Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.

In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin. Bronze does not necessarily contain tin, and a variety of alloys of copper, including alloys with arsenic, phosphorus, aluminum, manganese, and silicon, are commonly termed "bronze". The term is applied to a variety of brasses and the distinction is largely historical.

Brass is a substitutional alloy. It is used for decoration for its bright gold-like appearance; for applications where low friction is required such as locks, gears, bearings, doorknobs, ammunition, and valves; for plumbing and electrical applications; and extensively in musical instruments such as horns and bells for its acoustic properties. It is also used in zippers. Because it is softer than most other metals in general use, brass is often used in situations where it is important that sparks not be struck, as in fittings and tools around explosive gases.

Brass has a muted yellow color which is somewhat similar to gold. It is relatively resistant to tarnishing, and is often used as decoration and for coins. In antiquity, polished brass was often used as a mirror.

Properties

The malleability and acoustic properties of brass have made it the metal of choice for brass musical instruments such as the trombone, tuba, trumpet, cornet, euphonium, tenor horn, and the French horn. Even though the saxophone is classified as a woodwind instrument and the harmonica is a free reed aerophone, both are also often made from brass. In organ pipes of the reed family, brass strips (called tongues) are used as the reeds, which beat against the shallot (or beat "through" the shallot in the case of a "free" reed).

Brass has higher malleability than bronze or zinc. The relatively low melting point of brass (900 to 940°C, depending on composition) and its flow characteristics make it a relatively easy material to cast. By varying the proportions of copper and zinc, the properties of the brass can be changed, allowing hard and soft brasses. The density of brass is approximately .303 lb/cubic inch, 8400 to 8730 kilograms per cubic metre (equivalent to 8.4 to 8.73 grams per cubic centimetre).

Today almost 90% of all brass alloys are recycled. Because brass is not ferromagnetic, it can be separated from ferrous scrap by passing the scrap near a powerful magnet. Brass scrap is collected and transported to the foundry where it is melted and recast into billets. Billets are heated and extruded into the desired form and size.

Aluminium makes brass stronger and more corrosion resistant. Aluminium also causes a highly beneficial hard layer of aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃) to be formed on the surface that is thin, transparent and self healing. Tin has a similar effect and finds its use especially in sea water applications (naval brasses). Combinations of iron, aluminium, silicon and manganese make brass wear and tear resistant.

Lead content

To enhance the machinability of brass, lead is often added in concentrations of around 2%. Since lead has a lower melting point than the other constituents of the brass, it tends to migrate towards the grain boundaries in the form of globules as it cools from casting. The pattern the globules form on the surface of the brass increases the available lead surface area which in turn affects the degree of leaching. In addition, cutting operations can smear the lead globules over the surface. These effects can lead to significant lead leaching from brasses of comparatively low lead content.

Silicon is an alternative to lead; however, when silicon is used in a brass alloy, the scrap must never be mixed with leaded brass scrap because of contamination and safety problems.

In October 1999 the California State Attorney General sued 13 key manufacturers and distributors over lead content. In laboratory tests, state researchers found the average brass key, new or old, exceeded the California Proposition 65 limits by an average factor of 19, assuming handling twice a day. In April 2001 manufacturers agreed to reduce lead content to 1.5%, or face a requirement to warn consumers about lead content. Keys plated with other metals are not affected by the settlement, and may continue to use brass alloys with higher percentage of lead content.

Also in California, lead-free materials must be used for "each component that comes into contact with the wetted surface of pipes and pipe fittings, plumbing fittings and fixtures." On January 1, 2010, the maximum amount of lead in "lead-free brass" in California was reduced from 4% to 0.25% lead. The common practice of using pipes for electrical grounding is discouraged, as it accelerates lead corrosion.

Corrosion-resistant brass for harsh environments

thumb|200px|Brass sampling cock with stainless steel handle. The so called dezincification resistant (DZR or DR) brasses are used where there is a large corrosion risk and where normal brasses do not meet the standards. Applications with high water temperatures, chlorides present or deviating water qualities (soft water) play a role. DZR-brass is excellent in water boiler systems. This brass alloy must be produced with great care, with special attention placed on a balanced composition and proper production temperatures and parameters to avoid long-term failures.

Germicidal/antimicrobial applications

''Main article: Antimicrobial copper-alloy touch surfaces.

''See also: Antimicrobial properties of copper, Copper alloys in aquaculture

The copper in brass makes brass germicidal. Depending upon the type and concentration of pathogens and the medium they are in, brass kills these microorganisms within a few minutes to eight hours of contact.

The bactericidal properties of brass have been observed for centuries and were confirmed in the laboratory in 1983. Subsequent experiments by research groups around the world reconfirmed the antimicrobial efficacy of brass, as well as copper and other copper alloys. Extensive structural membrane damage to bacteria was noted after being exposed to copper.

In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency regulates the registration of antimicrobial products. After extensive antimicrobial testing according to the Agency’s stringent test protocols, 355 copper alloys, including many brasses, were found to kill more than 99.9% of methicillin-resistant ''Staphylococcus aureus'' (MRSA), ''E. coli'' O157:H7, ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa'', ''Staphylococcus aureus'', ''Enterobacter aerogenes'', and vancomycin-resistant ''Enterococci'' (VRE) within two hours of contact. Normal tarnishing was found to not impair antimicrobial effectiveness.

