Stephanie Stein CreaSe

Duke ellington

with 21 activities

his Life in Jazz

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stein Crease, Stephanie.

Duke Ellington : his life in jazz with 21 activities / Stephanie Stein Crease. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references, discography, filmography, and index.

ISBN 978-1-55652-724-1

1. Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974. 2. Jazz musicians—United States—Biography.

I. Title.

ML410.E44S75 2009

781.65092—dc22

[B]

2008023742

Cover and interior design: Monica Baziuk

Interior illustrations: Laura D’Argo

Cover images: Institute of Jazz Studies

© 2009 by Stephanie Stein Crease

All rights reserved

First edition

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-55652-724-1

Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

Note to ReadeRs vi

ackNowledgmeNts vi i

INtRoductIoN ix

tIme lINe x

1 CatChing a tune 1 s i debar: Home entertainment—the Piano 4 s i debar: scott Joplin—the king of Ragtime 5 activity: Illustrate a sheet music cover 7 activity: create a Ragtime Rhythm 9

2 the Duke anD his serenaDers 13

s i debar: music technology— Piano Rolls and the Phonograph 15

activity: think like a composer— write Your own Blues 17

activity: design a concert Poster 18 activity: make a washtub Bass 21 s i debar: the New orleans Jazz Pioneers 24

3 the serenaDers BeCome the Washingtonians 29

activity: learn to Improvise 31 s i debar: the Jazz age 33 s i debar: that’s entertainment!—

minstrel shows and Vaudeville 34 s i debar: the Harlem Renaissance 35 activity: make corn Bread for a Rent Party 36 s i debar: tin Pan alley 39 activity: string theory—Build an autoharp 41

4 the Washingtonians hit the Big time 45

activity: dance the lindy Hop 49 activity: experiment with sound effects 51 s i debar: Jazz on Record 55

5 From the Cotton CluB to the WorlD 59

activity: make costumes for a Floor show 61 s i debar: the stars of duke ellington’s

cotton club orchestra 64 activity: dancing Rope trick 66 activity: design a Band’s look 70 s i debar: ellington’s Band in the movies 73

6 “it Don’t mean a thing”—Duke in the sWing era 75

activity: think like a composer— what Inspires You? 78

activity: make two Percussion Instruments 81 s i debar: Friendly Rivals—

top Big Bands of the era 83

7 take the “a” train 89 activity: Rhythm exploration—

learn to Read drum Notation 91 s i debar: mary lou williams—

arranger, Pianist, Jazz Pioneer 96 s i debar: Puttin’ on the Ritz—

the ellington Vocalists 97 s i debar: the carnegie Hall concerts 99 activity: write lyrics to an ellington tune 100

8 the ComeBaCk kiD 103 s i debar: Home entertainment—television 105 activity: make a Phonograph Needle 109 activity: design an album Jacket 110

9 Duke on tour—arounD the WorlD in 80 Days 115

activity: write liner Notes for a cd 118 activity: Host a Jam session 121 s i debar: ella Fitzgerald 122 s i debar: the Jazz ambassadors 124

10 Finale—the last tour 131 s i debar: awards and Honors 135 s i debar: duke ellington’s greatest Hits 138

ResouRces 141selected Bibliography and

Further Reading 141Recommended Recordings,Films,

and web sites 142

INdex 145

1CatChing a tune“There have been so many extraordinary and inexplicable

circumstances in my life. I have always seemed to encounter the right

people, the right place at the right time, and doing the right thing

to give me the kind of instruction and guidance I needed.”

—Duke Ellington

Do you know anyone whose skill or talent suddenly took you by surprise? Like

your best friend from elementary school. He was funny and liked to have a

good time, but he never got terrific grades or stood out at sports or anything. And

the next thing you knew, there he was at 15, playing the piano and being a big hit at

parties, and even making some money at it. And to top it off, he was a really good

piano player!

