{"id":24562,"date":"2013-09-08T17:06:19","date_gmt":"2013-09-08T21:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/?p=24562"},"modified":"2013-09-08T17:06:29","modified_gmt":"2013-09-08T21:06:29","slug":"sunday-jazz-corner-with-duke-ellington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/?p=24562","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Jazz Corner with Duke Ellington"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Duke-Ellington-9286338-1-402\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Duke Ellington’s last words were, “Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered”.\u00a0 He\u00a0was an American composer, pianist, and jazz-orchestra leader\u00a0with a career\u00a0that spanned more than 50 years. \u00a0Ellington led his orchestra from 1923 until his death. \u00a0He was born \u00a0April 29, 1899 and passed along on May 24, 1974. \u00a0He was known as a key participant of \u00a0the Harlem Renaissance era and his legacy lives on in Harlem and all around the world.<\/p>\n

For this post I chose two video performances “Take The A Train” live in Harlem 1964, and a video of Ellington and his band performing “It Don’t Mean A Thing” back in 1943.<\/p>\n

Duke Ellington married his high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson, on July 2, 1918, when he was 19. \u00a0Shortly after their marriage, on March 11, 1919 Edna gave birth to their only son,\u00a0Mercer Kennedy Ellington<\/a>. \u00a0Ellington was joined in New York City by his wife and son in the late twenties, but the couple soon permanently separated. \u00a0According to her obituary in\u00a0Jet<\/a><\/i>\u00a0magazine, she was “homesick for Washington” and returned (she died in 1967). \u00a0In 1938 he met and moved in with Cotton Club employee Beatrice “Evie” Ellis, who with with him during his Cotton Club years in Harlem. \u00a0The relationship with Ellis, though stormy, continued after Ellington met Fernandae de Castro Monte in the early 1960s. Ellington supported both women for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

At his funeral, attended by over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Harlem<\/a>, Ella Fitzgerald\u00a0summed up the occasion, “It’s a very sad day. A genius has passed”. \u00a0He was laid to rest in the\u00a0Woodlawn Cemetery<\/a>, The Bronx, New York City. \u00a0His reputation increased after his death and the\u00a0Pulitzer Prize<\/a>\u00a0Board bestowed on him a special posthumous honor in 1999.<\/p>\n

\"350px-Duke_Ellington_1\"<\/a>
Duke Ellington in 1973<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VIDEO: Duke Ellington Live in Harlem “Take The A Train” (1964) features Ernie Shepard on vocals.<\/p>\n