Born April 29,1899, (Duke) Edward Kennedy Ellington grew to be the most popular jazz composer
of all time. His famous Duke Ellington Orchestra always remained among the top five during 1926-74. He wrote literally thousands of songs, of which hundreds became standards. Ellington, as an arranger, was incredibly talented, writing for his very individual players rather than for an anonymous horn section and, not being content to play his songs the same way every time, he constantly rearranged them.
Duke, who was born in Washington D.C., started playing at the age of seven. He knew he wanted to play music for the rest of his life. He started performing in Washington and, at the age of 18, put a huge ad in the yellow pages, which was quickly answered. He had many bands to work with now. His first group, the Washingtonians, performed, and through the Twenties. Duke gained popularity; his gigs at the Cotton Club were broadcast nationally. From the mid Twenties on, Duke's life was filled with one success after another. In 1929 Ellington appeared in a motion picture. Unlike most black actors of the time, Ellington was portrayed as a sophisticated man. That trait has always been connected with Duke Ellington.
With the rise of swing in the 1935, Duke's name continued to remain on top. In fact, it grew even stronger adding more players. Duke's compositions from this time period have become standards in the field of jazz. Throughout the 1940s, Duke's orchestra played at an annual concert at Carnegie Hall.
During the 1950s, Ellington was in the only slump of his career. With some members leaving to join their own group, Duke's orchestra went into a bit of a turnaround but remained talented overall. His talent brought him together with many fine jazz personalities like Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Count Basie, and Ella Fitzgerald.
The band that Duke Ellington formed was starting to lessen in numbers. The members were dying and by 1974 Duke had been diagnosed with cancer and spent his 75th birthday in a hospital. Duke Ellington died four years later and was greatly missed. His impact on the music of jazz will never be matched.
Thelonious Monk is by far the definitive jazz pianist. His style was unique and complex.
His peers and the critics originally thought him crazy while he struggled, never compromising, trying to make ends meet. During the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s Monk, who had just discovered his style, went through critical down time. Few people (Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie) even recognized his incredible genius. Scholars have realized that he originally sounded similar to traditional pianists, but that he began to involve advanced harmonies and complex rhythms early on.
Monk's luck began to turn up when he got an extensive gig at the Five Spot in New York. He worked with a quartet featuring saxophonist John Coltrane. His genius was recognized and his popularity increased. He began playing with more groups and his recordings were extensive. While incredibly popular during the 1960s, Monk played through the beginning of the 1970s, but then he retired. He was suffering a mental illness and living a life away from
public before he passed away.
Although many of his songs have taken a while to be understood, some of Monk's works have become standards in the Jazz field. Most notably "Round Midnight."
Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of
all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated. Somehow Gillespie could make any "wrong" note fit and harmonically he was ahead of everyone in the 1940s, including Charlie Parker. Unlike Bird, Dizzy was an enthusiastic teacher who wrote down his musical innovations and was eager to explain them to the next generation, thereby insuring that bebop would eventually become the foundation of jazz.
John Birks Gillespie, born in 1917, originally played the trombone. He taught himself the musical instrument, but when he was 12 he decided to switch to trumpet. In 1935 he was accepted into an agricultural school but dropped out to pursue music. He grew up in poverty and he knew this was a radical decision.
His largest influence was Roy Eldridge. And in 1937 he joined the Teddy Hill's Orchestra playing trumpet (the same position Roy had). In short, Dizzy met with many great musicians of the time, namely Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker. His success grew in the 1940s as his recordings did. As a side note, Woody Herman at one time even suggested that he quit playing and stick only to arranging!
His be-bop group was incredibly popular, but the fad ended during the 1950s. He occasionally had reunions with Charlie Parker and remained a popular jazz musician. He was, at the very least, an institution. During the 1970s and 1980s, he traveled extensively and inspired many young artists. Although his playing began to decline, his character was still admired. He passed away in 1993.