What was duke ellington band called

He let his music speak for him. In time, Duke Ellington's band got bigger. It was a jazz orchestra. More people began hearing the orchestra's music.

They could hear it on a radio program from the Cotton Club. The program often could be heard all over the United States. At the same time, Duke Ellington and the members of his orchestra began recording their songs.

Their first hit record was one of their most famous. It was recorded in October of nineteen thirty. It was called "Dreamy Blues. It is still considered a great blues song and is often played today. It is called "Mood Indigo.

An orchestra is a team made up of individual players. Like any team, the individuals in an orchestra must cooperate to produce good music. The leader of a team, or an orchestra, must learn the strength and the weakness of each member.

And a good leader will use this knowledge to make the team or orchestra produce the best result. In the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, members of a dance orchestra never stayed with one group for long. Musicians moved from group to group. It has to be with intent. African-American composer, pianist, and bandleader.

Ellington was one of the leading figures in American jazz, and created a unique, recognizable style. It is virtually impossible to separate Duke Ellington from the band that he led, for it was both the central vehicle for his career and, in many ways, an extension of himself.

At the same time, Ellington was a strong individual force in the world of jazz—its most prolific creator with more than pieces of various kinds to his name and a source of inspiration for many generations. Ellington began piano study at the age of seven and, in his twenties, had begun playing in clubs in New York with a group called the Washingtonians.

The Ellington Orchestra made another feature film, Murder at the Vanities, in the spring of Even as he became more ambitious, however, he was rarely out of the hit parade, scoring another Top Ten hit, "Cotton," in the fall of , and two more, "Love Is Like a Cigarette" and "Oh Babe! Maybe Someday," in Meanwhile, they were scoring Top Ten hits with "Scattin' at the Kit-Kat" and the swing standard "Caravan," co-written by valve trombonist Juan Tizol , and Ellington was continuing to pen extended instrumental works such as "Diminuendo in Blue" and "Crescendo in Blue.

The Ellington band underwent several notable changes at the end of the s. After several years recording more or less regularly for Brunswick, Ellington moved to Victor. In early Billy Strayhorn , a young composer, arranger, and pianist, joined the organization.

He did not usually perform with the orchestra, but he became Ellington 's composition partner to the extent that soon it was impossible to tell where Ellington 's writing left off and Strayhorn 's began.

Two key personnel changes strengthened the outfit with the acquisition of bassist Jimmy Blanton in September and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster in December. Their impact on Ellington 's sound was so profound that their relatively brief tenure has been dubbed "the Blanton-Webster Band" by jazz fans. These various changes were encapsulated by the Victor release of Strayhorn 's "Take the 'A' Train," a swing era standard, in the summer of That same summer, Ellington was in Los Angeles, where his stage musical, Jump for Joy, opened on July 10 and ran for performances.

The U. Unable to record and with touring curtailed, Ellington found an opportunity to return to extended composition with the first of a series of annual recitals at Carnegie Hall on January 23, , at which he premiered "Black, Brown and Beige.

Meanwhile, the record labels, stymied for hits, began looking into their artists' back catalogs. With the end of the war, Ellington 's period as a major commercial force on records largely came to an end, but unlike other big bandleaders, who disbanded as the swing era passed, Ellington , who predated the era, simply went on touring, augmenting his diminished road revenues with his songwriting royalties to keep his band afloat.

In a musical climate in which jazz was veering away from popular music and toward bebop, and popular music was being dominated by singers, the Ellington band no longer had a place at the top of the business; but it kept working.

And Ellington kept trying more extended pieces. In , he teamed with lyricist John Latouche to write the music for the Broadway musical Beggar's Holiday, which opened on December 26 and ran performances.

And he wrote his first full-length background score for a feature film with 's The Asphalt Jungle. The first half of the s was a difficult period for Ellington , who suffered many personnel defections. During his lifetime, Ellington received hundreds of distinctions, including 11 Grammy Awards and 19 honorary doctorate degrees.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the United States and the Legion of Honor by France, the highest civilian honors in each country, respectively. In the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. He is considered the greatest composer in the history of jazz music and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.

Unlike other great bandleaders, Ellington personally created most of the music played by his orchestra. Ellington composed nearly works, including musical comedies, music for ballet and motion pictures, an opera, and numerous short songs and instrumentals.

He composed exclusively for his jazz big band, seeking out players with distinct musical styles.