Edward Kennedy Ellington Influence

Edward Kennedy Ellington was an American jazz musician, talented composer, and leader of many bands and orchestras. His career lasted over 50 years, where he composed thousands of pieces of music and joined numerous bands. Duke Ellington was always surrounded by music but when he joined a band and moved to New York, his career launched, beginning the start to his fame. He was said to be one of the greatest musicians during the Harlem Renaissance, and displayed that through the success of his music and bands. He experimented with all styles of music but the one that stuck and changed the course of music was jazz. He led a very large band called the Duke Ellington's orchestra that produced some of the most popular jazz pieces of the time. His

As Ellington was a teenager, music called ragtime became all the rage that “swept America at the turn of a century”. A rag is a song that is played in ragtime, it was different from all music at the time as it had a change in beat and rhythm compared to other music. All around the country people wanted music they could dance to, causing Dance Halls to become popular. The music was very lively, and was said to be the perfect sound for Americans who lived in fast paced and big cities. This situation was perfect for musicians like Ellington who were living in New York and looking for work. Different from the 1920s and 1930s where people went to clubs to socialize, people now wanted soft and sweet music that they could talk over. The Washingtonians played soft and sweet music at clubs, specifically they played jazz and blues. During this time, blues and jazz were becoming very popular, even crossing over into white society and music. Ellington and the other musicians were greatly influenced by the music the people in their neighborhoods listened to, mainly jazz. Jazz music originated from Black American folk music but was transposed through many different styles of music. The Washingtonains were not very original but were one of the

He has been quoted many times saying,“If jazz means anything, it is freedom of expression.” -Duke Ellington. He was born to perform and lived to compose, lead and play before audiences and on stage. He brought jazz music and orchestra music together and combined the two genres. Ellington's music was so popular he worked with many other great Jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Coleman Hawkins, but also non Jazz musicians like John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. What made him so unique was that he wrote for the players themselves, allowing each player to have their own sound. Ellington is one of two major figures in jazz whose career goes over decades, but not only that he remained unique and creative even through an evolving modern time. All through his life he was a superior example of how much a black man could achieve and experience in America, even though he had to endure racism everyday. Ellington's numerous bands and orchestras could not be imitated, their sounds every time were so unique and their style of the compositions were instrumental. Many of the music Elington composed described life in the black community and his emotions and feelings towards it. Ellington's most famous