this great figure : www.dukeellington.com