Duke Ellington (1899-1974), composer and bandleader. A largely
self-taught pianist, he was influenced by jazz and ragtime
performers. While working as a sign painter he began to play
professionally and in 1918 started his own band in his native
Washington, D. C. In 1923 he moved to New York City and playing
piano at the Kentucky Club, began gathering the musicians who
formed the core of his famous orchestra and made his first
recordings. With no formal training in composition, he nonetheless
employed daring and innovative musical devices in his works;
blending lush melodies with unorthodox and often dissonant
harmonies and rhythmic structures based on what was then called
jungle' effects, he wrote and arranged songs tailored to his own
band and soloists. Radio broadcasts during an engagement at New
York City's fashionable Cotton Club from 1927 to 1932 brought him
and his group national recognition; and his recordings spread their
fame to Europe.
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