Duke Ellington's America

Duke Ellington's America PDF Author: Harvey G. Cohen
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226112659
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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Book Description
Few American artists in any medium have enjoyed the international and lasting cultural impact of Duke Ellington. From jazz standards such as “Mood Indigo” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” to his longer, more orchestral suites, to his leadership of the stellar big band he toured and performed with for decades after most big bands folded, Ellington represented a singular, pathbreaking force in music over the course of a half-century. At the same time, as one of the most prominent black public figures in history, Ellington demonstrated leadership on questions of civil rights, equality, and America’s role in the world. With Duke Ellington’s America, Harvey G. Cohen paints a vivid picture of Ellington’s life and times, taking him from his youth in the black middle class enclave of Washington, D.C., to the heights of worldwide acclaim. Mining extensive archives, many never before available, plus new interviews with Ellington’s friends, family, band members, and business associates, Cohen illuminates his constantly evolving approach to composition, performance, and the music business—as well as issues of race, equality and religion. Ellington’s own voice, meanwhile, animates the book throughout, giving Duke Ellington’s America an intimacy and immediacy unmatched by any previous account. By far the most thorough and nuanced portrait yet of this towering figure, Duke Ellington’s America highlights Ellington’s importance as a figure in American history as well as in American music.

Duke Ellington's America

Duke Ellington's America PDF Author: Harvey G. Cohen
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226112659
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 704

Get Book Here

Book Description
Few American artists in any medium have enjoyed the international and lasting cultural impact of Duke Ellington. From jazz standards such as “Mood Indigo” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” to his longer, more orchestral suites, to his leadership of the stellar big band he toured and performed with for decades after most big bands folded, Ellington represented a singular, pathbreaking force in music over the course of a half-century. At the same time, as one of the most prominent black public figures in history, Ellington demonstrated leadership on questions of civil rights, equality, and America’s role in the world. With Duke Ellington’s America, Harvey G. Cohen paints a vivid picture of Ellington’s life and times, taking him from his youth in the black middle class enclave of Washington, D.C., to the heights of worldwide acclaim. Mining extensive archives, many never before available, plus new interviews with Ellington’s friends, family, band members, and business associates, Cohen illuminates his constantly evolving approach to composition, performance, and the music business—as well as issues of race, equality and religion. Ellington’s own voice, meanwhile, animates the book throughout, giving Duke Ellington’s America an intimacy and immediacy unmatched by any previous account. By far the most thorough and nuanced portrait yet of this towering figure, Duke Ellington’s America highlights Ellington’s importance as a figure in American history as well as in American music.

Dvorak to Duke Ellington

Dvorak to Duke Ellington PDF Author: Maurice Peress
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195098226
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Prominent symphony conductor Maurice Peress describes his career conducting the premiers of such works as Leonard Bernstein's 'Mass' and Duke Ellington's 'Queenie Pie'. He traces the great impact of African American music on American music, beginning with the work of Antonin Dvořák.

The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington

The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington PDF Author: Edward Green
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316194132
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Duke Ellington is widely held to be the greatest jazz composer and one of the most significant cultural icons of the twentieth century. This comprehensive and accessible Companion is the first collection of essays to survey, in depth, Ellington's career, music, and place in popular culture. An international cast of authors includes renowned scholars, critics, composers, and jazz musicians. Organized in three parts, the Companion first sets Ellington's life and work in context, providing new information about his formative years, method of composing, interactions with other musicians, and activities abroad; its second part gives a complete artistic biography of Ellington; and the final section is a series of specific musical studies, including chapters on Ellington and song-writing, the jazz piano, descriptive music, and the blues. Featuring a chronology of the composer's life and major recordings, this book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Ellington's enduring artistic legacy.

