Edward Kennedy Ellington :: essays research papers

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 unpolished and eventually the world as one of the music worlds most prolific composers. His life began in Washington DC on April 29, 1899. Duke did not start up as a child prophecy while he took soft lessons, he leaned more to sports in his pliant grades. His parents were strong role models who supported his interests and taught him how to be successful in life. As he grew up and do his way through high school, he developed artistic talent which would lead him to seek higher study in that field. He turned down and prestigious scholarship to Pratt fetch of Fine Art and stayed in Washington to attend Armstrong Manual schooling School instead. It was during college that his interest in music took off. He was intrigued by tag style pianists in Washingto n and would seek out Jazz flaccid 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 requirement for him to go out and become successful. He left school to rent music as a career and found some formulate in Washington with his first band The Dukes Serenaders. They played in Washington for six years before making an important remind to new-made York in 1923 at the advice of Jazz great Fats Waller. In that year Ellington recorded his first record and changed the bands name to The Washingtonians. piano tuner receiver was the big key to the foundation of Ellingtons 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 topic phenomenon. The most important of the clubs which Duke Ellington pla yed 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 private instructor launched Ellington from running a great band to being a star. His fame gave him the might to develop his band and add in the best musicians from around the country.