Early career Working as a freelance
sign painter from 1917, Ellington began assembling groups to play for dances. In 1919, he met drummer
Sonny Greer from New Jersey, who encouraged Ellington's ambition to become a professional musician. Ellington built his music business through his day job. When a customer asked him to make a sign for a dance or party, he would ask if they had musical entertainment; if not, Ellington would offer to play for the occasion. He also had a messenger job with the
U.S. Navy and
State departments, where he made a wide range of contacts. Ellington moved out of his parents' home and bought his own as he became a successful pianist. At first, he played in other ensembles, and in late 1917 formed his first group, "The Duke's Serenaders" ("Colored Syncopators", his telephone directory advertising proclaimed). Ellington played throughout the D.C. area and into
Virginia for private society balls and embassy parties. The band included childhood friend
Otto Hardwick, who began playing the string bass, then moved to
C-melody saxophone, and finally settled on alto saxophone;
Arthur Whetsel on trumpet;
Elmer Snowden on banjo; and Sonny Greer on drums. The band thrived, performing for both African-American and white audiences, rare in the
segregated society of the day. " (1927) When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the
Wilbur Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington left his successful career in D.C. and moved to
Harlem, ultimately becoming part of the
Harlem Renaissance. New dance crazes such as the
Charleston emerged in Harlem, as well as
African-American musical theater, including
Eubie Blake's and
Noble Sissle's (the latter of whom was his neighbor)
Shuffle Along. After the young musicians left the Sweatman Orchestra to strike out on their own, they found an emerging jazz scene that was highly competitive with difficult inroad. They
hustled pool by day and played whatever gigs they could find. The young band met stride pianist
Willie "the Lion" Smith, who introduced them to the scene and gave them some money. They played at
rent-house parties for income. After a few months, the young musicians returned to Washington, D.C., feeling discouraged. In June 1923, they played a gig in
Atlantic City, New Jersey, and another at the prestigious Exclusive Club in Harlem. This was followed in September 1923 by a move to the Hollywood Club (at 49th and
Broadway) and a four-year engagement, which gave Ellington a solid artistic base. He was known to play the
bugle at the end of each performance. The group was initially called "Elmer Snowden and his Black Sox Orchestra" and had seven members, including trumpeter
James "Bubber" Miley. They renamed themselves The Washingtonians. Snowden left the group in early 1924, and Ellington took over as bandleader. After a fire, the club was re-opened as the Club Kentucky (often referred to as the Kentucky Club). Ellington then made eight records in 1924, receiving composing credit on three including "Choo Choo". In 1925, Ellington contributed four songs to
Chocolate Kiddies, starring
Lottie Gee and
Adelaide Hall, an all–African-American
revue which introduced European audiences to African-American styles and performers. Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra grew to a group of ten players; they developed their own sound via the non-traditional expression of Ellington's arrangements, the street rhythms of Harlem, and the exotic-sounding trombone
growls and
wah-wahs, high-squealing trumpets, and saxophone
blues licks of the band members. For a short time, soprano saxophonist and clarinetist
Sidney Bechet played with them, reportedly becoming the dominant personality in the group, with Sonny Greer saying Bechet "fitted out the band like a glove". His presence resulted in friction with Miley and trombonist
Charlie Irvis, whose styles differed from Bechet's
New Orleans-influenced playing. It was mainly Bechet's unreliability—he was absent for three days in succession—which made his association with Ellington short-lived.
