When was duke ellington born and died

Today his recordings remain among the most popular jazz of the big-band era. Born in Washington D. His mother, who also played the piano, oversaw his education, and by the time he was seventeen he began playing professionally.

Making his name as a piano player in Washington, Ellington started to compose his own music. In he moved to New York, and the following year formed his own band, the Washingtonians. In Ellington left the Cotton Club and began a series of extended tours that would continue for the rest of his life. 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. 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. His last words were, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered.

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When she was born, the press called her the 'million dollar baby. In he went to New York City and soon became a successful bandleader. In he secured an important engagement at the Cotton Club in Harlem, a section of New York City, and remained there aside from occasional tours until Ellington's band made its first European trip in One peak period for the band was from to , when many critics considered its performances superior to any other jazz ensemble group.

Duke Ellington. As a composer Ellington was responsible for numerous works that achieved popular success, some written with his band members and with his co-arranger Billy Strayhorn. The Duke's most significant music was written specifically for his own band and soloists. Always sensitive to the nuances small variations of tone of his soloists single performers , Ellington wrote features for individual sidemen and used his knowledge of their characteristic sounds when composing other works.

His arrangements achieved a remarkable blend of individual and ensemble contributions. However, because most of his works were written for his own band, interpretations by others have rarely been satisfactory.