Antimicrobial tests have also revealed significant reductions of MRSA as well as two strains of epidemic MRSA (EMRSA-1 and EMRSA-16) on brass (C24000 with 80% Cu) at room temperature (22 degrees Celsius) within three hours. Complete kills of the pathogens were observed within 4 ½ hours. These tests were performed under wet exposure conditions. The kill timeframes, while impressive, are nevertheless longer than for pure copper, where kill timeframes ranged between 45 to 90 minutes.

A novel assay that mimics dry bacterial exposure to touch surfaces was developed because this test method is thought to more closely replicate real world touch surface exposure conditions. In these conditions, copper alloy surfaces were found to kill several million Colony Forming Units of ''Escherichia coli'' within minutes. This observation, and the fact that kill timeframes shorten as the percentage of copper in an alloy increases, is proof that copper is the ingredient in brass and other copper alloys that kills the microbes.

The mechanisms of antimicrobial action by copper and its alloys, including brass, is a subject of intense and ongoing investigation. It is believed that the mechanisms are multifaceted and include the following: 1) Potassium or glutamate leakage through the outer membrane of bacteria; 2) Osmotic balance disturbances; 3) Binding to proteins that do not require or utilize copper; 4) Oxidative stress by hydrogen peroxide generation.

Research is being conducted at this time to determine whether brass, copper, and other copper alloys can help to reduce cross contamination in public facilities and reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections (hospital acquired infections) in healthcare facilities.

Also, due to its antimicrobial/algaecidal properties that prevent biofouling, in conjunction with its strong structural and corrosion-resistant benefits for marine environments, brass alloy netting cages are currently being deployed in commercial-scale aquaculture operations in Asia, South America, and the USA.

Season cracking

Brass is susceptible to stress corrosion cracking, especially from ammonia or substances containing or releasing ammonia. The problem is sometimes known as season cracking after it was first discovered in brass cartridge cases used for rifle ammunition during the 1920s in the Indian Army. The problem was caused by high residual stresses from cold forming of the cases during manufacture, together with chemical attack from traces of ammonia in the atmosphere. The cartridges were stored in stables and the ammonia concentration rose during the hot summer months, so initiating brittle cracks. The problem was resolved by annealing the cases, and storing the cartridges elsewhere.

Brass types

Admiralty brass contains 30% zinc, and 1% tin which inhibits dezincification in many environments.

Aich's alloy typically contains 60.66% copper, 36.58% zinc, 1.02% tin, and 1.74% iron. Designed for use in marine service owing to its corrosion resistance, hardness and toughness. A characteristic application is to the protection of ships' bottoms, but more modern methods of cathodic protection have rendered its use less common. Its appearance resembles that of gold.

Alpha brasses with less than 35% zinc, are malleable, can be worked cold, and are used in pressing, forging, or similar applications. They contain only one phase, with face-centered cubic crystal structure.

Prince's metal or Prince Rupert's metal is a type of alpha brass containing 75% copper and 25% zinc. Due to its beautiful yellow color, it is used as an imitation of gold. The alloy was named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

Alpha-beta brass (Muntz metal), also called duplex brass, is 35–45% zinc and is suited for hot working. It contains both α and β' phase; the β'-phase is body-centered cubic and is harder and stronger than α. Alpha-beta brasses are usually worked hot.

Aluminium brass contains aluminium, which improves its corrosion resistance. It is used for seawater service and also in Euro coins (Nordic gold).

Arsenical brass contains an addition of arsenic and frequently aluminium and is used for boiler fireboxes.

Beta brasses, with 45–50% zinc content, can only be worked hot, and are harder, stronger, and suitable for casting.

Cartridge brass is a 30% zinc brass with good cold working properties. Used for ammunition cases.

Common brass, or rivet brass, is a 37% zinc brass, cheap and standard for cold working.

DZR brass is dezincification resistant brass with a small percentage of arsenic.

Gilding metal is the softest type of brass commonly available. An alloy of 95% copper and 5% zinc, gilding metal is typically used for ammunition "jackets", e.g. full metal jacket bullets.

High brass contains 65% copper and 35% zinc, has a high tensile strength and is used for springs, screws, and rivets.

Leaded brass is an alpha-beta brass with an addition of lead. It has excellent machinability.

Lead-free brass as defined by California Assembly Bill AB 1953 contains "not more than 0.25 percent lead content".

Low brass is a copper-zinc alloy containing 20% zinc with a light golden color and excellent ductility; it is used for flexible metal hoses and metal bellows.

Manganese brass is a brass most notably used in making golden dollar coins in the United States. It contains roughly 70% copper, 29% zinc, and 1.3% manganese.

Muntz metal is about 60% copper, 40% zinc and a trace of iron, used as a lining on boats.

Nickel brass is composed of 70% copper, 24.5% zinc and 5.5% nickel used to make pound coins in the pound sterling currency.

Naval brass, similar to admiralty brass, is 40% zinc and 1% tin.

Nordic gold, used in 10, 20 and 50 cts euro coins, contains 89% copper, 5% aluminium, 5% zinc, and 1% tin.

