Duke Ellington
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Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Music critic Ralph J. Gleason called him "Ame
Publicity portrait, c. 1940s
British pressing of "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" (1927)
Adelaide Hall recorded "Creole Love Call" with Ellington in 1927. The recording became a worldwide hit.
Ellington at the Hurricane Club, Broadway & West 51st Street, New York City, May 1943
Billy Strayhorn
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William Thomas Strayhorn was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include
Duke Ellington
…brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-five-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed multiple extended compositions, or suites, as well as many short pieces…
Strayhorn c. 1947; by William P. Gottlieb
Strayhorn (seated at piano) and (from left) Duke Ellington, Leonard Feather, and Louis Armstrong in 1947
Strayhorn in 1958; by Carl Van Vechten
A sign in dedication to Strayhorn near his childhood home in Hillsborough, North Carolina (2009)