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Well, that was true of Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, who did not show much in-terest or talent in music as a child. Yet years later, he became one of the greatest jazz com-posers and bandleaders who ever lived.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C. He was the second child of James Edward and Daisy El-lington. Edward’s younger sister, Ruth, wasn’t born until he was 16, so he was mostly raised as an only child (the Ellingtons’ first child died as a baby). He was never at a loss for playmates,

Publicity photo of duke ellington, then a young bandleader and pianist. courtesy david Hajdu

My mother—the greatest—

and the prettiest

My father—just handsome—

but the wittiest

My grand-daddy

natural born proud

Grandma so gentle—and so fine

(from “My Mother, My Father,” My People, Duke Ellington, 1963)

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though. Young Edward had a large extended family of cousins to play with, and aunts and uncles who visited constantly. They lived in a tight-knit middle class African American community in the northwest section of Wash-ington, D.C., known as the “Uptown District.” Ellington often said how lucky he was to grow up there and to be raised by parents whose complete confidence in him helped him on his road to success.

Ellington’s parents were both 20 years old when he was born. His mother, Daisy, was very loving and watched over her new baby constantly. She was still getting over the death of her first baby and so fretted over Edward’s every sneeze. Edward grew up surrounded by Daisy’s sisters and aunts, who all treated him like a little prince. His mother called him blessed so often that he was convinced he was indeed blessed, and that only good things would come to him.

Edward’s childhood was far more comfort-able than that of his own father. James Ed-ward Ellington was born in 1879 in rural North Carolina to a family of ex-slaves. When James was a teenager, he and his family moved north to Washington, D.C., along with many other African American families who settled there in the years after the Civil War. They were all looking for jobs and better living conditions. James, who only had an eighth-grade educa-

tion, quickly learned how to get along in the city. He started out as a coachman and driver, and worked for various people, including a wealthy doctor named Middleton Cuthbart.

James was smart and responsible. By the time he and Daisy married, he was the doctor’s butler and ran the whole household. Accord-ing to Ruth, Edward’s younger sister, James educated himself by reading his way around Dr. Cuthbart’s library, “from the floor to the ceiling, all four walls.” James also worked as a caterer for other families, and at several special events that took place at the White House.

In contrast to her husband’s Deep South background, Daisy Kennedy Ellington came from a well-established middle class family in Washington, D.C. and completed high school. Her father was a policeman, a respected pro-fession for a black man early in the 20th centu-ry. Daisy was beautiful and dignified. She was a thoughtful and spiritual person, and always looked for ways to inspire her son. She often told Edward that all races were equal and that the world held much promise for him—there was nothing that he could not achieve.

James Ellington made enough money so that his family could live in a big, comfortable house in the Uptown District. This neighbor-hood was less than two miles from the White House, in the northwest section of Washing-ton, D.C., which was then a segregated city.

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Through his work, James became an expert about fine foods and wine, silverware, and crystal, and wanted to provide the best things he could for his family. As Edward later wrote, “J.E. always acted as though he had money, whether he had it or not. He spent and lived like a man who had money, and he raised his family as though he were a millionaire.”

One of the Ellington family’s prized pos-sessions was their piano. In the early 1900s, the piano was the heart of the home and was the family’s entertainment center. Both of Ed-ward’s parents played the piano, and relatives

and friends frequently gathered around to sing and entertain each other. James played by ear and worked out popular songs of the time, and Daisy could read music. She loved to play hymns, and also taught herself some of the lat-est ragtime favorites. Edward clearly enjoyed music, and joined in singing around his fam-ily’s piano and in church. As he got older, he liked hearing the ragtime pianists who played at soda fountains and cafés and other spots around his neighborhood.

