Duke ellington mini biography princesses

A DUKE ELLINGTON INTRODUCTORY BIOGRAPHY

By Ian Bradley

Edward Kennedy (‘Duke’) Ellington was one of the most significant musicians of the 20th Century, an innovative stylist on the piano, composer and leader of his Famous Orchestra for fifty years until his death on 24 May, 1974.

Born on 29 April 1899 in Washington DC to Daisy Kennedy Ellington and James Edward Ellington, the young Edward acquired the sobriquet ‘Duke’ for his aristocratic bearing and demeanour from a school friend.

While Ellington grew up in what came to be known as the ‘jazz age’, Duke never cared for the word ‘jazz’ associating it with categories and Ellington held firmly to his belief in aspiring to be ‘beyond category.’ If the word ‘jazz’ meant anything, Ellington said, it meant freedom of expression and this principal along with his life-long religious convictions informed his philosophy and approach to both the life and the work.

As a young man, he forsook his job as a sign painter and study for a scholar