Red brass is both an American term for the copper-zinc-tin alloy known as gunmetal, and an alloy which is considered both a brass and a bronze. It typically contains 85% copper, 5% tin, 5% lead, and 5% zinc. Red brass is also an alternative name for ''copper alloy C23000'', which is composed of 14–16% zinc, 0.05% iron and lead, and the remainder copper. It may also refer to ounce metal, another copper-zinc-tin alloy.

Rich low brass (Tombac) is 15% zinc. It is often used in jewelry applications.

Tonval brass (also called CW617N or CZ122 or OT58) is a copper-lead-zinc alloy. It is not recommended for seawater use, being susceptible to dezincification.

White brass contains more than 50% zinc and is too brittle for general use. The term may also refer to certain types of nickel silver alloys as well as Cu-Zn-Sn alloys with high proportions (typically 40%+) of tin and/or zinc, as well as predominantly zinc casting alloys with copper additive.

Yellow brass is an American term for 33% zinc brass.

History

Although forms of brass have been in use since prehistory, its true nature as a copper-zinc alloy was not understood until the post medieval period because the zinc vapor which reacted with copper to make brass was not recognised as a metal. The King James Bible makes many references to "brass". The Shakespearean English form of the word 'brass' can mean any bronze alloy, or copper, rather than the strict modern definition of brass. The earliest brasses may have been natural alloys made by smelting zinc-rich copper ores. By the Roman period brass was being deliberately produced from metallic copper and zinc minerals using the cementation process and variations on this method continued until the mid 19th century. It was eventually replaced by speltering, the direct alloying of copper and zinc metal which was introduced to Europe in the 16th century.

Early copper zinc alloys

In West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean early copper zinc alloys are now known in small numbers from a number of third Millennium BC sites in the Aegean, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kalmikia, Turkmenistan and Georgia and from 2nd Millennium BC sites in West India, Uzbekistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq and Palestine. However, isolated examples of copper-zinc alloys are known in China from as early as the 5th Millennium BC.

The compositions of these early "brass" objects are very variable and most have zinc contents of between 5% and 15% wt which is lower than in brass produced by cementation. These may be "natural alloys" manufactured by smelting zinc rich copper ores in reducing conditions. Many have similar tin contents to contemporary bronze artefacts and it is possible that some copper-zinc alloys were accidental and perhaps not even distinguished from copper. However the large number of copper-zinc alloys now known suggests that at least some were deliberately manufactured and many have zinc contents of more than 12% wt which would have resulted in a distinctive golden color.

By the 8th–7th century BC Assyrian cuneiform tablets mention the exploitation of the "copper of the mountains" and this may refer to "natural" brass. ''Oreichalkos'', the Ancient Greek translation of this term, was later adapted to the Latin ''aurichalcum'' meaning "golden copper" which became the standard term for brass. In the 4th century BC Plato knew ''oreichalkos'' as rare and nearly as valuable as gold and Pliny describes how ''aurichalcum'' had come from Cypriot ore deposits which had been exhausted by the 1st century AD.

Brass making in the Roman World

During the later part of first Millennium BC the use of brass spread across a wide geographical area from Britain and Spain in the west to Iran, and India in the east. This seems to have been encouraged by exports and influence from the Middle-East and eastern Mediterranean where deliberate production of brass from metallic copper and zinc ores had been introduced. The 4th century BC writer Theopompus, quoted by Strabo, describes how heating earth from Andeira in Turkey produced "droplets of false silver", probably metallic zinc, which could be used to turn copper into oreichalkos. In the 1st century BC the Greek Dioscorides seems to have recognised a link between zinc minerals and brass describing how Cadmia (zinc oxide) was found on the walls of furnaces used to heat either zinc ore or brass and explaining that it can then be used to make brass.

By the first century BC brass was available in sufficient supply to use as coinage in Phrygia and Bithynia, and after the Augustan currency reform of 23 BC it was also used to make Roman ''dupondii'' and ''sestertii''. The uniform use of brass for coinage and military equipment across the Roman world may indicate a degree of state involvement in the industry, and brass even seems to have been deliberately boycotted by Jewish communities in Palestine because of its association with Roman authority.

Brass was produced by the cementation process where copper and zinc ore are heated together until zinc vapor is produced which reacts with the copper. There is good archaeological evidence for this process and crucibles used to produce brass by cementation have been found on Roman period sites including Xanten and Nidda in Germany, Lyon in France and at a number of sites in Britain. They vary in size from tiny acorn sized to large amphorae like vessels but all have elevated levels of zinc on the interior and are lidded. They show no signs of slag or metal prills suggesting that zinc minerals were heated to produce zinc vapor which reacted with metallic copper in a solid state reaction. The fabric of these crucibles is porous, probably designed to prevent a build up of pressure, and many have small holes in the lids which may be designed to release pressure or to add additional zinc minerals near the end of the process. Dioscorides mentioned that zinc minerals were used for both the working and finishing of brass, perhaps suggesting secondary additions.

Brass made during the early Roman period seems to have varied between 20% to 28% wt zinc. The high content of zinc in coinage and brass objects declined after the first century AD and it has been suggested that this reflects zinc loss during recycling and thus an interruption in the production of new brass. However it is now thought this was probably a deliberate change in composition and overall the use of brass increases over this period making up around 40% of all copper alloys used in the Roman world by the 4th century AD.

