The man was born Edward Kennedy Ellington; but he exists in the eyes of American culture as the Duke. He received the nickname from a childhood friend who recognized his style and debonair. That style would carry him around the country and eventually the world as one of the music world’s most prolific composers.
His life began in Washington DC on April 29, 1899. Duke did not start up as a child prodigy; while he took piano lessons, he leaned more to sports in his formative years. His parents were strong role models who supported his interests and taught him how to be successful in life. As he grew up and made his way through high school, he developed artistic talent which would lead him to seek higher education in that field. He turned down and prestigious scholarship to Pratt Institute of Fine Art and stayed in Washington to attend Armstrong Manual Training School instead. It was during college that his interest in music took off. He was intrigued by Ragtime style pianists in Washington and would seek out Jazz piano players wherever he went. His earliest personal influence was a piano player named Harvey Brooks. Combined with his early teachers, Oliver “Doc” Perry and Louis Brown, Duke Ellington found the encouragement and skills necessary for him to go out and become successful. He left school to pursue music as a career and found some work in Washington with his first band – The Duke’s Serenaders. They played in Washington for six years before making an important move to New York in 1923 at the advice of Jazz great Fats Waller. In that year Ellington recorded his first record and changed the band’s name to The Washingtonians.
Radio was the big key to the foundation of Ellington’s success in New York. It was radio which had prepared New Yorkers for his sound and once his band made connections with the major New York clubs, it was radio which made their sound a national phenomenon. The most important of the clubs which Duke Ellington played for was the Cotton Club. The combination of the national radio broadcasts that aired from the Cotton Club and the addition of Irving Mills as the bands manager launched Ellington from running a great band to being a star. His fame gave him the ability to develop his band and add in the best musicians from around the country.
"Dizzy Gillespie – Jazz and Blues Masters ." american jazz musician . b 1917 . d 1993.
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C. His mother Daisy, surrounded Edward with her very polite friends which taught him to have respect and manners for people. After a while his friends started beginning to notice his politeness and his dapper style and gave him the nickname “duke.” When Ellington was seven years old he started taking piano lessons and found his love for music, although his love for baseball was more potent at the time. Ellington recalls President Roosevelt coming by on his horse at times and watching the boys play baseball. Ellington wound up getting his first job selling peanuts at baseball games. While working at the Soda Jerk in the Poodle Café in the summer of 1914, Ellington wrote his first composition and called the piece “Soda Fountain Rag”, he created it by ear because he had not yet learned how to write or read the music. Ellington recalls playing the “Soda Fountain Rag” as a one-step, two-step, waltz tango and fox trait, he said, “listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire.” In Ellington’s autobiography, Music is my Mistress (1973), Ellington wrote about missing more piano lessons than he had attended because he felt that at the time playing piano wasn’t his talent and that he wasn’t very good at it. At the age of fourteen Ellington started sneaking into Frank Holiday's Poolroom. After hearing the poolro...
Duke Ellington, named Edward Kennedy Ellington at birth, was born on April 29, 1899, in Washington D.C. to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. Both of Ellington’s parents were talented, musical individuals. Edward Kennedy was later nicknamed Duke by his childhood friend, Edgar McEntire and this name has stuck with him throughout his life and career. Duke Ellington was one of Jazz and Big Band’s most influential icons. He was known for famous recordings such as “Sophisticated Lady”, "Take the A Train," "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing," and "Satin Doll," Duke Ellington started taking piano lessons at age seven and became more serious about his piano lessons after hearing a pianist who worked at Frank Holiday’s poolroom. He was fourteen and had started sneaking into the poolroom. After listening to the poolroom’s pianist, something was ignited within and he fell in love with the piano. Ellington was known for his ability to choose members for his band who possessed very unusual talents while playing their instruments. These talents included Bubber Miley, who used a plunger to make the "wa-wa" sound, and Joe Nanton, who was known for his trombone "growl." It was for this quality to find such unusual players and his ingenious ability to compose beautiful music that lead to Ellington’s huge success. Duke Ellington composed over 1,000 compositions right up until the day he died, May 24, 1974. Although Ellington was known as a huge figure in Jazz, his music spanned beyond the Jazz genre; it stretched into blues, gospel, popular, classical and film scores. Through his efforts and achievements, he has made Jazz more accepted as an art form and genre. Ellington had received 12 Grammy awards from 1959 to 2000...
Edward Kennedy Ellington better known as Duke Ellington, since a very young age had an intellectual musical intuition. At the young age of seven he began to take piano lessons according to an article titled Duke Ellington’s Biography, “for a while it appeared that Duke, who selected his lifetime name early on was going to be a performer.” As an inventive adolescent according to
In act 3, Hamlet questions the unbearable pain of life and views death through the metaphor of sleep. "To be or not to be: that is the question: / whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles / and, by opposing end them. To die, to sleep / no more" (3.1.64-68), details which bring up new thoughts about what happens in the after life. Thus, Hamlet contemplates suicide, but his lacking knowledge about what awaits him in the afterworld causes him to question what death will bring. For example he states, "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / no traveler returns, puzzles the will / and makes us rather bear those ills we have / than fly to others that we know not of" (3.1.87-90), again revealing his growing concern with "Truth" and his need for certainty. Once again, death appears in act 4 with the suicide of Ophelia, the demand for Hamlet's execution and the gravedigger scene. All of these situations tie back with how death is all around Hamlet and feeds his obsession with it. Finally in act 5, Hamlet meets his own death, as his obsession to know leads to the death of himself.
