Composer Of Jazz Music example essay topic

An American jazz composer, orchestrator, bandleader, and pianist, composer of jazz music, I am all of this and probably more. I am Edward Kennedy ("Duke") Ellington. I was nicknamed "Duke" by a boyhood friend of mine who admired my royal air. And the name stuck to me. I grew up listening to black music. At that time jazz was considered low and vulgar by most respectable and sophisticated people like myself.

I was born in Washington on April 29, 1899. Born to the son of James William Ellington and Eliza Jane Johnson. I am said to be the most prolific composer of my time. I've never actually had much education, but still I was able to develop good speech, dress, and manner.

When I was young, the times were bad for us. There was agricultural depression. My family lived as middle-class citizens. We weren't wealthy nor were we poor. My parents have musical backgrounds. I got my first job selling peanuts at Washington Senator's baseball games, and it was the first time I was placed as a performer for a crowd.

When I was a teenager I played the piano in a musical style known as ragtime. I attended Armstrong Manual Training School to study commercial art instead of going to an academics-oriented school. During the summers, in Philadelphia or Atlantic City, I began to seek out and listen to ragtime pianists there. While I was on vacation in Asbury Park, there was a hot pianist that I heard of, his name was Harvey Brooks. Guess what? At the end of my vacation I went and sought for Harvey Brooks in Philadelphia, that was where he showed me some pianistic tricks and shortcuts.

His playing triggered me to start up my music career, and then you have it, me, Duke Ellington the musical is born. I learnt from Oliver "Doc" Perry and Louis Brown, they taught me to read music and helped me improve me playing skills on the piano. I also went to find piano playing jobs at clubs and cares in Washington. I actually dropped out of school to pursuer my music career. I played for my friends and at parties, and soon I formed a small dance band named The Duke's Serenader's in 1917. I moved away from Washington to New York City in 1923.

I went to New York to find musicians who could contribute special sounds to my band. I had to build up my band. I found an American trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley, whose playing was characterized by unique sounds using mutes. Through the use of radio broadcasting, listeners in New York were able to hear my music, which got me quite popular with the peoples.

I also made my first recording and renamed the band to Washingtonians, we are from Washington right? Our first record was in 1924, "Choo cho o (Gotta Hurry Home) " and "Rainy Nights (Rainy Days) ". But our band wasn't that big yet until our Manager Irving Mills come along in 1926. In 1928, I had an agreement with Irving Mills; he produced and published my music. There were recording companies that came calling for me, there was Brunswick, Columbia, and Victor. Astonishingly our band became the most sought-after band in the United States and through the world.

Isn't that just amazing, just imagine yourself being known by the whole world. We played at places like the Exclusive Club, Connie's Inn, the Hollywood Club, Ciro's, the Plantation Club, and the Cotton Club. Thanks for the radio, our music were broadcast ed and listened to by many. Through broadcasts from the Cotton Club, helped us gain a national and an international reputation.

Our popularity just spread rapidly. In 1931 I took the band on our first tour of the United States. I produced many works over the years, though the help of my band and my producer, manager, arranger, composers. In 1943 the my orchestra performed for the first time at New York City's Carnegie Hall, a prestigious musical venue, with the piece Black, Brown, and Beige (1943), one of my longest and most ambitious compositions.

Thereafter the band played Carnegie Hall annually until 1952, and we became known as a concert band as well as a dance band. In the late 1940's my band, which generally maintained a remarkably stable membership, experienced a higher rate of turnover among musicians and went into creative and commercial decline. By this time, the band had expanded to 18 members. In 1953 my record was made, the album was Piano Reflections. I earned critical success with recordings of suites, I composed for concerts and records, such as A Drum Is a Woman (1956), Such Sweet Thunder (1958), and The Far East Suite (1966), as well as with the motion-picture soundtrack Anatomy of a Murder (1959). I define my music by common musical threads, such as the sounds of muted brass instruments and high, wailing clarinet; unique harmonies; my unique piano playing; and the combinations of instruments.

My other innovations include the use of the human voice as an instrument, such as in "Creole Love Call" (1927) and "On a Turquoise Cloud" (1947). I employed musicians could play their instruments, no not really, I employed musicians that could play their instruments in a manner that mimicked a voice, "Tricky Sam" Nant on, for instance, made talking sounds on his trombone. I've been honored in the musical business. I have 11 Grammy Awards and 19 honorary doctorates degrees. I was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Legion of Honor.

I am honored to be able to play such wonders for people.

Bibliography

" Ellington, Duke,' Microsoft (R) Encarta (R) Online Encyclopedia 2004 (c) 1997-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.