Duke Ellington

Born: April 29, 1899

Died: May 24, 1974

Education: Armstrong Manual Training School, commercial art

Performance venues: Exclusive Club, Connie’s Inn, Hollywood Club, Ciro’s, Plantation Club, Cotton Club plus clubs world-wide

Collaborations with: Miles Davis, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Billy Strayhorn, The Mills Brothers, Billie Holliday, Bing Crosby, Mae West

Songs include: East St. Louis Toodle-Oo, Black & Tan Fantasy, Jubilee Stomp, Dreamy Blues/Mood Indigo, It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), Sophisticated Lady, In a Sentimental Mood, Diga Diga Doo, Prelude to a Kiss, Take the “A” Train, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Harlem, Satin Doll, Midnight Indigo

Major works include: Black, Brown, and Beige, Newport Jazz Festival Suite, A Drum Is a Woman, Royal Ancestry (Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald), Shakepearean Suite, Toot Suite, Jump for Joy, Anatomy of a Murder, The Ellington Suites, Nutcracker Suite, Paris Blues, The Far East Suite, The Sacred Concert, …And His Mother Called Him Bill, The River Suite, New Orleans Suite, Queenie Pie

Awards: 13 Grammy Awards, Keys to the City of Los Angeles, Honorary Doctorate Yale University, Honorary Doctorate Harvard University, elected member of Royal Music Academy of Stockholm, French Legion of Honor, President’s Gold Medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom

Memorials: Duke Ellington Memorial, Central Park; The Duke Ellington School for the Arts, Washington D.C.; The Duke Ellington Bridge, Washington D.C.; 1986 US postage stamp

Quote: “I like any and all of my associations with music — writing, playing and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and we agree, I am lucky.” — Duke Ellington