IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE another jazz musician or contemporary composer receiving the adulation that Duke Ellington has inspired. The release of "Mood Indigo" in 1930 established his fame, while the praise of Stravinsky, Milhaud and others won him early recognition as a serious composer. By the time of his death in 1974 the man and his music had become legendary, and the legend has only grown since then. A Smithsonian Institution exhibit, now touring the country, presents a broad-stroke portrait of the man and his music. (Until mid-December the exhibit is at the museum of African American History in Detroit.) Greater depth and detail are found in Mark Tucker's The Duke Ellington Reader and John Edward Hasse's biography, Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington (both published in 1993). The more Ellington's music and his influential role in 20th-century American culture are studied, the more towering his figure becomes. Yet despite a spate of biographies and critical studies since his death, the private man behind the "love you madly" persona remains an enigma.
Edward Kennedy Ellington came of age with jazz and shaped it as a piano-laying big band leader who kept his sidemen together and on the road for more than 50 years. Through early work in radio and film and later in numerous television specials, he became a symbol of black achievement and pride, his sartorial elegance and verbal panache setting him apart from other popular entertainers. He lived and worked through the era of Jim …
