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sounds in all of Western music. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C. to a secure middle class family that encouraged his interest in the arts. He began studying piano at age seven, and inspired by ragtime performers, he began to perform professionally at age 17. Ellington first played in New York City in 1923. Later that year he moved there and, in Broadway nightclubs, led a sextet that grew in time into a 10-piece ensemble. Extended residencies at the Cotton Club in Harlem (1927-32, 1937-38) prompted Ellington to enlarge his band to 14 musicians and to expand his compositional scope. He selected his musicians for their expressive individuality, and several members of his ensemble became stars in their own right. With these exceptional musicians, who remained with him throughout the 1930s, Ellington made hundreds of recordings, appeared in films and on radio, and toured Europe in 1933 and 1939. A high point in Ellington's career came in the early 1940s, when he composed several masterworks—including "Cotton Tail" and "Ko-Ko," By then, too, Billy Strayhorn, composer of what would become the band's theme song, "Take the 'A' Train," had become Ellington's composing-arranging partner.



Not limiting himself to jazz innovation, Ellington also wrote such great popular songs as "Sophisticated Lady," "Rocks in My Bed," and "Satin Doll." He also blended jazz with classical music in several popular suites and wrote motion-picture scores for The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959). In his last decade he composed three pieces of sacred music: In the Beginning God (1965), Second Sacred Concert (1968), and Third Sacred Concert (1973). The Ellington band toured throughout the world after World War II, and despite this grueling schedule, some of Ellington's musicians stayed with him for decades. Ellington maintained a regal manner as he led the band and charmed audiences with his suave humor. His career spanned more than half a century—most of the documented history of jazz. He continued to lead the band until shortly before his death in 1974, when he left behind a body of music unequaled in jazz history.