Duke Ellington Starring in “The Evolution of Jazz”
Duke Ellington is considered to be one of the greatest figures
in the history of American music. Edward Kennedy 'Duke'
Ellington was born in Washington D.C. on April 29, 1899. His
parents were James Edward and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. They
raised Duke as an only child, until his sister, Ruth, was born
when Duke was sixteen years old. Duke, even as a teenager had a
great talent for music. In the beginning of his musical life,
Duke began to take a promising interest in a new type of music
that would later be called jazz. Choosing to base his career on
a new idea may not have been smart, but Duke did take this
chance and in turn became one of the most famous musicians in
America. Duke's first job was at a government office. He was a
clerk who received the minimum wage and was barely getting by.
He would arrange dance bands for weddings and parties for extra
money. His mother taught him how to play the piano. Sometimes he
put this knowledge to use and played at a few of the dance
parties and weddings. After Duke's first job, he became more
interested in painting and the arts. For a few years he painted
public posters. Duke then decided to put together his own band.
At this point in his life things started to change for the
better for Duke, but not for long. In those days, this new music
was just beginning to develop and would later be given the name
of jazz. In that time it was considered to be low and vulgar
because it was music that grew directly out of the Black
culture. In those early years, segregation was at one of its all
time worst points in history. I think that is why Duke Ellington
was one of the most important individuals to the growth and
development of jazz. During Duke's long career, the new music
slowly spread out of bars and saloons, to dance and night clubs
and then eventually onto the concert stage. In time, jazz became
a universally recognized form of art and has been said that it
is the only real form that has originated from the American
soul. By the 1960's Duke traveled the globe so many times that
he became known as the unofficial ambassador to the United
States. Duke's band had played in Russia, Japan, Latin America,
the Far East, the Middle East, and Africa. Duke, himself, was an
elegant man. When the white people looked down on the black man
and his music, Duke managed to bring dignity to every one of his
performances. Once, the jazz historian Leonard Feather described
Duke as, 'an inch over six feet tall, sturdily built, he had an
innate grandeur that would have enabled him to step with
unquenched dignity out of a mud puddle.' Duke's private life was
something of an enigma. Although he had many friends he never
really told them everything about himself. He would often guard
his privacy probably because he had so little of it. When he was
alone though, he would almost always be arranging the next tune
for the band to play, and was always thinking or preparing
something for the band to do in the next performance. Duke
attracted some of the greatest musicians to join his band.
Because of this it has been said that many of Duke's pieces are
almost impossible to exactly duplicate without the personal
style of the original musicians. One of the strange things that
was known about Duke was that his school music teacher, Mrs.
Clinkscales, who played the piano, was always the inspiration
for him to just sit down and start tinkering around with a few
notes that usually became big hits. In his band the two,
probably most famous musicians were the trumpeter Whetsol and
the saxophonist Hodges. As the band became more and more
popular, saxophonist Hodges became the highest paid performer in
the United States. The 1920's became known as 'the Jazz Age'
because jazz had hit its first great burst of popularity. At
that time Duke then added a young drummer named Sonny Greer. A
few years after Greer was hired, Duke's band hit a very rough
spot. They were often stuck in the street with no money and
nowhere to go. Duke and his band often were stuck doing crude
recordings just for a few dollars to buy a meal. In the autumn
of 1927, luck had crossed paths with Duke again. The manager of
Duke's band, Irving Mills, had heard that the prestigious cotton
club was looking for a new band and immediately Irving began
campaigning for Duke. Duke and his band opened on December 4,
1927 to meet a mad rush of spectators who eagerly awaited to
hear Dukes newest pieces. Duke's band became very prosperous and
they had their own spot on the Cotton Club floor with special
lighting and accommodations. At the year of 1928 the band
consisted of Bubber Miley, Freddy Jenkins, and Arthur Whetsol on
trumpet, joined with Tricky Sam Nanton, and Juan Tizol on
trombone. Johnny Hodges, now on alto sax, with Barney Bigard
doubled on tenor sax and clarinet, and finally Harry Carney at
seventeen years old joined on bari sax. Carney was known as one
of the first people in a band ever to use the bari sax as a solo
instrument. While Duke's band was performing at the Cotton Club,
his band participated in more than sixty-four recording
sessions. In 1931 Duke grew so tired of the show-business
routines that he decided to try his luck again on his own. When
he arrived in New York his band grew to almost three times what
it originally had been at the Cotton Club. Duke feared that this
would become a very serious problem considering how the stock
market crashed in late 1929 and millions of people across the
United States were out of work. Somehow, though, most of the
entertainment business survived the economic hardships.
