A Little About Duke Ellington

A man of incredible sartorial elegance, humour, charm, grace and business savvy, Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29th 1899 in Washington D.C. According to Ellington, he was given his now famous sobriquet by his friend Edgar McEntree in 1913, just before entering high school, who noted Ellington's exemplary manners, aristocratic nature as well as style and dubbed Edward "Duke". He composed his first song aged 14 out of necessity whilst jobbing as a soda jerk in the Poodle Dog Cafe on Georgia Avenue, covering for the regular pianist at the time. It was called 'Soda Fountain Rag', also known as 'Poodle Dog Rag'. He went on to compose thousands of tunes across his lifetime, his career truly encompassing an intersectional practice comprising the inextricable strands of Ellington as a bandleader, performer, composer, activist, master collaborator, talent identifier, businessman and facilitator. He wrote his last piece of music whilst hospitalised at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in the spring of 1974, a 20 minute offering entitled 'Three Black Kings'. He never finished it. His legacy is inimitable. He is one of the greatest composers ever to have lived.