Brass making in the medieval period

Little is known about the production of brass during the centuries immediately after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Disruption in the trade of tin for bronze from Western Europe may have contributed to the increasing popularity of brass in the east and by the 6th–7th centuries AD over 90% of copper alloy artefacts from Egypt were made of brass. However other alloys such as low tin bronze were also used and they vary depending on local cultural attitudes, the purpose of the metal and access to zinc, especially between the Islamic and Byzantine world. Conversely the use of true brass seems to have declined in Western Europe during this period in favour of gunmetals and other mixed alloys but by the end of the first Millennium AD brass artefacts are found in Scandinavian graves in Scotland, brass was being used in the manufacture of coins in Northumbria and there is archaeological and historical evidence for the production of brass in Germany and The Low Countries areas rich in calamine ore which would remain important centres of brass making throughout the medieval period, especially Dinant – brass objects are still collectively known as ''dinanterie'' in French. The Baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège in modern Belgium (before 1117) is an outstanding masterpiece of Romanesque brass casting.

The cementation process continued to be used but literary sources from both Europe and the Islamic world seem to describe variants of a higher temperature liquid process which took places in open topped crucibles. Islamic cementation seems to have used zinc oxide known as ''tutiya'' or tutty rather than zinc ores for brass making resulting in a metal with lower iron impurities. A number of Islamic writers and the 13th century Italian Marco Polo describe how this was obtained by sublimation from zinc ores and condensed onto clay or iron bars, archaeological examples of which have been identified at Kush in Iran. It could then be used for brass making or medicinal purposes. In 10th century Yemen al-Hamdani described how spreading al-iglimiya, probably zinc oxide, onto the surface of molten copper produced tutiya vapor which then reacted with the metal. The 13th century Iranian writer al-Kashani describes a more complex process whereby ''tutiya'' was mixed with raisins and gently roasted before being added to the surface of the molten metal. A temporary lid was added at this point presumably to minimise the escape of zinc vapor.

In Europe a similar liquid process in open topped crucibles took place which was probably less efficient than the Roman process and the use of the term tutty by Albertus Magnus in the 13th century suggests influence from Islamic technology. The 12th century German monk Theophilus described how preheated crucibles were one sixth filled with powdered calamine and charcoal then topped up with copper and charcoal before being melted, stirred then filled again. The final product was cast, then again melted with calamine. It has been suggested that this second melting may have taken place at a lower temperature to allow more zinc to be absorbed. Albertus Magnus noted that the "power" of both calamine and tutty could evaporate and described how the addition of powdered glass could create a film to bind it to the metal. German brass making crucibles are known from Dortmund dating to the 10th century AD and from Soest and Schwerte in Westphalia dating to around the 13th century confirm Theophilus' account as they are open topped, although ceramic discs from Soest may have served as loose lids which may have been used to reduce zinc evaporation, and have slag on the interior resulting from a liquid process.

Brass making in Renaissance and post medieval Europe

The Renaissance saw important changes to both the theory and practice of brassmaking in Europe. By the 15th century there is evidence for the renewed use of lidded cementation crucibles at Zwickau in Germany. These large crucibles were capable of producing c.20 kg of brass. There are traces of slag and pieces of metal on the interior. Their irregular composition suggesting that this was a lower temperature not entirely liquid process. The crucible lids had small holes which were blocked with clay plugs near the end of the process presumably to maximise zinc absorption in the final stages. Triangular crucibles were then used to melt the brass for casting.

16th century technical writers such as Biringuccio, Ercker and Agricola described a variety of cementation brass making techniques and came closer to understanding the true nature of the process noting that copper became heavier as it changed to brass and that it became more golden as additional calamine was added. Zinc metal was also becoming more commonplace By 1513 metallic zinc ingots from India and China were arriving in London and pellets of zinc condensed in furnace flues at the Rammelsberg in Germany were exploited for cementation brass making from around 1550.

Eventually it was discovered that metallic zinc could be alloyed with copper to make brass; a process known as speltering and by 1657 the German chemist Johann Glauber had recognised that calamine was "nothing else but unmeltable zinc" and that zinc was a "half ripe metal." However some earlier high zinc, low iron brasses such as the 1530 Wightman brass memorial plaque from England may have been made by alloying copper with ''zinc'' and include traces of cadmium similar those found in some zinc ingots from China. The European brass industry continued to flourish into the post medieval period buoyed by innovations such as the 16th century introduction of water powered hammers for the production of battery wares. By 1559 the Germany city of Aachen alone was capable of producing 300,000 cwt of brass per year. In 1723 Bristol brass maker Nehemiah Champion patented the use of granulated copper, produced by pouring molten metal into cold water. This increased the surface area of the copper helping it react and zinc contents of up to 33% wt were reported using this new technique.

