Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, bandleader, arranger, and one of the central figures in twentieth-century jazz. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1899, he grew up in a musically active African American household and began piano lessons as a child. By his teens he was composing, and in 1923 he moved to New York with musicians who became the nucleus of his orchestra. His residency at Harlem's Cotton Club from 1927 brought national attention, while a long career of touring, recording, and composing established him as a major American artist.

Ellington wrote more than a thousand works, ranging from concise popular pieces to ambitious concert compositions. Representative extended works include Black, Brown and Beige, Harlem, Such Sweet Thunder, and the three Sacred Concerts. He collaborated closely with musicians such as Billy Strayhorn and wrote with specific performers in mind, giving his orchestra a distinctive palette of individual instrumental voices.

Religious themes became increasingly explicit in Ellington's later career, especially in the Sacred Concerts first presented in 1965. His upbringing included both Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Zion church exposure, but a single lifelong denominational affiliation is not securely documented. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 and continued composing until his death in 1974.