Duke Ellington

The Harlem Renaissance, a literary, musical, and arts movement in New York, occurred during the 1920’s in a place called Harlem.   Many writers, musicians, and composers emerged from this period: one of them, a jazz performer and composer named Duke Ellington, was an extremely popular musician during his time. In fact, at any given time his music is probably being heard somewhere in the world today (George 15).   Known to many as “one of the musical fathers of our country” (Ellison 86), Duke Ellington changed the course of the music scene was one of the most influential jazz artists during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920’s.   With his brilliant musical contributions and his confidence which affected his band members and fans, Duke Ellington was, and still is, looked up to by people all over the world.
Edward Kennedy Ellington began his musical instruction at an early age. A young Duke, who was born to Daisy and James Ellington in April of 1899, began playing the piano after his mother wanted him to start; his family was already very musical. However, piano lessons did not go very well for him. Ellington simply became bored and did not want to continue playing. Later in his life as a teenager, Ellington decided to go back to playing the piano; around this time, he composed his first song entitled “Soda Fountain Rag” when he was only a young teenager (Lawrence 1-15). This piece was also called the “Poodle Dog Rag”, nick-named after the Poodle Dog Café where Ellington frequently performed the song. He never wrote the song down and often changed the tempo to appeal to different groups of dancers including the tango and the waltz (Tucker 34). It is interesting to think that the first song Ellington composed was on the piano, since he did not like playing the piano as a child. It is quite possible that he didn’t like the piano when he was younger because his mother wanted him to play it. Once Ellington was older and able to make more decisions for himself, he played... [continues]

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