Ellington :: essays research papers fc

An American jazz composer, orchestrator, bunchleader, and pianist, composer of jazz music, I am all of this and probably more. I am Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington. I was nicknamed Duke by a boyhood friend of mine who admired my royal air. And the name stuck to me. I grew up listening to black music. At that time jazz was considered low and consummate(a) by most respect equal and sophisticated people like myself. I was born in Washington on April 29, 1899. Born to the son of pile William Ellington and Eliza Jane Johnson. I am said to be the most prolific composer of my time. Ive never in reality had much education, but still I was able to develop good speech, dress, and manner. When I was young, the times were bad for us. There was untaught depression. My family lived as middle-class citizens. We werent wealthy nor were we poor. My parents have musical backgrounds. I got my first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games, and it was the first time I was placed a s a performer for a crowd. When I was a teenager I played the mild in a musical style known as ragtime. I attended Armstrong Manual Training School to study commercial subterfuge instead of going to an academics-oriented school. During the summers, in Philadelphia or Atlantic metropolis, I began to adjudicate out and listen to ragtime pianists there. While I was on pass in Asbury Park, there was a hot pianist that I hear of, his name was Harvey Brooks. Guess what? At the end of my vacation I went and want for Harvey Brooks in Philadelphia, that was where he showed me some pianistic tricks and shortcuts. His playing triggered me to straggle up my music career, and then you have it, me, Duke Ellington the musical is born. I learnt from Oliver medical student Perry and Louis Brown, they taught me to read music and helped me improve me playing skills on the piano. I in like manner went to find piano playing jobs at clubs and cares in Washington. I actually dropped out of school to pursuer my music career. I played for my friends and at parties, and soon I formed a small dance band named The Dukes Serenaders in 1917.I moved away from Washington to New York City in 1923. I went to New York to find musicians who could contribute special sounds to my band.