Duke Ellington was an American composer his real name was Edward, but his class mate gave him the nickname Duke and it stuck. While attending Dunbar High School in Washington D.C. he learned how to read and write music and improve his technique. By 1923 he moved to New York and formed his own band, called the Washingtonians. He was a bandleader of a jazz orchestra, but on the side he was a pianist. Ellington married his wife Edna when he was 19, she was his girlfriend since high school. Duke influenced people around the world, he gave American music a new sound for the first time. In the 1920s he preformed in Broadway nightclubs as a bandleader for a sextet group which later formed a 10 piece ensemble. Some of his most popular songs included "Concerto for Cootie," "Cotton Tail" and "Ko-Ko." "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That
Swing," "Sophisticated Lady," "Prelude to a Kiss," "Solitude," and
"Satin Doll. He played over 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia he also and was considered Americas greatest composer.
He even after his death in 1974, he remains one of the most influential figures in jazz.http://www.biography.com/people/duke-ellington-9286338
http://www.dukeellington.com/ellingtonbio.html
http://www.thedukeellingtonsociety.org/dukeellington/dukebio.asp