Ellington did not like his music categorized and enjoyed freedom of expression when presenting his music. He believed composition, arrangement, and performance were
Edward Kennedy Ellington, American jazz composer, orchestrator, bandleader, and pianist, is considered to be the greatest composer in the history of jazz music and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. He composed over 2000 works and performed numerous concerts during his musical career. A compilation of some of his most popular music is collected on a CD called "The Popular Duke Ellington."
Duke Ellington was a popular jazz musician of the 1920s and beyond his music impacted how future musicians will play. He wrote 2000 to 3000 songs in his career and published over 200 albums. Ellington played the piano, alto and tenor saxophone along with being a bandleader. Duke Ellington became such a famous jazz player because his music was diverse, he toured the world with “The Washingtonians” and he won multiple awards that helped him spread his name across the globe.
During his lifetime, Ellington was able to sign his name to a Broadway musical, "Beggars Holiday", a ballet, "The River", and a full length movie score, Anatomy of a Murder. Some of his more interesting music came from the period when he wrote in a classical style. What makes his music so interesting is how it sounds so much like Beethoven yet, there is an underlying jazz feel to the music. This is something that is very unique to his writing. What is even more amazing is knowing that Duke basically taught harmony to himself and that his vast knowledge of arranging music came from experimenting with his band. Just as a chemist learns and creates in a lab, Ellington used his band to learn and create. Duke was no match for Father Time though. As death crept up on Duke Ellington, he began writing liturgical music. His most famous piece was, "In the Beginning God," which was written for orchestra chorus and soloist. Again he was still able to keep an underlying jazz
John William Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina, on September 23, 1926. Two months later, his family moved to High Point, North Carolina. He grew up in a typical black family in the South. The Coltranes were very religious and steeped in tradition. Playing was in his blood. Both of his parents were musicians, his mother was a member of the church choir and his father played the violin. For several years, young Coltrane played the clarinet, however it wasn‘t his passion. It was only after he heard the great alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges playing with the Duke Ellington band on the radio, that he became enthusiastic about music. He dropped the clarinet to take up the alto
Miles Davis was born May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He was raised in an upper-middle-class family, with his father, Miles Dewey Davis Jr., being a dentist, and his mother, Cleota Mae Davis a music teacher. He spent his childhood in St. Louis and was interested in music by age 12, when he started to take trumpet lessons. At 16, he took up opportunities to play music locally and a year later, Davis joined Eddie Randle’s group known as “The Blue Devils” (Macnie; “Miles Davis” Sony; Ruhlmann).
One of the most repetitive and controversial topics discussed in the criminal justice system, is the death penalty. Capital punishment has been a part of our nation’s history since the creation of our constitution. In fact, as of January 1st, 2016, 2,943 inmates were awaiting their fate on death row (Death Penalty Information Center). Throughout my life, I have always been a strong advocate for the death penalty. During the majority of my undergraduate degree, I was a fierce supporter of capital punishment when discussing the topic in classes. However, throughout many criminal justice courses, I found myself in the minority, regarding the abolishment of the death penalty. While debating this topic, I would always find myself sympathetic to the victims and their families, as one should be, wanting those who were responsible for heinous crimes to
Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...
Marijuana is the third most common leisure drug in the United States after alcohol and tobacco. Millions of Americans smoke marijuana despite the strict laws against its use. Marijuana is less dangerous compared to tobacco or alcohol. Smoking marijuana can cause breathing problems and coughing just like cigarettes and some people get addicted after using for a while. Regulating and legalizing marijuana will bring Americas greatest cash crop under law, create economic opportunities and jobs in the formal economy as opposed to the underground market. Adopting a legally controlled market for marijuana will ensure that consumers buy the products from a safe and legal source. Marijuana has been approved in some states for medical uses to ease the effects of different health challenges. Colorado and Washington legalized m...
Cannabis is a natural plant that has been made illegal by the United States, and has been a controversial topic ever since the 1920’s. Marijuana is a substance that has been used hundreds of years ago as an herbal medicine and also can be used for textile products from hemp, which is from the Cannabis Sativa plant. Because of marijuana being categorized as a schedule one substance, it has no medical value and cannot be researched in the United States. Marijuana is said to be a gateway drug and is very unhealthy for adolescents with premature brains. The marijuana prohibition should finally come to a close because there are many benefits from cannabis and it is less harmful than both alcohol and tobacco.