Duke Ellington's and Billy Strayhorn's arrangements for the Duke Ellington big band were usually new compositions, and some of Eddie Sauter's arrangements for the Benny Goodman band and Artie Shaw's arrangements for his own band were new compositions as well.

Duke Ellington's big band had a rhythm section that included a jazz guitarist, a double bass player, and a drummer ( not visible ).

Evans had been the arranger for the Claude Thornhill orchestra, and it was the sound of this group, as well as Duke Ellington's example, that suggested the creation of an unusual line-up: a nonet including a French horn and a tuba ( this accounts for the " tuba band " moniker that was to be associated with the combo ).

This continued until Ellington basically signed exclusively to Brunswick in 1932 and stayed with them through late 1936, when Irving Mills put him on Mills ' new Master label, and various small groups within Ellington's band recorded on Mills ' Variety label ' fronted ' by his 4 main soloists, Barney Bigard, Rex Stewart, Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams.

Ellington's eldest grandson Edward Kennedy Ellington II also is a musician and maintains a small salaried band known as the Duke Ellington Legacy, which frequently comprises the core of the big band operated by The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts.

Ellington's compositions are now the staple of the repertoire of music conservatories, and even high-school band programs that have embraced his music continue to give it life and voice.

Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington's early band.

The following year, in 1929 Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten's ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington's or Fletcher Henderson's.

Calloway quickly proved so popular that his band became the " co-house " band with Ellington's, and his group began touring nationwide when not playing the Cotton Club.

In 1927 he joined Duke Ellington's band in New York, where he stayed until 1942.

After leaving Ellington's Orchestra, he moved to Los Angeles, California and did sound track work, including an onscreen featured role with an allstar band led by Louis Armstrong in the 1947 film New Orleans.

In 1927 Don Redman left Fletcher Henderson's orchestra to become the Cotton Pickers ' musical director, and he assembled a band which rivalled Henderson's and Duke Ellington's.

According to saxophonist Otto Hardwick, Ellington's band members had to shanghai Miley into joining them for his first performance, at the Hollywood on Broadway in 1923, At the time, Ellington's Washingtonians were formally led by Elmer Snowden, but Ellington, who factually had already been running the formation, also took over its official leadership a few months later.

He and fellow band member, trombonist Joe " Tricky Sam " Nanton, created the " Wah-wah " sound that characterized Ellington's early Jungle Music style.

Miley's lifestyle eventually led to his breaking up with Ellington's band in 1929, but his influence on the Duke Ellington Orchestra lasted far longer.

Cab Calloway's orchestra brought its Brown Sugar revue to the club in 1930, replacing Ellington's group after its departure in 1931 ; Jimmie Lunceford's band replaced Calloway's in 1934, while Ellington, Armstrong, and Calloway returned to perform at the club in later years.

With a sweet, clear singing voice, she was a popular attraction with Ellington's band.

:( The Gotham Stompers session included members of Ellington's band plus members of Chick Webb's.

On January 16, 1938, the Benny Goodman Orchestra gave a sold-out swing and jazz concert that also featured, among other guest performers, Count Basie and members of Duke Ellington's orchestra.

The swing era lasted until the mid-1940s, and produced popular tunes such as Duke Ellington's " Cotton Tail " ( 1940 ) and Billy Strayhorn's " Take the ' A ' Train " ( 1941 ).

Despite the band's comic veneer, Lunceford always maintained professionalism in the music befitting a former teacher ; this professionalism paid off and during the apex of swing in the 1930s, the Orchestra was considered the equal of Duke Ellington's, Earl Hines ' or Count Basie's.

They dedicated an acoustic version of Duke Ellington's " Jump for Joy " to him, a song they never performed at any other time of their career.

From the beginning of their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every label including Brunswick, Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Perfect, Pathe, the ARC / Plaza group of labels ( Cameo, Romeo, Lincoln, Oriole, Domino, Jewel, Banner ), Hit of the Week, and Columbia's cheaper labels ( Harmony, Diva, Velvet Tone, Clarion ) labels which gave Ellington popular recognition, as well giving Ellington's fans the opportunity of hearing multiple versions of the same song.

Lacking overseas opportunities and motion picture appearances, Ellington's Orchestra survived on " one-nighters " and whatever else came their way.

On the other hand Ellington's friend Earl Hines's twenty solo " transformative versions " of Ellington compositions were described by Ben Ratliff, the New York Times jazz critic, as " as good an example of the jazz process as anything out there.

In the summer of that year, his father died, and due to many expenses, Ellington's finances were tight.

Unfortunately, starting a regular pattern, Ellington's longer works were generally not well received.

From 1955 through 1960 Erdman toured extensively as a solo artist throughout the U. S. Notable works from her repertory of that period include Changingwoman ( 1951 ) with a commissioned score by Henry Cowell including vocalizations by Erdman as she moved through a multi-colored abstract projected environment, Portrait of a Lady created to jazz recordings that were layered by John Cage into his eight track commissioned score, Dawn Song, a lyrical solo with commissioned score by Alan Hovhaness, Fearful Symmetry ( 1956 ) an allegory in six visions inspired by William Blake's poem, The Tyger to Ezra Laderman's Sonata for Violincello in which Erdman emerged from and interacted with a metal sculpture by Carlus Dyer, and Four Portraits from Duke Ellington's Shakespeare Album ( 1958 ), a suite of comic portrayals of Shakespearean heroines.

Aside from the actual festival performance of " Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue ", including the distant-sounding Gonsalves solo, the original album used re-creations, note for note, of some of the set's highlights, which were secretly re-recorded in the studio in spite of Ellington's objection.

The director did not want to give audiences the impression that Ellington's band was racially integrated, and was worried that two band members were too light skinned.

Reporter Tukufu Zuberi brought the plates to the Smithsonian Institution, where curator John Hasse, who oversees the Duke Ellington collection, certified that the plates were most likely used for the first publications for Ellington's Tempo Publishing Company.

The recordings were worldwide hits and catapulted both Adelaide's and Ellington's careers into the mainstream.

* Isfahan ( song ), a Billy Strayhorn composition on Duke Ellington's The Far East Suite

* " The Feeling of Jazz "-words to Duke Ellington's composition

The New Yorker wrote that Epitaph represents the first advance in jazz composition since Duke Ellington's Black, Brown, and Beige which was written in 1943.

He had composed and recorded Creole Rhapsody as early as 1931 ( issued as both sides of a 12 " record for Victor and both sides of a 10 " record for Brunswick ), and his tribute to his mother, " Reminiscing in Tempo ," had filled four 10 " record sides in 1935 ; however, it was not until the 1940s that this became a regular feature of Ellington's work.

At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves ' solo in Ellington's song " Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue " contained 27 choruses ; the publicity from which is credited with reviving Ellington's career.

After some time on a chorus line at New York's Roxy Theater, she auditioned with the big band of Duke Ellington at age 16 ; though she never made it into Ellington's band, she soon became a singer with bands led by Randy Brooks, Art Mooney, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Barnet, and Claude Thornhill.

This was followed by theatre tours and concert appearances ; she sang at Duke Ellington's memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1974, and presented a one-woman show at Carnegie Hall in October 1988.

Two years later, he recorded further R & B hits ; on " I Quit My Pretty Mama " and " Guess Who " he was backed by members of Duke Ellington's band.

When asked to explain his unusual choice of material for a classical pianist, O ' Riley has often quoted Duke Ellington's statement that " there are two kinds of music.