Cotton Club engagement In October 1926, Ellington made an agreement with agent-publisher
Irving Mills, giving Mills a 45% interest in Ellington's future. Mills had an eye for new talent and published compositions by
Hoagy Carmichael,
Dorothy Fields, and
Harold Arlen early in their careers. After recording a handful of
acoustic sides during 1924–26, Ellington's signing with Mills allowed him to record prolifically. However, sometimes he recorded different versions of the same tune. Mills regularly took a co-composer credit. From the beginning of their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every label, including
Brunswick,
Victor,
Columbia,
OKeh,
Pathé (and its subsidiary,
Perfect), the
ARC/Plaza group of labels (
Oriole,
Domino,
Jewel,
Banner) and their dime-store labels (
Cameo,
Lincoln,
Romeo),
Hit of the Week, and
Columbia's cheaper labels (
Harmony,
Diva,
Velvet Tone, Clarion), labels that gave Ellington popular recognition. On OKeh, his records were usually issued as "The Harlem Footwarmers". In contrast, the Brunswicks were usually issued as "The Jungle Band". "Whoopee Makers" and "the Ten BlackBerries" were other pseudonyms. In September 1927,
King Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group as the house band at Harlem's
Cotton Club; the offer passed to Ellington after
Jimmy McHugh suggested him and Mills arranged an audition. Ellington had to increase from a six to 11-piece group to meet the requirements of the Cotton Club's management for the audition, and the engagement finally began on December 4. With a weekly radio broadcast, the Cotton Club's exclusively white and wealthy clientele poured in nightly to see them. At the Cotton Club, Ellington's group performed all the music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers,
vaudeville,
burlesque, music, and
illicit alcohol. The musical numbers were composed by Jimmy McHugh and the lyrics were written by Dorothy Fields (later Harold Arlen and
Ted Koehler), with some Ellington originals mixed in. (Here, he moved in with a dancer, his second wife
Mildred Dixon). Weekly radio broadcasts from the club gave Ellington national exposure. At the same time, Ellington also recorded Fields–McHugh and
Fats Waller–
Andy Razaf songs. recorded "
Creole Love Call" with Ellington in 1927. The recording became a worldwide hit. Although trumpeter Bubber Miley was a member of the orchestra for only a short period, he had a major influence on Ellington's sound. As an early exponent of growl trumpet, Miley changed the sweet dance band sound of the group to one that was hotter, which contemporaries termed "Jungle Style", which can be seen in his feature chorus in "
East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" (1926). In October 1927, Ellington and his Orchestra recorded several compositions with
Adelaide Hall. One side in particular, "
Creole Love Call", became a worldwide sensation and gave both Ellington and Hall their first hit record. Miley had composed most of "Creole Love Call" and "
Black and Tan Fantasy". An alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider fame. He died in 1932 at the age of 29, but he was an important influence on
Cootie Williams, who replaced him. In 1929, the Cotton Club Orchestra appeared on stage for several months in
Florenz Ziegfeld's
Show Girl, along with vaudeville stars
Jimmy Durante,
Eddie Foy Jr., and
Ruby Keeler, and with music and lyrics by
George Gershwin and
Gus Kahn.
Will Vodery, Ziegfeld's musical supervisor, recommended Ellington for the show. According to John Edward Hasse's
Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, "Perhaps during the run of
Show Girl, Ellington received what he later termed 'valuable lessons in orchestration from Will Vody. In his 1946 biography,
Duke Ellington,
Barry Ulanov wrote: Ellington's film work began with
Black and Tan (1929), a 19-minute all–African-American
RKO short in which he played the hero "Duke". He also appeared in the
Amos 'n' Andy film
Check and Double Check released in 1930, which features the orchestra playing "Old Man Blues" in an extended ballroom scene. That year, Ellington and his Orchestra connected with a completely different audience in a concert with
Maurice Chevalier, and later, they performed at the
Roseland Ballroom, "America's foremost ballroom". Australian-born composer
Percy Grainger was an early admirer and supporter. He wrote, "The three greatest composers who ever lived are
Bach, Delius and Duke Ellington. Unfortunately, Bach is dead, Delius is very ill but we are happy to have with us today The Duke". Ellington's first period at the Cotton Club concluded in 1931.
Early-1930s Ellington led the orchestra by conducting from the keyboard using piano cues and visual gestures; very rarely did he conduct using a baton. By 1932, his orchestra consisted of six brass instruments, four reeds, and a rhythm section of four players. As the leader, Ellington was not a strict disciplinarian; he maintained control of his orchestra with a combination of charm, humor, flattery, and astute psychology. A complex, private person, he revealed his feelings to only his closest intimates. He effectively used his public persona to deflect attention away from himself. Ellington signed exclusively to Brunswick in 1932 and stayed with them through to late 1936 (albeit with a short-lived 1933–34 switch to Victor when Irving Mills temporarily moved his acts from Brunswick). As the
Great Depression worsened, the recording industry was in crisis, dropping over 90% of its artists by 1933.