Edward’s childhood coincided with the exciting first years of a new century, and the syncopated sounds of ragtime. Ragtime music was the rage in those years, in the days be-fore the word “ jazz” was even in use as a musi-cal style. Ragtime was the rock ’n’ roll of the early 1900s, enjoyed and performed by young people, black and white, for dances and par-ties and as parlor music. Ragtime originated in the café district of St. Louis, Missouri. There, in the city’s honky-tonks and social clubs like the Maple Leaf Café, the best pianists (the so-called Piano Professors) such as Scott Jop-lin and Tom Turpin refined their musical style and showed off their original compositions.

Ragtime music is syncopated, which means that the accents are on the weak beats of a musical measure, not the strong beats. Synco-pation is what made the ragtime style sound new and different. The catchy melodies and

The grand piano was invented in 1702 by an Italian craftsman named Bartolomeo cristofori for a member of the wealthy medici family of Florence. By 1726, cris-

tofori had perfected the piano’s striking hammer action, which produced a stronger and more rounded sound than its predecessor, the harpsichord. well into the 1800s, the piano was a luxury item for the aristocracy, but by the late 1800s, affordable upright pianos became available. owning a piano was a sign of a family’s respect-ability, and playing the piano was a special skill for girls, in particular, to have, in an era when parents helped their daughters find suitable husbands. more than that, pianos were everywhere, in schools, hotels, drugstores, and restaurants, and good pianists were called upon for all kinds of occasions, whether they played classical music or ragtime.

H om e e N t e RtaI Nm e N t—t H e P Ia N o

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rhythms of ragtime pieces like Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” were popularized by traveling pia-nists and musicians in vaudeville shows and revues. Long before electronic music tech-nology—CD players or iPods—existed, pia-nists helped spread this new music from town to town and neighborhood to neighborhood. Pretty soon, ragtime music was everywhere. Sheet music editions of Joplin’s ragtime com-positions and those of other ragtime compos-ers were big sellers, and in the early 1900s, ragtime music was arranged for marching bands and early dance bands.

Edward loved music, but there was another new American pastime he loved even more—baseball. American League Park, home of the Washington Senators and one of the ear-liest professional ballparks, was not far from Edward’s neighborhood. Excitement about the nearby games and the Senators were part of his childhood and that of his friends, who played pickup games almost every day.

Then one day, when Edward was seven, wham! He got hit accidentally with a baseball bat while his mother happened to be watch-ing him play. On the spot, she decided that sports were too dangerous and that piano les-sons would be better for him. Always wanting to please his mother, Edward went along with this plan, but he was not really interested in his lessons and frequently skipped them.

Scott Joplin was born in 1868 in the northeastern part of texas, and spent his early years on a farm where his father, an ex-slave, was a laborer. In 1880,

the family moved to the small town of texarkana, and music was a big part of their life: his mother played the banjo, and his father taught violin to scott and two of his brothers. scott also took formal lessons on piano, and his teacher inspired him to compose music. Joplin left home as a teenager to make his living as a traveling pia-nist. sometimes, he joined his brothers’ minstrel show, performing songs and skits in small towns in the southwest.

when scott was 20, he settled in sedalia, missouri, and it was there that his ca-reer as a composer truly began. Joplin’s ragtime compositions, formally written-out pieces for piano, were very popular in sedalia’s gambling dens and dance halls. In 1899, he played his “maple leaf Rag” for a local music publisher; it was one of the first ragtime compositions published and became a sheet music bestseller. Joplin published many other successful ragtime tunes, too, including “the entertainer.”

In 1911, Joplin moved to New York, where ragtime was the rage. By then, he had fallen out with his publisher and was ill, but he struggled to keep working. He wanted people to appreciate the richness of ragtime music: he wrote larger com-positions, including a ballet and an opera that used ragtime themes and rhythms. He produced his opera, treemonisha, bringing ragtime to the concert stage for the first time. Joplin himself predicted that his music would achieve far greater recogni-tion after his lifetime, and that is exactly what happened. “the entertainer” won an oscar in 1973 for best song in a motion picture, and Joplin was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for treemonisha in 1976, honoring his contributions to american music.

scot t J o P lI N — t H e kI N g o F R agtIm e

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