The GreatestDuke Ellington can be called the greatest jazz musicians ever. He started his career very early, and started performing for money age of 17. When he was 24, he moved to New York City and began to play in a band. The Twenties only marked Ellington's early career. Yet, some say it was the high point in his life. He was gaining experience by the day, getting more and more gigs, and becoming more and more popular. One of the reasons for his growing popularity was the new way of playing jazz he and his band created. By 1943, he was playing in Carnegie Hall. Duke Ellington's music career was full of achievement. He wrote "Mood Indigo" and "Sophisticated Lady" before he was 35. These are considered among the best songs of that era. His other famous titles include Black, Brown, and Beige (1943), Liberian Suite (1948), A Concert of Sacred Music (1965), and Far East Suite (1967). He kept playing until the mid 1960's, although he was over sixty-five years old. Duke Ellington dies in 1974 and is missed by every one in the Jazz community. Can't hear the music?Click for It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing Cited Works
Baughman, Judith S. American Decades: 1920 - 1929.
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