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This article is by
Dylan Nelson, an 11 year old 5th grader at Beattie
Elementary. He has been playing piano since he was
four and loves jazz. This article was written for a
school project on famous people and we thought you
might enjoy it too.
Duke Ellington
By Dylan Nelson
Edward Kennedy
Ellington's life started when he was born on April
29th, 1899, in Washington D.C. Edward was spoiled
by the women in his family while he was a child.
His mother, Daisy, was very protective of him, and
did not want to lose her only child.
Edward loved
baseball, and when his mother heard that he had
been hit by a bat, she started him on piano
lessons. When he was six years old, with Mrs.
Clinkscales as his teacher, piano was the last
thing on his mind-baseball was what he wanted. SO
soon he quit his piano for childhood
fun.
At 15 he first
heard "Ragtime" piano. He started up on piano again
because of the new beat and all the attention he
got with his new talent. Duke's grades dropped as
he spent more and more time on piano and less on
schoolwork. As friend nicknamed Edward "Duke." This
name fit Duke because of his proud and elegant
manner.
His sister was born
when Duke was 16. Now his mother stopped pampering
Duke and gave them both equal attention. His family
lived in first class style. His father James
Edward, usually known as JE, worked as a butler in
the White House when Theodore Roosevelt was
[resident. JE and his family dined on fine
china because the presidential family would give
staff sets of dinnerware if pieces were broken or
missing.
His professional
piano life started, in 1916, when Duke was 17 with
his first performance at a high school dance. In
the 1920s, he was one of the first people to
compose and play jazz.
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He started writing
songs and was hired first at the Kentucky Club,
then at the Cotton Club in 1927. The cotton Club,
famous for its live music was located in the middle
of black Harlem, New York, and was for whites only.
Eventually a few richer African Americans were
allowed to enter. Once, during his years at the
Cotton Club, Al Capone threatened to kidnap Duke
and the famous dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robertson,
but Chicago got too dangerous and Capone
left.
In 1943he became
the first African American to perform at Carnegie
Hall in New York City. He premiered his first long
piece, "Black, Brown, and Beige."
He composed many
songs but was best known as the performer of "Take
the A Train," a song written by his long-time
collaborator Billy Strayhorn.
In 1956 Duke had a
breakthrough at the Newport Jazz Festival. At the
end of the festival while people were leaving, he
was playing a song he had recently composed and
people started pouring back in. Because of this he
ended up on the cover of Time magazine and was
recognized as the best musician in his time.
Whenever someone asked Duke how old he was, he'd
insists that he was born at the Newport Jazz
Festival.
In 1958 he returned
to England and performed a special group of songs
for Queen Elizabeth II. A year later he won three
Grammys for songs he composed for Anatomy of a
Murder.
On Ellington's 70th
birthday, President Richard Nixon awarded him the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian
medal.
On May 24th, 1974
Duke died of cancer. But his music has left an
impression on the world forever.
by Dylan Nelson, 11
yrs old. 2002
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