Description:
From 1924, when he put his name on the band Duke Ellington and His Washingtonians jazz's greatest composer produced a Herculean quantity of music for exactly fifty years. His written contributions are almost innumerable: thousands of songs and dozens of works in symphonic form, as well as complete scores for ballet, theater, and film. And through his music's increasing sophistication in the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties can be heard the evolution of jazz expression itself. But Ellington's greatest contribution to the world was his tireless work as bandleader and talent scout. In his half century fronting the greatest orchestra jazz has ever known, he produced not just a near infinite number of polished works but hit after danceable hit. And through that band's ranks passed some of the greatest instrumentalists who ever played jazz. |