Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington
(April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974)
Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years.
Born in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward, and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe. Though widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington embraced the phrase "beyond category" as a liberating principle, and referred to his music as part of the more general category of American Music, rather than to a musical genre such as jazz.
Listen to some of his compositions here:
It don’t mean a thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg
Take the A train
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2w2m1JmCY
Black and Tan fantasy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5065JmEDCQ
Caravan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkLBSLxo5LE
Video: https://youtu.be/iIp0SDrlYQc