(ThyBlackMan.com) Duke Ellington, a giant in jazz history, was more than just a composer and bandleader—he was a cultural architect whose music told the stories of Black excellence, struggle, and ...

Duke Ellington's impact on jazz seems beyond measure, no matter how you count it. He wrote, co-wrote or took credit for writing more than 1,000 compositions over a 50-year span. According to one ...

Performances by Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra are always masterful examples of technical fluency. Playing music that covers the gamut of the jazz century, the orchestra’s ...

Editor’s Note: Billy Strayhorn, who was a composer and musician with Duke Ellington and wrote some of the best-known jazz songs of the age, was born on Nov. 29, 1915 in Dayton. In recognition of that ...

His work continues to invoke the mood and character of the jazz clubs of his era – “The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician,” said Ellington. Here are seven facts about the artist ...

This year marks 125 years since the birth of jazz legend Duke Ellington. The bandleader, composer and pianist died 50 years ago. In the new book “The Jazzmen,” biographer Larry Tye sets out to ...

When gathering material for a new recording, one time-honored rule of thumb is that it is hard to stray too far off course when revisiting the musical handiwork of renowned composer Duke Ellington and ...

In 1963, Duke Ellington gave an interview on Swedish Television remarking that in the hundred years since the Emancipation Proclamation the demands for equality were growing stronger. At the time, ...

Mercedes Ellington has always known her grandfather was different. The world-renowned dancer can still vividly recall heading to New York City’s Apollo Theater alongside her grandmother to watch her ...