Duke Ellington
Submitted by on January 1, 1998
Category: Music and Movies
Words: 1672 | Pages: 7
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The Life of a Pioneer
One of the greatest jazz composers that has ever lived is, arguably, Duke Ellington. Born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington D.C. in 1899. By the age of 17 was playing professionally. In 1923 he moved to New York City where he started recruiting people for his orchestra. He started off with an average jazz band of ten people but through the thirties and forties that number greatly expanded. He started playing in small nightclubs, theaters, and on the radio. His biggest break is considered to be when he got the chance to play at one of the most popular nightclubs of the time in Harlem, The Cotton Club, when another performer (King Oliver) turned down the offer, from that day forward Duke Ellington become a well known name in the jazz world.
Ellington’s first compositions were considered to be very stiff and jerky rhythmically as...