Ivie Anderson was hired as the Ellington Orchestra's featured vocalist in 1931. She is the vocalist on "
It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932), among other recordings. Sonny Greer had been providing occasional vocals and continued to do so in a cross-talk feature with Anderson. Radio exposure helped maintain Ellington's public profile as his orchestra began to tour. The other
78s of this era include "
Mood Indigo" (1930), "
Sophisticated Lady" (1933), "
(In My) Solitude" (1934), and "
In a Sentimental Mood" (1935). While Ellington's United States audience remained mainly African-American in this period, the orchestra had a significant following overseas. They traveled to England and Scotland in 1933, as well as France (three concerts at the
Salle Pleyel in Paris) and the Netherlands before returning to New York. On June 12, 1933, the Duke Ellington Orchestra gave its British debut at the
London Palladium; Ellington received an ovation when he walked on stage. They were one of 13 acts on the bill and were restricted to eight short numbers; the booking lasted until June 24. The British visit saw Ellington win praise from members of the serious music community, including composer
Constant Lambert, which gave a boost to Ellington's interest in composing longer works. '' (1935) His longer pieces had already begun to appear. Ellington had composed and recorded "Creole Rhapsody" as early as 1931 (issued as both sides of a 12″ record for Victor and both sides of a 10″ record for Brunswick). A tribute to his mother, "Reminiscing in Tempo", took four 10-inch 78 rpm record sides to record in 1935 after her death in that year.
Symphony in Black (also 1935), a short film, featured his extended piece "A Rhapsody of Negro Life". It introduced
Billie Holiday, and won the
Academy Award for Best Musical Short Subject. Ellington and his Orchestra also appeared in the features
Murder at the Vanities and
Belle of the Nineties (both 1934). For agent Mills, the attention was a publicity triumph, as Ellington was now internationally known. On the band's tour through the
segregated South in 1934, they avoided some of the traveling difficulties of African Americans by touring in private railcars. These provided accessible accommodations, dining, and storage for equipment while avoiding the indignities of segregated facilities. However, the competition intensified as swing bands like
Benny Goodman's began to receive widespread attention. Swing dancing became a youth phenomenon, particularly with white college audiences, and danceability drove record sales and bookings.
Jukeboxes proliferated nationwide, spreading the gospel of swing. Ellington's band could certainly swing, but their strengths were mood, nuance, and richness of composition, hence his statement "jazz is music, the swing is business".
Later 1930s From 1936, Ellington began to make recordings with smaller groups (sextets, octets, and nonets) drawn from his then-15-man orchestra. He composed pieces intended to feature a specific instrumentalist, such as "Jeep's Blues" for altoist
Johnny Hodges, "Yearning for Love" for trombonist
Lawrence Brown, "Trumpet in Spades" for
Rex Stewart, "
Echoes of Harlem" for trumpeter
Cootie Williams, and "Clarinet Lament" for
Barney Bigard. In 1937, Ellington returned to the Cotton Club, which had relocated to the mid-town
Theater District. In the summer of that year, his father died, and due to many expenses, Ellington's finances were tight. However, his situation improved in the following years. After leaving agent Irving Mills, he signed on with the
William Morris Agency. Mills, though, continued to record Ellington. After only a year, his Master and Variety labels (the small groups had recorded for the latter) collapsed in late 1937. Mills placed Ellington back on Brunswick and those small group units on
Vocalion through to 1940. Well-known sides continued to be recorded: "
Caravan" in 1937, and "
I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" the following year.
Billy Strayhorn, originally hired as a lyricist, began his association with Ellington in 1939. Nicknamed "Sweet Pea" for his mild manner, Strayhorn soon became a vital member of the Ellington organization. Ellington showed great fondness for Strayhorn and never failed to speak glowingly of the man and their collaborative working relationship: "my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine". Strayhorn, with his training in
classical music, not only contributed his original lyrics and music but also arranged and polished many of Ellington's works, becoming a second Ellington or "Duke's doppelgänger". It was not uncommon for Strayhorn to fill in for Duke, whether in conducting or rehearsing the band, playing the piano, on stage, and in the recording studio. The decade ended with a very successful European tour in 1939 just as
World War II loomed in Europe.
