Duke Ellington is considered by many to be America’s greatest composer. He wrote over 2,000 compositions, many of which have become standards. His legacy also lives on as arranger and bandleader. Most bandleaders play arrangements of pieces by other people, but Ellington had the unique position of leading a band that could play his own compositions. He thus had the ability to hear his pieces performed as soon as he wrote them and to tweak them over the course of many years. Ellington also combined instruments in ways not heard before, and he arranged pieces to take advantage of the particular abilities of the individual musicians in his band.

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Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 1899. His father was a butler who sometimes worked in the White House. He passed on elegant manners to his son, a quality that would enable him to be comfortable in all levels of society. His mother doted on her son and taught him that obstacles were things to be overcome. This was reflected in Ellington’s statement when questioned about a certain inequity: "I took the energy required to pout, and I wrote a blues."

In the 1920s, Ellington led a band at the Cotton Club, a night spot in Harlem which was very popular among celebrities and politicians. The exciting sounds of this band earned it a reputation for playing "jungle music." Regular broadcasts from the Cotton Club on one of the first radio networks spread his fame through the country.

Duke Ellington wrote dozens of so-called "three-minute masterpieces"—arranged to fit on one side of a phonograph record. As technology changed, he also worked in larger forms, including a ballet, several suites, and three sacred concerts. His collaboration with Billy Strayhorn produced many of the band’s biggest hits.

The early 1950s were a tough time for big bands, but Ellington kept his band together by subsidizing it with royalties from his recordings. His 1956 appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival revived interest in his band and his music. Ellington continued to compose, tour and perform until his death in 1974.