In 1738 Nehemiah's son William Champion patented a technique for the first industrial scale distillation of metallic zinc known as ''distillation per descencum'' or "the English process." This local zinc was used in speltering and allowed greater control over the zinc content of brass and the production of high zinc copper alloys which would have been difficult or impossible to produce using cementation, for use in expensive objects such as scientific instruments, clocks, brass buttons and costume jewellery. However Champion continued to use the cheaper calamine cementation method to produce lower zinc brass By the mid late 18th century developments in cheaper zinc distillation such as John-Jaques Dony's horizontal furnaces in Belgium and the reduction of tariffs on zinc as well as demand for corrosion resistant high zinc alloys increased the popularity of speltering and as a result cementation was largely abandoned by the mid 19th century.

See also

Brass bed

Brass rubbing

List of copper alloys

References

Bibliography

Bayley, J. (1990) "The Production of Brass in Antiquity with Particular Reference to Roman Britain" in Craddock, P.T. (ed.) 2000 Years of Zinc and Brass London: British Museum

Craddock, P.T. and Eckstein, K (2003) "Production of Brass in Antiquity by Direct Reduction" in Craddock, P.T. and Lang, J. (eds) ''Mining and Metal Production Through the Ages'' London: British Museum

Day, J. (1990) "Brass and Zinc in Europe from the Middle Ages until the 19th Century" in Craddock, P.T. (ed.) 2000 Years of Zinc and Brass London: British Museum

Day, J (1991) "Copper, Zinc and Brass Production" in Day, J and Tylecote, R.F (eds) ''The Industrial Revolution in Metals'' London: The Institute of Metals

Martinon Torres, M. and Rehren, T. (2002) Agricola and Zwickau: Theory and Practice of Renaissance Brass Production in SE Germany in ''Historical Metallurgy'' 36(2) pp. 95–111

Rehren, T. and Martinon Torres, M. (2008) "Naturam ars imitate: European brassmaking between craft and science" in Martinon-Torres, M and Rehren, T. (eds) Archaeology, History and Science Integrating Approaches to Ancient Material: Left Coast Press

External links

Brass.org

Category:Copper alloys Category:Zinc alloys Category:History of metallurgy

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Nick Cave
background	solo_singer
born	September 22, 1957Warracknabeal, Victoria, Australia
instrument	Guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals
genre	Post-punk, alternative rock, garage rock
occupation	Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, writer, actor
years active	1973–present
label	Mute
associated acts	Boys Next Door, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, The Birthday Party
notable instruments	}}

Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.

He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and musical styles. Before that, he had fronted the group The Birthday Party in the early 1980s, a band renowned for its highly dark, challenging lyrics and violent sound influenced by free jazz, blues, and post-punk. In 2006, he formed the garage rock band Grinderman that released its debut the following year. Cave's music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with "religion, death, love, America, and violence."

Upon Cave's induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, ARIA Awards committee chairman Ed St John said, “Nick Cave has enjoyed—and continues to enjoy—one of the most extraordinary careers in the annals of popular music. He is an Australian artist like Sidney Nolan is an Australian artist—beyond comparison, beyond genre, beyond dispute."

Youth and education

Cave was born in the small town of Warracknabeal in the state of Victoria, Australia, to Dawn and Colin Cave. He has two brothers: Tim (b. 1952) and Peter (b. 1954), and a sister, Julie (b. 1959). As a child, he lived in Warracknabeal and then Wangaratta in rural Victoria. His father was an English teacher and administrator, with a love of literature, and his mother was a librarian. His grandfather, Frank J. Cave, was a prominent radio broadcaster and documentary film producer.

Raised as an Anglican, Cave sang in the boys choir at Wangaratta Cathedral. He grew to detest the attitudes of small-town Australia, and he was often in trouble with the local school authorities, so his parents sent him to boarding school at Melbourne's Caulfield Grammar School in 1970. Cave joined the school choir under choirmaster Norman Kaye, and also benefited from having a piano in his home. The following year he became a "day boy" when his family moved to Murrumbeena, a suburb of Melbourne. Cave was 19 when his father was killed in a car accident; at the moment he was informed of this, his mother Dawn Cave was bailing him out of a St Kilda police station for a charge of burglary. Cave would later recall that his father "died at a point in my life when I was most confused", and "the loss of my father created in my life a vacuum, a space in which my words began to float and collect and find their purpose".

After his secondary schooling, Cave studied painting (Fine Art) at the Caulfield Institute of Technology (now Monash University, Caulfield Campus) in 1976, but dropped out in 1977 to pursue music. He also began using heroin around this time. On 28 March 2008, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws from this university.

Music career

Early years and The Birthday Party (1973–84)

In 1973, Cave met Mick Harvey (guitar), Phill Calvert (drums), John Cochivera (guitar), Brett Purcell (bass), and Chris Coyne (saxophone); fellow students at Caulfield Grammar. They founded a band with Cave as singer. Their repertoire consisted of proto-punk cover versions of songs by Lou Reed, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Roxy Music and Alex Harvey, among others. Later, the line-up slimmed down to four members including Cave's friend Tracy Pew on bass. In 1977, after leaving school, they adopted the name The Boys Next Door and began playing predominantly original material. Guitarist and songwriter Rowland S. Howard joined the band in 1978, expanding to five members.