Early- to mid-1940s Two musicians who joined Ellington at this time created a sensation in their own right:
Jimmy Blanton and
Ben Webster. Blanton was effectively hired on the spot in late October 1939, before Ellington was aware of his name, when he dropped in on a gig of
Fate Marable in
St. Louis. The short-lived Blanton transformed the use of
double bass in jazz, allowing it to function as a solo and melodic instrument rather than a rhythm instrument alone. Terminal illness forced him to leave by late 1941 after around two years. Ben Webster's principal tenure with Ellington spanned 1939 to 1943. An ambition of his, he told his previous employer,
Teddy Wilson, then leading a
big band, was that Ellington was the only rival he would leave Wilson for. He was the orchestra's first regular
tenor saxophonist and increased the size of the sax section to five for the first time. Trumpeter
Ray Nance joined, replacing Cootie Williams who had defected to Benny Goodman. Additionally, Nance added violin to the instrumental colors Ellington had at his disposal. Recordings exist of Nance's first concert date on November 7, 1940, in
Fargo, North Dakota. Privately made by
Jack Towers and Dick Burris, these recordings were first legitimately issued in 1978 as
Duke Ellington at Fargo, 1940 Live; they are among the earliest of innumerable live performances which survive. Nance was an occasional vocalist as well, although
Herb Jeffries was the main male vocalist in this era (until 1943) while
Al Hibbler (who replaced Jeffries in 1943) continued until 1951. Ivie Anderson left in 1942 for health reasons after 11 years, the longest term of any of Ellington's vocalists. Once more recording for Victor (from 1940), with the small groups being issued on their
Bluebird label, three-minute masterpieces on 78 rpm record sides continued to flow from Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Ellington's son
Mercer Ellington, and members of the orchestra. "
Cotton Tail", "
Main Stem", "
Harlem Air Shaft", "Jack the Bear", and dozens of others date from this period. Strayhorn's "
Take the 'A' Train", a hit in 1941, became the band's theme, replacing "
East St. Louis Toodle-Oo". Ellington and his associates wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices displaying tremendous creativity. The commercial recordings from this era were re-issued in the three-
CD collection,
Never No Lament, in 2003. Ellington's long-term aim, though, was to extend the jazz form from that three-minute limit, of which he was an acknowledged master. While he had composed and recorded some extended pieces before, such works now became a regular feature of Ellington's output. In this, he was helped by Strayhorn, who had enjoyed a more thorough training in the forms associated with classical music than Ellington. The first of these,
Black, Brown and Beige (1943), was dedicated to telling the story of African Americans and the place of slavery and the church in their history.
Black, Brown and Beige debuted at
Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, beginning an annual series of Ellington concerts at the venue over the next four years. While some jazz musicians had played at Carnegie Hall before, none had performed anything as elaborate as Ellington's work. Unfortunately, starting a regular pattern, Ellington's longer works were generally not well received. A partial exception was
Jump for Joy, a full-length musical based on themes of African-American identity, which debuted on July 10, 1941, at the
Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. Hollywood actors
John Garfield and
Mickey Rooney invested in the production, and
Charlie Chaplin and
Orson Welles offered to direct. At one performance, Garfield insisted that Herb Jeffries, who was light-skinned, should wear makeup. Ellington objected in the interval and compared Jeffries to
Al Jolson. The change was reverted. The singer later commented that the audience must have thought he was an entirely different character in the second half of the show. Although it had sold-out performances and received positive reviews, it ran for only 122 performances until September 29, 1941, with a brief revival in November of that year. Its subject matter did not make it appealing to Broadway; Ellington had unfulfilled plans to take it there. Despite this disappointment, a Broadway production of Ellington's ''
Beggar's Holiday'', his sole book musical, premiered on December 23, 1946, under the direction of
Nicholas Ray. The settlement of the
first recording ban of 1942–44, leading to an increase in royalties paid to musicians, had a severe effect on the financial viability of the big bands, including Ellington's Orchestra. His income as a songwriter ultimately subsidized it. Although he always spent lavishly and drew a respectable income from the orchestra's operations, the band's income often just covered expenses. In 1943, Ellington asked Webster to leave; the saxophonist's personality made his colleagues anxious and the saxophonist was regularly in conflict with the leader.