Ellington's band had appeared on Broadway and had even gone to
Hollywood to make a movie. Duke's band was having a hard time
performing in the south because of the segregation laws not
allowing blacks to eat in white restaurants or finding
accommodations that would allow blacks and whites to stay
together in a half-decent room. In 1932 Duke added a trombonist
named Lawrence Brown. In the same year, most of the other big
bands were adding vocalists to their ensemble and thus Duke felt
pressured to do so too. Duke then hired a woman named Ivie
Anderson and quickly proved that he had done the right thing.
Then in 1933 his band got a chance to play in Europe. At first
Duke was very skeptical of how his music would be reacted to
just because jazz had its roots in America and the Europeans had
a very contrasting style of music. The band managed to talk Duke
into believing the idea was a good one. The band's first stop
was England. The band was amazed at how well informed they were
about their entire past. Even the Prince of Wales came to hear
the band play. At the time the prince was an amateur drummer and
Sonny Greer Showed the prince how to work the drum set and they
played together and in the end were calling each other 'Sonny'
and 'The Wale'. All the concerts held in England were sellouts.
The band then moved on to Scotland, and then Paris, France where
their music was greeted with open arms. When Duke's band
returned to America the band really began feeling the hardship
and sorrow of traveling on the road, being separated from loved
ones. Also, many of the band members, including Duke, began
developing drinking problems and started making some of the
musicians lives miserable. What made things worse was the fact
that Duke's mother, Daisy, died in May of 1935 that set Duke
into a deep depression and he used to sit and stare into space
while he talked to himself. Fortunately though, those long
pep-talks with himself seem to snap Duke out of his depression.
But despite everything the band survived and in 1946 a
saxophonist/clarinetist named Russell Procope joined the band
and brought everyone up to a new point of view about traveling
on the road. Around the time that Procope joined the band Duke
invented a new song called 'Reminiscing in Tempo' and was not
looked upon favorably by critics but it did seem to sum
everything up that was written by Ellington from 1931 to 1939 in
a combination of gladness, sadness, triumph, and tragedy. But
then Duke's friend Arthur Whetsol became and had to leave the
band. Then the future of the band seemed uncertain as the
depression continued and millions of people were still out of
work. Until around 1935 when the 'Swing Era' hit the U.S. Irving
Mills had then formed his own record company in 1936 that boomed
with popularity as the demand for big bands playing this new
swing music was in intense demand. Later on Duke hired a lyrical
writer named Billy Strayhorn that led a premature death in 1967.
But when Strayhorn was with the band he wrote many compositions
that often went into the band's book of music. Then in 1942 Duke
hired one of the best tenor saxophonists ever and let him play
the first tenor sax solo ever arranged by Duke Ellington. In
1951 Saxophonist Johnny Hodges, trombonist Lawrence Brown, and
Sonny Greer left the band together and formed their own band but
then in 1955 Sonny Greer returned to the band and stayed with
Duke until his death in 1970. And then by the 1950's the
Ellington band was carrying on almost alone. By 1972 the times
and styles of the world no longer fit the old time style of
Duke's band. The band was not known like it used to be and that
could be the point in time I suppose you could say that the band
broke up. Duke Ellington's career spanned the whole history of
the birth of the music called jazz. And nowhere in that glorious
history is there a man who had more love for music, more respect
for his art, than the man they called the Duke.
David Kunstek writes for Http://www.ShotGlassShelf.com – Display
Cases for the Shot Glass Collector, and
Http://www.Secret-Deals.com – Every day discounts on Brand Name
Merchandise
Please feel free to use this article in your Newsletter or on
your website. If you use this article, please include the
resource box and send a brief message to let me know where it
appeared; Mailto:webmaster@secret-deals.com
|
