Duke Ellington: His Life in Jazz with 21 Activities
NOTE TO READERS DURING DUKE ELLINGTON's first years as a young profes sional musician in Washington D C and then in New York City he was sometimes a member of other people's bands and also a bandleader himself In those early years of Duke's career his band went by several names and was also given different names by club owners and reviewers Some of those names include The Duke and His Serenaders The Serenaders The Duke and His Kentucky Club Serenaders The Washingtonians Duke Ellington and His Cotton Club Orchestra and Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra The band also occasionally used pseudonyms to get around recording contracts Don't let all the changing names confuse you From the early 1930s on the band was almost always known as Duke Ellington and His
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS MY SINCERE GRATITUDE goes to my editor and publisher Cynthia Sherry whose insight and creativity helped shape this book Also very special thanks to my agent Susan Ramer developmental editor Lisa Rear don designer Monica Baziuk and the production staff at Chicago Review Press for helping see this project through to completion I would like to espe cially thank Karen Oberlin Hajdu and Robert Crease for their encouraging comments as the manuscript progressed I would also like to specially acknowl edge James Herschorn archivist at the Institute of Jazz Studies Rutgers University for his assistance with compiling most of the photos and artwork for this book For additional photos and memorabilia very special thanks to David Hajdu Morris Hodara Corresponding Secretary of the Duke Ellington Soci ety TDES and Che Williams photo archivist SONY BMG Lastly I would like to thank my son Alexander Crease whose joyful activities are an inspiration as are those of India Schneider Crease my husband Robert P Crease and my jazzy dog
INTRODUCTION XPLORING DUKE ELLINGTON's life 1899 1974 offers us a many paned window to view the person the artist and his times and culture Ellington's long career ran along its own track through a changing country and a changing world His vast musical accomplishments include composing over 2 000 works developing a unique style as a pianist and maintaining one of the world's greatest jazz orches tras for over 50 years His compositions molded a rich musical narrative from the sounds colors and textures of African American life sometimes they took the form of pop songs sometimes long orches tral works Although his music always fell under the banner of jazz Duke Ellington resisted musical cate gorizations of any kind He once used the words be yond category as the highest compliment he could pay to another musician and those words apply to him and his work too He was always reaching for something new and different in music Today Duke Ellington's music keeps being discov ered by people of all ages everywhere There are courses in music schools and conservatories devoted to his compositions and annual international confer
