Duke Ellington’s importance comes from the music he made, which in result, took jazz to a new level of organization and sophistication. His combination of scales, instruments, and harmonies created a new, mind blowing point of view. Ellington was also an important jazz composer, he helped bring jazz out of its rather anarchic beginnings and into a serious level of music. Ellington had already secured himself as a serious jazz artist, therefore he was capable of take advantage of the communal popularity in US. Instead of just writing and arranging music, Duke designed jazz compositions, big intricate pieces of convoluted music that people still find fascinating and phenomenal. Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born in Washington D.C. on …show more content…
For Duke’s aid, his learning of music at a era that was known as “The Ragtime”, which consisted of unusual dance rhythms that started with the honky-tonk pianists along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, gave him that rhythm so known of him. His focus on writing for individual ensemble members rather than a generic "saxophone" reinforced the importance of an individual's personal sound. In late 1917, his first group called The Duke’s Serenaders was created, this was the band that would turn out to be the foundation for his life's …show more content…
In addition, he wrote music for films and theatrical performances. Being the creative mind he was, Ellington was constantly experimenting with music for his group, causing the other participants in the group to stay such a prolonged time. Duke revolutionized jazz music. His older, unprofessional swallowing sound of times before was gone. It was replaced by a delightful musical sound with different tones but still with that engrave the pulse that is jazz music. Having different instruments that take the lead in the same song, is what made it stand out because this was not a standard normally practiced before