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Born April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C., pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington is one of the most important figures in jazz history. In this biography, jazz historian and award-winning author Scott Yanow takes an in-depth look at the life and career of the iconic figure.

Duke Ellington’s musical accomplishments and innovations are so numerous that they can be difficult to comprehend much less fully list. They fall into four areas: bandleader, composer, arranger, and pianist.

Ellington led his orchestra non-stop for 50 years (1924-74). One can pick out any year from that period, whether it is 1927, 1947 or 1967, and his big band ranks with the top five in the world.

As a composer, he wrote thousands of pieces, ranging from three-minute classics to hour-long suites. Scores of his originals became jazz standards, and he ranked with the other masters of the Great American Songbook such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. But unlike those composers, Ellington wrote his works not by sitting at home by a piano but while traveling on the road with his orchest

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Duke Ellington

(1899-1974)

Who Was Duke Ellington?

A major figure in the history of jazz music, Duke Ellington's career spanned more than half a century, during which time he composed thousands of songs for the stage, screen and contemporary songbook. He created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in Western music and continued to play what he called "American Music" until shortly before his death in 1974.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington
BORN: April 29, 1899
BIRTHPLACE: Washington D.C.
DEATH: May 24, 1974 (age 75)
SPOUSE: Edna Thompson (m. 1918-1967)
CHILDREN: Mercer Ellington
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

Early Life

Born on April 29, 1899, Ellington was raised by two talented, musical parents in a middle-class neighborhood of Washington, D.C. At the age of seven, he began studying piano and earned the nickname "Duke" for his gentlemanly ways. Inspired by his job as a soda jerk, he wrote his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag," at the age of 15. Despite being awarded an art scholarship to the Pratt In

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Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington was one of the most important creative forces in the music of the twentieth century. His influence on classical music, popular music, and, of course, jazz, simply cannot be overstated.

He was born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, D.C. on April 29, 1899, into a middle class black family. His father was a butler in a wealthy household, and he is said to have sometimes worked at White House affairs. Ellington originally had ambitions of becoming a painter, but he became interested in music in his early teens and learned James P. Johnson's "Carolina Shout" from a piano roll. Soon he was part of a small jazz band in Washington.

In 1923 he moved to New York and early in 1924 he became the leader of his band. Soon he was recording, and in 1927 Ellington's band was hired to play regularly at the Cotton Club, where he stayed for five years. Cotton Club performances were broadcast almost nightly, and by 1930 Ellington and his band were famous. And even as early as this, Ellington was beginning to be recognized as an important serious compose