Early postwar years Musicians enlisting in the military and travel restrictions made touring difficult for big bands, and dancing became subject to a new tax, which continued for many years, affecting the choices of club owners. By the time
World War II ended, the big band era was effectively over as the focus of popular music was shifting towards solo singers such as
Frank Sinatra and
Jo Stafford. As the cost of hiring big bands had increased, club owners now found smaller jazz groups more cost-effective. Some of Ellington's new works, such as the wordless vocal feature "Transblucency" (1946) with
Kay Davis, were not going to have a similar reach as the newly emerging stars. Ellington continued on his own course through these tectonic shifts. While
Count Basie, like many other big bands at the time, was forced to disband his whole ensemble and work as an octet for a time, Ellington was able to tour most of Western Europe between April 6 and June 30, 1950, with the orchestra playing 74 dates over 77 days. During the tour, according to Sonny Greer, Ellington did not perform the newer works. However, Ellington's extended composition,
Harlem (1950), was in the process of being completed at this time. Ellington later presented its score to music-loving President
Harry S. Truman. Also during his time in Europe, Ellington would compose the music for a stage production by Orson Welles. Titled
Time Runs in Paris, and
An Evening with Orson Welles in
Frankfurt, the variety show also featured a newly discovered
Eartha Kitt, who performed Ellington's original song "Hungry Little Trouble" as
Helen of Troy. Ellington recorded his first
long play record (LP) in December 1950,
Masterpieces by Ellington, consisting of extended, complex new "concert arrangements" of 1930s classics "
Mood Indigo", "
Sophisticated Lady", and "
(In My) Solitude", along with the more recent tone poem "The Tattooed Bride", fashioned by Ellington and Strayhorn. In 1951, Ellington suffered a significant loss of personnel: Sonny Greer, Lawrence Brown, and, most importantly,
Johnny Hodges left to pursue other ventures. However, only Greer was a permanent departee. Drummer
Louie Bellson replaced Greer, and his "Skin Deep" was a hit for Ellington. Tenor player
Paul Gonsalves had joined in December 1950
André Previn said in 1952, "You know,
Stan Kenton can stand in front of a thousand fiddles and a thousand brass and make a dramatic gesture and every studio arranger can nod his head and say, ''Oh, yes, that's done like this''. But Duke merely lifts his finger, three horns make a sound, and I don't know what it is!" However, by 1955, after three years of recording for
Capitol, Ellington lacked a regular recording affiliation.
Career revival Ellington's appearance at the
Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956, returned him to wider prominence. The feature "
Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" comprised two tunes that had been in the band's book since 1937. Ellington, who had abruptly ended the band's scheduled set because of the late arrival of four key players, called the two tunes as the time was approaching midnight. Announcing that the two pieces would be separated by an interlude played by tenor saxophonist
Paul Gonsalves, Ellington proceeded to lead the band through the two pieces, with Gonsalves's 27-chorus marathon solo whipping the crowd into a frenzy, leading the maestro to play way beyond the curfew time despite urgent pleas from festival organizer
George Wein to bring the program to an end. The concert made international headlines, and led to one of only five
Time magazine cover stories dedicated to a jazz musician, and resulted in an album produced by
George Avakian that would become the best-selling LP of Ellington's career. Much of the music on the LP was, in effect, simulated, with only about 40% actually from the concert itself. According to Avakian, Ellington was dissatisfied with aspects of the performance and felt the musicians had been under-rehearsed. and Ellington's collaboration with Strayhorn was renewed around the same time, under terms more amenable to the younger man. The original
Ellington at Newport album was the first release in a new recording contract with
Columbia Records which yielded several years of recording stability, mainly under producer
Irving Townsend, who coaxed both commercial and artistic productions from Ellington. In 1957,
CBS (Columbia Records' parent corporation) aired a live television production of
A Drum Is a Woman, an allegorical suite which received mixed reviews. Festival appearances at the new
Monterey Jazz Festival and elsewhere provided venues for live exposure, and a European tour in 1958 was well received.