From 1977 until their dissolution in 1984 (by which time they were known as The Birthday Party) the band explored various styles. They were a part of Melbourne's post-punk music scene in the late 1970s, playing hundreds of live shows in Australia before changing their name to the Birthday Party in 1980 and moving to London, then West Berlin. Cave's Australian girlfriend and muse Anita Lane accompanied them to London. The band were notorious for their provocative live performances which featured Cave shrieking, bellowing and throwing himself about the stage, backed up by harsh pounding rock music laced with guitar feedback. At that time, Cave became a regular member of a gothic club in London called The Batcave.

After establishing a cult following in Europe and Australia, The Birthday Party disbanded in 1984. Howard and Cave found it difficult to continue working together and both were rather worn down from alcohol and drug use.

Current career with The Bad Seeds (since 1984)

The band with Cave as their leader and frontman has released fourteen studio albums. Their most recent album, ''Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!'' was released on 8 April 2008. Though their sound tends to change considerably from one album to another, the one constant of the band is an unpolished blending of disparate genres, and song structures which provide a vehicle for Cave's virtuosic, frequently histrionic theatrics.

Critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Steve Huey write, "With the Bad Seeds, Cave continued to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock, and arty post-punk, although in a more subdued fashion than his work with the Birthday Party". Pitchfork Media calls the group one of rock's "most enduring, redoubtable" bands, with an accomplished discography.

Cave and the band curated an edition of the famous All Tomorrow's Parties music festival, the first in Australia, throughout the country in January 2009.

Solo work and Grinderman

In addition to his performances with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave has, since the 1990s, performed live 'solo' tours with himself on piano/vocals, Warren Ellis on violin/accordion and various others on bass and drums. The current trio are Bad Seeds' Martyn P. Casey, Jim Sclavunos and Ellis (nicknamed the ''Mini-Seeds''). In 2006, this line-up, now including Cave on electric guitar, continued his 'solo' tours performing Bad Seeds material.

In the same year three other Bad Seeds, Mick Harvey, Thomas Wydler and James Johnston, undertook Harvey's first 'solo' tours of Europe and Australia performing material from his own albums. Melbourne double bassist Rosie Westbrook completed the quartet.

An album of new material by Cave's 'solo' quartet, now named Grinderman, was released in March 2007.

Nick Cave 'solo' and Grinderman both played at the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in April 2007. This was Grinderman's first public performance. Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream accompanied Grinderman on backing vocals and percussion.

Soundtrack involvement

Many of Nick Cave's songs have found their way into movie soundtracks. One of the earliest to feature Cave's distinctive style by incorporating him as part of the movie's music scene—circa 1979—was ''Dogs in Space'', a film by Richard Lowenstein. Cave performed parts of the Boys Next Door song "Shivers" twice during the film, once on video and once live.

Another early fan of Cave's was German director Wim Wenders, who lists Cave, along with Lou Reed and Portishead, as among his favorites. Two of Cave's songs were featured in his 1987 film ''Wings of Desire''. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds also make a cameo appearance in this film. Two more songs were included in Wenders' 1993 sequel ''Faraway, So Close!'', including the title track. The soundtrack for Wenders' 1991 film ''Until the End of the World'' features Cave's "(I'll Love You) Till the End of the World." His most recent production, ''Palermo Shooting'', also contains a Nick Cave song, as does his 2003 documentary ''The Soul of a Man''.

Cave's songs have also appeared in a number of Hollywood blockbusters and major TV shows. For instance, his "There is a Light" appears on the 1995 soundtrack for ''Batman Forever'', and "Red Right Hand" appeared in a number of films and TV shows, including ''The X-Files'', ''Dumb & Dumber''; ''Scream'', its sequels ''Scream 2'' and ''3'', and ''Hellboy'' (performed by Pete Yorn). In ''Scream 3'', the song was given a reworking with Cave writing new lyrics and adding an orchestra to the arrangement of the track. This version appears on The Bad Seeds B-Sides and Rarities album. The song "People Ain't No Good" was featured in the animated movie ''Shrek 2'', as well as in one of the episodes of the television series ''The L Word''. Cave also sang a cover of The Beatles' "Let It Be," for the 2001 film ''I Am Sam''.

Original material written for movie productions includes the song "To Be By Your Side," for the soundtrack of the 2001 French documentary ''Le Peuple Migrateur'' (called ''Winged Migration'' in the US). Cave composed the soundtrack for the 2005 film ''The Proposition'' with fellow Australian and Bad Seed Warren Ellis. Cave and Ellis once again collaborated on the music for the 2007 film ''The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford''. Also in 2007, Cave and Ellis wrote the soundtrack for the feature documentary ''The English Surgeon''. The duo also provided original music for ''The Road'' in 2009 and the soundtrack for the audiobook of Cave's novel ''The Death of Bunny Munro''.

Most recently, his song "Up Jumped the Devil" was featured in the Remedy-developed 2010 video game Alan Wake.

Cave's song "O Children" was featured in the 2010 movie, though not in the official soundtrack, of ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1.''

Work with other artists

Nick Cave has also played with Shane MacGowan, in a cover version of Bob Dylan's "Death is Not the End", and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". Cave has also performed "What a Wonderful World" live with The Flaming Lips. Cave recorded a cover version of the Pogues song "Rainy Night in Soho", written by MacGowan. MacGowan also sings a version of "Lucy", released on ''B-Sides and Rarities''. On 3 May 2008, during the ''Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!'' tour Shane MacGowan joined Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds on stage to perform "Lucy" at Dublin Castle in Ireland. Pulp's single "Bad Cover Version" includes on its B-side a cover version by Cave of that band's song "Disco 2000". On the Deluxe Edition of Pulp's ''Different Class'' another take of this cover can be found.

