Billy Strayhorn was an arranger of great renown in the Duke Ellington orchestra beginning in 1938.

In high school he was given his first oil paints and learned about his aunt Bessye Bearden's art salons, which stars like Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes attended.

Brubeck personally found this accolade embarrassing since he considered Duke Ellington more deserving of it and was convinced that himself being Caucasian as opposed to Ellington being African American was a factor for why he was favored.

Notable jazz bassists from the 1940s to the 1950s included bassist Jimmy Blanton ( 1918 – 1942 ) whose short tenure in the Duke Ellington Swing band ( cut short by his death from tuberculosis ) introduced new melodic and harmonic solo ideas for the instrument ; bassist Ray Brown ( 1926 – 2002 ), known for backing Beboppers Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum and Charlie Parker, and forming the Modern Jazz Quartet ; hard bop bassist Ron Carter ( born 1937 ), who has appeared on 3, 500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, including LPs by Thelonious Monk and Wes Montgomery and many Blue Note Records artists ; and Paul Chambers ( 1935 – 1969 ), a member of the Miles Davis Quintet ( including the landmark modal jazz recording Kind of Blue ) and many other 1950s and 1960s rhythm sections, was known for his virtuosic improvisations.

The halftime show was a tribute to American jazz composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington, also featuring the Grambling State University Band along with Ellington's son Mercer.

Edward Kennedy " Duke " Ellington ( April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974 ) was an American composer, pianist, and big-band leader.

" These included many of the musicians who were members of his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most well-known jazz orchestral units in the history of jazz.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Kennedy Ellington.

They lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place ( now Ward Place ), NW in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D. C. His father, James Edward Ellington, was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina on April 15, 1879 and moved to Washington, D. C. in 1886 with his parents.

Though Ellington took piano lessons, he was more interested in baseball.

" In his autobiography, Music is my Mistress ( 1973 ), Ellington said he missed more lessons than he attended, feeling at the time that playing the piano was not his talent.

Ellington was also inspired by his first encounters with stride pianists James P. Johnson and Luckey Roberts.

When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington made the fateful decision to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D. C., and move to Harlem, becoming one of the figures of the Harlem Renaissance.

This was followed in September 1923 by a move to the Hollywood Club – 49th and Broadway – and a four-year engagement, which gave Ellington a solid artistic base.

As a bandleader, Ellington was not a strict disciplinarian ; he maintained control of his orchestra with a crafty combination of charm, humor, flattery, and astute psychology.

For agent Mills it was a publicity triumph, as Ellington was now internationally known.

Jazz pianist and composer, Frank Signorelli, who collaborated on the jazz standards " A Blues Serenade ", recorded by Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington, " Gypsy ", and " Stairway to the Stars ", joined ODJB for a brief time in 1921.

He joined Ellington in 1926.

When Joe Nanton joined the Ellington band, he was eager to solo.

It was the first band I ever joined where the musicians carried records on the road ... Duke Ellington records ... Woody Herman discs Charlie Barnet V-Discs ... That's the first time I sort of got into jazz.

Readdy joined NASA's Johnson Space Center in October 1986 as a research pilot at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas, where he served as program manager for the highly-modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

After stints with Elmer Snowden, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and Luis Russell, Stewart joined the Ellington band in 1934, in replacement of Freddie Jenkins.

In Series 3, Lance Ellington and Andrea Grant joined the singing team.

Garrett's own career as a saxophonist took off when he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1978, then led by Duke's son, Mercer Ellington.

One of the earliest recorded examples of the hybrid valve / slide trombone can be found on a Duke Ellington recording, as Puerto Rica-born trombonist Juan Tizol started using it after he joined Duke's orchestra in 1929.

" Ellington was called up in the spring of 1940 when he joined the RAF as a physical training instructor where he served throughout the war.

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.

* 1943 – Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.

** Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.

Duke Ellington at the Hurricane Club in New York, May 1943

Ellington continued to make vital and innovative recordings, including The Far East Suite ( 1966 ), the New Orleans Suite ( 1970 ), and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse ( 1971 ), much of it inspired by his world tours.

Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday, and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City.

Numerous memorials have been dedicated to Duke Ellington, in cities from New York and Washington, D. C. to Los Angeles.

A large memorial to Ellington, created by sculptor Robert Graham, was dedicated in 1997 in New York's Central Park, near Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, an intersection named Duke Ellington Circle.

In similar fashion, he lost the chance of an engagement at New York City's famous Cotton Club when he held out for more money ; young Duke Ellington took the job and subsequently catapulted to fame.

He also met the American composer George Gershwin in New York and went with him to hear jazz in Harlem, probably hearing some of the famous jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington.

Ellington is a town in Chautauqua County, New York, United States.

ht: Ellington, New York

Next he moved to New York City where he played with Wilber Sweatman's band before joining Duke Ellington.

( Like many of his contemporary New Orleans bassists, Braud doubled on tuba, and he recorded on that instrument on some sides with Ellington.

He played with other New York bands including those of Kaiser Marshall, Hot Lips Page, and Sidney Bechet, and returned for a while to Ellington in 1944.

Washington's achievements included appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival ( 1955 – 59 ), the Randalls Island Jazz Festival in New York City ( 1959 ), and the International Jazz Festival in Washington D. C. ( 1962 ), frequent gigs at Birdland ( 1958, 1961 – 62 ), and performances in 1963 with Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

So did his social, finding him hobnobbing with George Gershwin, Fred Astaire, Duke Ellington, and other music giants in the New York scene.

Gennett is best remembered for the wealth of early jazz talent recorded on the label, including sessions by Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, " King " Joe Oliver's band with the young Louis Armstrong, Lois Deppe's Serenaders with the young Earl Hines, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, The Red Onion Jazz Babies, The State Street Ramblers, Zach Whyte and his Chocolate Beau Brummels, Alphonse Trent and his Orchestra and many others.

** Duke Ellington for " New Orleans Suite "

1939 sheet music cover, " Introduced by Glenn Miller ", Shapiro, Bernstein, and Co., New York. Notable artists who have recorded big-band versions of " In The Mood " include the Joe Loss Orchestra, Xavier Cugat, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Lubo D ' Orio, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, The Shadows and John Williams with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Important orchestras in New York were led by Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman and Duke Ellington.

Miley's talent and unique style were soon noticed in New York's jazz scene-among others by Duke Ellington who wanted him to jump in for trumpeter Arthur Whetsol.