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 Duke Ellington brought a level of style and
sophistication to Jazz that it hadn't seen before. Although he was a gifted
piano player, his orchestra was his principal instrument. Like Jelly
Roll Morton before him, he considered himself to be a composer
and arranger, rather than just a musician. Duke began playing music
professionally in Washington, D.C. in 1917. His piano technique was
influenced by stride piano players like James
P. Johnson, and Willie
"The Lion" Smith. He first visited New York in 1922
playing with Wilbur Sweatman, but the trip was
unsuccessful. He returned to New York again in 1923, but this time with a
group of friends from Washington D.C. They worked for a while with banjoist Elmer
Snowden until there was a disagreement over missing money.
Ellington then became the leader. This group was called The
Washingtonians. This band worked at The Hollywood Club in
Manhattan (which was later dubbed the Kentucky Club). During this time Sidney
Bechet played briefly with the band (unfortunately he never
recording with them), but more significantly the trumpet player Bubber
Miley joined the band, bringing with him his unique plunger
mute style of playing. This sound came to be called the "Jungle
Sound", and it was largely responsible for Ellington's early success.
The song "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" is a
good example of this style of playing. The group recorded their first record
in 1924 ("Choo Choo (Gotta Hurry Home)" and
"Rainy Nights (Rainy Days)", but the
band didn't hit the big time until after Irving
Mills became their manager and publisher in 1926. In 1927 the
band re-recorded versions of "East St.Louis Toodle-Oo," debuted "Black and Tan Fantasy" and
"Creole Love Call", songs that would be associated with him the
rest of his career, but what that really put Ellington's
Orchestra over the top was becoming the house band at the
Cotton Club after King Oliver unwisely turned down the job.
Radio broadcasts from the club made Ellington famous across America and also
gave him the financial security to assemble a top notch band that he could
write music specifically for. Musicians tended to stay with the band for long
periods of time. For example, saxophone player Harry Carney would remain with
Duke nonstop from 1927 to Ellington's death in 1974. In 1928 clarinetist Barney
Bigard left King Oliver and joined the band. Ellington
and Bigard would later co-write one of the
orchestras' signature pieces "Mood Indigo" in 1930. In 1929 Bubber
Miley, was fired from the band because of his alcoholism and
replaced with Cootie Williams. Ellington also appeared in his first film
"Black and Tan" later that year. The Duke
Ellington Orchestra left the Cotton Club in 1931 (although he
would return on an occasional basis throughout the rest of the Thirties) and
toured the U.S. and Europe. Duke who had recorded Jazz music's' first
two-sided, six-minute song in 1929 with his version of The Original Dixieland Jass Bands' "Tiger Rag" (part 1) and (part 2) in 1929 and began to push the
limits of 78 rpm records (three minutes per side) and compose longer works
including "Creole Rhapsody" in 1931, and "Reminiscing in
Tempo" in 1935. Unlike many of their contemporaries, The Ellington
Orchestra was able to make the change from the Hot Jazz of the
1920s to the Swing music of the 1930s. The song "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing),"
even came to define the era. This ability to adapt and grow with the times
keep the Ellington Orchestra a major force in Jazz
up until Duke's death in the 1970s, only Louis
Armstrong managed to sustain such a career, but Armstrong
failed to be on the artistic vanguard after the 1930s . Throughout the
Forties and Fifties Ellington fame and influence continued to grow. They
continued to produce Jazz standards like "Take the 'A' Train",
"Perdido", "The 'C' Jam Blues", and "Satin
Doll". In the 1960s Duke wrote several religious pieces, and composed
"The Far East Suite". He also collaborated with a very diverse
group of musicians whose styles spanned the history of Jazz. He played in a
trio with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, sat in with both the Louis
Armstrong All-Stars and the John Coltrane Quartet, and he had
a double big-band date with Count Basie. In the 1970s many of Ellington's
long time band members had died, but the band continued to attract
outstanding musicians even after death from cancer in 1974, when his son
Mercer Ellington took over the reigns of the band.
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