In 2000, one of Cave's heroes, Johnny Cash, covered Cave's "The Mercy Seat" on the album ''American III: Solitary Man'', seemingly repaying Cave for the compliment he paid by covering Cash's "The Singer" (originally "The Folk Singer") on his ''Kicking Against the Pricks'' album. Cave was then invited to be one of many rock and country artists to contribute to the liner notes of the retrospective ''The Essential Johnny Cash'' CD, released to coincide with Cash's 70th birthday. Subsequently, Cave cut a duet with Cash on a version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" for Cash's ''American IV: The Man Comes Around'' album (2002). A similar duet, the American folk song "Cindy", was released posthumously on the "Johnny Cash: Unearthed" boxset. Cave's song "Let the Bells Ring" is a posthumous tribute to Cash. Cave has also covered the song "Wanted Man" which is best known as performed by Johnny Cash but is a Bob Dylan composition.

In 2004, Cave gave a hand to Marianne Faithfull on the album, ''Before the Poison''. He co-wrote and produced three songs ("Crazy Love", "There is a Ghost" and "Desperanto"), and the Bad Seeds are featured on all of them. He is also featured on "The Crane Wife" (originally by The Decemberists), on Faithfull's 2008 album, ''Easy Come, Easy Go''.

Cave collaborated with the band Current 93 on their album ''All the Pretty Little Horses'', where he sings the title track, a lullaby. For his 1996 album ''Murder Ballads'', Cave recorded "Where The Wild Roses Grow" with Kylie Minogue, and "Henry Lee" with P.J. Harvey.

Cave also took part in the "X-Files" compilation CD with some other artists, where he reads parts from the Bible combined with own texts, like "Time Jesum...", he outed himself as a fan of the series some years ago, but since he does not watch much TV, it was one of the only things he watched. He collaborated on the 2003 single "Bring It On", with Chris Bailey, formerly of the Australian punk group, The Saints. Cave contributed vocals to the song "Sweet Rosyanne", on the 2006 album ''Catch That Train!'' from Dan Zanes & Friends, a children's music group.

Literary career

Cave released his first book, ''King Ink'', in 1988. It is a collection of lyrics and plays, including collaborations with American ''enfant terrible'' Lydia Lunch. In 1997, he followed up with ''King Ink II'', containing lyrics, poems, and the transcript of a radio essay he did for the BBC in July 1996, "The Flesh Made Word," discussing in biographical format his relationship with Christianity. While he was based in West Berlin, Cave started working on what was to become his debut novel, ''And the Ass Saw the Angel'' (1989). Significant crossover is evident between the themes in the book and the lyrics Cave wrote in the late stages of the Birthday Party and the early stage of his solo career. "Swampland", from ''Mutiny'', in particular, uses the same linguistic stylings ('mah' for 'my', for instance) and some of the same themes (the narrator being haunted by the memory of a girl called Lucy, being hunted like an animal, approaching death and execution). On 21 January 2008, a special edition of Cave's novel ''And the Ass Saw the Angel'' was released. Cave's second novel, ''The Death of Bunny Munro'' was published on 8 September 2009 by Harper Collins books. ''The Death of Bunny Munro'', which tells the story of a sex-addicted salesman, was also released as a binaural audio-book produced by British Artists Forsyth and Jane Pollard and an iPhone app. The book originally started as a screenplay Cave was going to write for John Hillcoat.

As proof of his interest in scripture, so evident in his lyrics and his prose writing, Cave wrote the foreword to a Canongate publication of the ''Gospel according to Mark'', published in the UK in 1998. The American edition of the same book (published by Grove Press) contains a foreword by the noted American writer Barry Hannah.

Cave and Ellis composed scores for a production by the Icelandic theatre company Vesturport of ''Woyzeck'' by Georg Büchner, performed at the Barbican Theatre in the Barbican Arts Centre in London in 2005, and a stage adaptation of Franz Kafka's ''The Metamorphosis'' at the Lyric Hammersmith in London in 2006.

Cave is a contributor to the 2009 rock biography on The Triffids ''Vagabond Holes: David McComb and the Triffids'', edited by Australian academics Niall Lucy and Chris Coughran.

Acting and screenwriting

Cave has made occasional appearances as an actor, most prominently in the 1989 film ''Ghosts ... of the Civil Dead'', written and directed by John Hillcoat, and in the 1991 film ''Johnny Suede'', with Brad Pitt.

Cave appeared in the 2005 homage to Leonard Cohen, ''Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man'', in which he performed "I'm Your Man" solo, and "Suzanne" with Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla. He also appeared in the 2007 film adaptation of Ron Hansen's novel ''The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'', where he sings a song about Jesse James. Cave and Warren Ellis are credited for the film's soundtrack.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are also featured in Wim Wenders' 1987 film ''Wings of Desire''.

