190 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the Presenthis father, James Edward Kennedy, who were part of D.C.’s
emerging black bourgeoisie. Although exposed to music
lessons at an early age, Ellington focused more on sports
and art than music throughout much of his early child-
hood. However, by the time he was in high school, he had
realized his connection with and love for music. Aft er hear-
ing Harvey Brooks play ragtime piano, Ellington was sud-
denly inspired to begin seriously learning the instrument
and the music. He learned a few tricks from Brooks and
then took lessons on how to read music and improve his
piano-playing techniques from Oliver “Doc” Perry and
Louis Brown, other D.C.-area musicians. With confi dence
resulting from his training, Ellington began to play dif-
ferent venues throughout Washington, D.C. His sudden
success gigging around town prompted him to leave high
school several months prior to graduation and embark on
what would be a prolifi c, lifelong, history-making career as
a musician, bandleader, composer, and “cultural ambassa-
dor” for the United States.
In 1917, Duke Ellington formed his fi rst band, Duke’s
Serenaders, which played at clubs and events in Washing-
ton, Maryland, and Virginia for approximately fi ve years.
During this time, Ellington moved out of his parents’ house,
bought his own home, and married Edna Th ompson. In
1919, Mercer Kennedy Ellington was born, who would later
follow in his dad’s footsteps as leader of the Ellington Or-
chestra. By 1923, Ellington had made the big move to New
York and set up his band “Th e Washingtonians,” a group
that gained notoriety during the Prohibition Era playing
such clubs as the Exclusive Club, the Hollywood Club, and
the famous Cotton Club, which nationally broadcasted Th e
Washingtonians on a live show called “From the Cotton
Club.” Ellington recorded his fi rst tunes, “East Saint Louis
Toodle-Oo” and “Black and Tan Fantasy,” in 1927, just prior
to signing an agreement with Irving Mills, which opened
doors to a number of recording companies, including Co-
lumbia, Brunswick, and Victor. His move to New York and
the connections he made there helped catapult Ellington
and his band onto the international stage, which increased
their popularity worldwide, ultimately bringing the El-
lington Orchestra—no longer Th e Washingtonians—both
national and international acclaim.
Wynton Marsalis has described Duke Ellington as “the
very greatest of great facilitators” because of his ability to
play any rhythmic style and to organize, manage, and leador king was given respect and honor for his position. Elec-
tion Day, although associated with the American North,
did occur in Brazil and throughout the Caribbean. In Bra-
zil and the Caribbean, there was one signifi cant diff erence:
women could be elected queens, and there could be other
elected female offi cials.
See also: Africanisms; Black Folk Culture; Pinkster Festival;
Slave Culture
Dawn MilesBibliography
Piersen, William D. Black Yankees: Th e Development of an Afro-
American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.
White, Shane. “ ‘It Was a Proud Day’: African Americans, Festi-
vals, and Parades in the North, 1741–1834.” Th e Journal of
American History 81 (1994):13–50.
Ellington, Duke
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1889–1974), born in
Washington, D.C., was a jazz pianist, bandleader, and com-
poser who, throughout the course of his life, recorded over
2,000 compositions and performed over 20,000 concerts
across the globe. Ellington’s music combined African Amer-
ican musical traditions of New Orleans jazz music and the
blues of the Deep South with his own unique compositional
style that borrowed ideas from the European classical musi-
cal tradition. An ability to combine diff erent musical tradi-
tions and styles led to Ellington’s enormous cross-sectional
appeal and international success over the course of his life.
Th e long-ensuing argument over whether Duke Ellington’s
music is African American or American music, jazz music
or simply music, is misguided, for Ellington’s music cannot
be defi ned as solely one or the other; rather it is both Ameri-
can and African American, both jazz music and music in
general—universal in its dialogue with all humanity, but
also particular in the way it expresses the voice of the Afri-
can American experience.
Th e title of “Duke” was bestowed on Ellington by a
childhood friend because of the dignifi ed way Ellington
presented himself, a result of his etiquette training and so-
cialization by his mother, Daisy Kennedy Ellington, and