Duke

Duke PDF Author: Terry Teachout
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698138589
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
A major new biography of Duke Ellington from the acclaimed author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century—and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world’s most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style. He wrote some fifteen hundred compositions, many of which, like “Mood Indigo” and “Sophisticated Lady,” remain beloved standards, and he sought inspiration in an endless string of transient lovers, concealing his inner self behind a smiling mask of flowery language and ironic charm. As the biographer of Louis Armstrong, Terry Teachout is uniquely qualified to tell the story of the public and private lives of Duke Ellington. A semi-finalist for the National Book Award, Duke peels away countless layers of Ellington’s evasion and public deception to tell the unvarnished truth about the creative genius who inspired Miles Davis to say, “All the musicians should get together one certain day and get down on their knees and thank Duke.”

Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington PDF Author: Janna Tull Steed
Publisher: Crossroad
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington and his music have been an intregral part of the American scene for most of the 20th Century. Janna Tull Steed introduces the readers to the engaging, enigmatic man himself, as well as to the range of Ellington's musical achievement, with a lively mix of fact and anecdote.

The Duke Ellington Reader

The Duke Ellington Reader PDF Author: Mark Tucker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195093919
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 564

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Book Description
A collection of writings by and about Duke Ellington and his place in jazz history.

Who Was Duke Ellington?

Who Was Duke Ellington? PDF Author: M. D. Payne
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 039953962X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
How did a working-class young man from Washington, DC, turn the music world on its head and become the "Master Of Jazz"? Find out in this addition to the Who HQ library! A pivotal fixture of the Harlem Renaissance, Duke Ellington was the bandleader of the historic Cotton Club and a master composer -- writing close to 3,000 songs in his lifetime and capturing the spirit of the Black experience in the Unites States. Over a 50-year career, Ellington became one of the biggest names in jazz as we know it. He went on to win 13 Grammys, a Pulitzer, and receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. Who Was Duke Ellington? follows the exciting, multifaceted journey of this musical genius and takes a look at what truly makes Ellington an artist "beyond category."

Duke Ellington Studies

Duke Ellington Studies PDF Author: John Howland
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108239072
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Duke Ellington (1899–1974) is widely considered the jazz tradition's most celebrated composer. This engaging yet scholarly volume explores his long career and his rich cultural legacy from a broad range of in-depth perspectives, from the musical and historical to the political and international. World-renowned scholars and musicians examine Ellington's influence on jazz music, its criticism, and its historiography. The chronological structure of the volume allows a clear understanding of the development of key themes, with chapters surveying his work and his reception in America and abroad. By both expanding and reconsidering the contexts in which Ellington, his orchestra, and his music are discussed, Duke Ellington Studies reflects a wealth of new directions that have emerged in jazz studies, including focuses on music in media, class hierarchy discourse, globalization, cross-cultural reception, and the role of marketing, as well as manuscript score studies and performance studies.

Ellington

Ellington PDF Author: Mark Tucker
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252065095
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
For nearly fifty years, Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington was one of America's most famous musicians. Tucker traces Ellington's childhood and young adult years in Washington, D. C. where he got his start as a ragtime pianist, and also draws on accounts from newspapers, periodicals, and trade publications.

Beyond Category

Beyond Category PDF Author: John Edward Hasse
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 9780306806148
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
One of the twentieth century's greatest composers, Duke Ellington (1899–1974) led a fascinating life. Beyond Category, the first biography to draw on the vast Duke Ellington archives at the Smithsonian Institution, recounts his remarkable career: his childhood in Washington, D.C., and his musical apprenticeship in Harlem; his long engagement at the Cotton Club; the challenging years of the depression; his tours to Europe and into America's deep South, where he helped lower racial barriers; the postwar years when television and bebop threatened to eclipse the big bands; Ellington's own triumphant comeback at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival; his collaborations with Billy Strayhorn, Johnny Hodges, and Ella Fitzgerald; as well as five decades of hits and masterpieces that constantly broke new ground.The art of Duke Ellington was a musical expression of the African-American experience, in all its pain, pride, and glory. He composed his music as he composed his life—with flair, passion, and individuality—and no book reveals the man and his artistic evolution more brilliantly than Beyond Category.