Such Sweet Thunder (1957), based on
Shakespeare's plays and characters, and ''
The Queen's Suite'' (1958), dedicated to Britain's
Queen Elizabeth II, were products of the renewed impetus which the Newport appearance helped to create. However, the latter work was not commercially issued at the time. The late-1950s also saw
Ella Fitzgerald record her
Duke Ellington Songbook (on
Verve) with Ellington and his orchestra—a recognition that Ellington's songs had now become part of the cultural canon known as the "
Great American Songbook". and Ellington in
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) Around this time, Ellington and Strayhorn began to work on
film scoring. The first of these was
Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Ellington and Strayhorn, always looking for new musical territory, produced suites for
John Steinbeck's novel
Sweet Thursday,
Tchaikovsky's
Nutcracker Suite and
Edvard Grieg's
Peer Gynt.
Anatomy of a Murder was followed by
Paris Blues (1961), which featured
Paul Newman and
Sidney Poitier as jazz musicians. For this work, Ellington was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Score. In the early 1960s, Ellington embraced recording with artists who had been friendly rivals in the past or were younger musicians who focused on later styles. The Ellington and
Count Basie orchestras recorded together with the album
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke (1961). During a period when Ellington was between recording contracts, he made records with
Louis Armstrong (
Roulette),
Coleman Hawkins,
John Coltrane (both for
Impulse!), and participated in a session with
Charles Mingus and
Max Roach which produced the album
Money Jungle (1963,
United Artists). He signed to
Frank Sinatra's new
Reprise label, but the association with the label was short-lived. from
President Nixon in 1969 Musicians who had previously worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members:
Lawrence Brown in 1960 and
Cootie Williams in 1962. The writing and playing of music is a matter of intent... You can't just throw a paintbrush against the wall and call whatever happens art. My music fits the tonal personality of the player. I think too strongly in terms of altering my music to fit the performer to be impressed by accidental music. You can't take doodling seriously. Then 66 years old, he joked: "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young." In 1999, he was posthumously awarded a
Special Pulitzer Prize "commemorating the centennial year of his birth, in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture." In September 1965, he premiered the first of his
Sacred Concerts. He created a jazz
Christian liturgy. Although the work received mixed reviews, Ellington was proud of the composition and performed it dozens of times. This concert was followed by two others of the same type in 1968 and 1973, known as the Second and Third Sacred Concerts. Many saw the Sacred Music suites as an attempt to reinforce commercial support for organized religion. However, Ellington simply said it was "the most important thing I've done". The
Steinway piano upon which the Sacred Concerts were composed is part of the collection of the
Smithsonian's
National Museum of American History. Like
Haydn and
Mozart, Ellington conducted his orchestra from the piano—he always played the keyboard parts when the Sacred Concerts were performed. Ellington turned 65 in the spring of 1964 but showed no sign of slowing down as he continued to make recordings of significant works such as the
Far East Suite (1966),
New Orleans Suite (1970),
The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (1971), and the
Latin American Suite (1972), much of it inspired by his world tours. It was during this time that he recorded his only album with
Frank Sinatra, titled
Francis A. & Edward K. (1967). In August 1972, he recorded several solo piano tracks at
Mediasound Studios in New York, with the then brand-new assistant engineer
Bob Clearmountain. The session remained unreleased until 2017, when
Storyville Records released it as
An Intimate Piano Session. In 1972–1974, Ellington worked on his only opera,
Queenie Pie, together with
Maurice Peress. Ellington got an idea to write an opera about a black beautician in the 1930s, but did not finish it. The final new recorded material Ellington released was a collaboration with
Teresa Brewer titled ''It Don't Mean a Thing If It Don't Got That Swing'', released on her husband
Bob Thiele's label,
Flying Dutchman Records, in the UK in 1973, and in the US the following year. Among the last shows Ellington and his orchestra performed were one on March 21, 1973, at
Purdue University's
Hall of Music, two on March 22, 1973, at the Sturges-Young Auditorium in
Sturgis, Michigan, and the
Eastbourne Performance on December 1, 1973, later issued on LP. Ellington performed what is considered his final full concert in a ballroom at
Northern Illinois University on March 20, 1974. Since 1980, that ballroom has been dedicated as the "Duke Ellington Ballroom". His last work was
Three Black Kings, dedicated to
Balthazar,
Solomon, and
Martin Luther King Jr. ==Personal life==