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Music legend Duke Ellington dies.
1974 (May 24)
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, one of America's greatest musician-composers, died in New York at age seventy-four. Described as a musical genius, Ellington began playing the piano at age seven, composed his first song at seventeen, and began playing professionally at eighteen. He wrote more than a thousand compositions, including: Take the A Train, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, Satin Doll, and Caravan. In later years he composed several orchestral pieces, tone poems, jazz masses, film, television, and ballet scores, and several operas. His orchestra was one of the few big bands to thrive after the 1940s. Some of the members of his orchestra remained with him for more than forty years. Among Ellington's numerous awards were the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the French Legion of Merit (France's highest honor), and America's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, bestowed upon him in 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon. The president had told Ellington in February 1974 that “There'll never be another you.” The NAACP responded to Ellington's death by noting: “Few composers have attained the greatness of stature that was the Duke's at the time of his death. Prolific, versatile, and popular, the Duke claimed the hearts of a wide range of followers, Black and white, rich and poor. He was indomitable.” Although sometimes criticized for not taking on an active role in the civil rights movement, Ellington himself claimed that “protest and pride in the Negro have been the most significant themes in what we've done.” His composition of “My People” was a musical salute to Black Americans.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.