Displaying a keen interest in other aspects of film, Cave wrote the screenplay for ''The Proposition'', a film set in the colonial Australian Outback. Directed by John Hillcoat and filmed in Queensland in 2004, it premiered in October 2005 and has since been released worldwide to critical acclaim. The movie reviewer for British newspaper ''The Independent'' called it "peerless," "a star-studded and uncompromisingly violent outlaw film." It even features on a website promoting tourism to the area. The generally ambient soundtrack was recorded by Cave and Warren Ellis.

At the request of friend Russell Crowe, Cave wrote a script for a proposed sequel to ''Gladiator'' which was rejected by the studio.

His interest in the work of Edward Gorey led to his participation in the BBC Radio 3 programme, guest+host=ghost, featuring Peter Blegvad and the radiophonic sound of the Langham Research Centre.

Cave has also lent his voice in narrating an award winning animated film called ''The Cat Piano''. It was directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson (of The People's Republic Of Animation), produced by Jessica Brentnall and has music by Benjamin Speed.

Cave wrote the screenplay for ''The Wettest County in the World''. He has also completed the script for a new film titled ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' and will rewrite the script of ''The Crow'' remake.

Personal life

Cave dated Anita Lane from the late 1970s to mid 1980s. She had an undeniably strong influence upon Cave and his work, often cited as his "muse". Despite this, Cave and Lane recorded together on only a few occasions. Their most notable collaborations include Lane's 'cameo' verse on Cave's Bob Dylan cover "Death Is Not The End" from the album ''Murder Ballads'', and a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin song "Je t'aime/ I love you nor do I". Lane co-wrote the lyrics to the title track for Cave's 1984 LP, ''From Her to Eternity'', as well as the lyrics of the song "Stranger Than Kindness" from ''Your Funeral, My Trial''. Cave, Lydia Lunch and Lane wrote a comic book together, entitled AS-FIX-E-8, in the style of the old "Pussy Galore"/Russ Meyer movies.

After completing his debut novel ''And the Ass Saw the Angel'', Cave left West Berlin shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall and moved to São Paulo, Brazil, where he met Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro. The two have a son, Luke (b. 10 May 1991), but never married. Cave's son Jethro (born in 1991) lives with his mother, Beau Lazenby, in Australia and has a career in modelling.

Cave briefly dated PJ Harvey during the mid 1990s. The love affair and their break-up inspired him to write the album ''The Boatman's Call''.

He met British model Susie Bick in 1997. A cover star of the Damned's 1985 album ''Phantasmagoria'' and a Vivienne Westwood model, she gave up her job when they married in summer 1999. They have twin sons, Arthur and Earl (born in 2000). Cave and Bick lived for some time on a houseboat near Hove. They currently live in Brighton and Hove, England.

Cave performed "Into My Arms" at the televised funeral of Michael Hutchence, but refused to play in front of the cameras. Cave is godfather of Hutchence's only child, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.

In the past, Cave identified as a Christian. In his recorded lectures on music and songwriting, he has claimed that any true love song is a song for God and has ascribed the mellowing of his music to a shift in focus from the Old to the New Testaments. He does not belong to a particular denomination and has distanced himself from "religion as being an American thing, in which the name of God has been hijacked". In an interview in ''The Guardian'' in 2009, he said: "Do I personally believe in a personal God? No." He elaborated in a recent ''Los Angeles Times'' article: "I'm not religious, and I'm not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a god. It's kind of defending the indefensible, though; I'm critical of what religions are becoming, the more destructive they're becoming. But I think as an artist, particularly, it's a necessary part of what I do, that there is some divine element going on within my songs.".

Discography

Soundtracks/scores

''Ghosts... of the Civil Dead'', soundtrack (1988) – composed with Mick Harvey & Blixa Bargeld

''And the Ass Saw the Angel'', readings of the novel (1988), plus theatre score (1993) – text by Cave, music composed by Harvey and Ed Clayton-Jones

''To Have and to Hold'', soundtrack (1996) – composed with Harvey & Bargeld

''Woyzeck'', theatre score (2005) – composed with Warren Ellis

''The Proposition'', soundtrack (2005) – composed with Ellis

''Metamorphosis'', theatre score (2006) – composed with Ellis

''The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'', soundtrack (2007) – composed with Ellis

''The English Surgeon'', soundtrack (2007) – composed with Ellis ''The Death of Bunny Munro'', soundtrack (2009) – composed with Ellis ''The Road'', soundtrack (2009) – composed with Ellis ''The Wettest County in the World'' (2012)

Contributions/appearances

Die Haut and Nick Cave: ''Burnin' the Ice'' (1982), features Nick Cave's vocals on 4 songs.

''September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill'' produced by Hal Willner. Cave contributes a cover version of "Mack the Knife".

''Nick Cave i Przyjaciele'' (''Nick Cave and Friends'') (2001). A tribute album by Polish musicians. Cave appears on tracks 1 & 10.

''I Am Sam'' (2002). Cave contributes a cover version of The Beatles' "Let It Be", which was later issued as a single with a cover version of "Here Comes the Sun" as the B-side.

"Kiss of Love" (duet with Sam Brown) from Jools Holland's 2003 album ''Small World Big Band Friends 3 – Jack O The Green''.

''Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys'' (2006). Cave contributes the tracks "Fire Down Below" and "Pinery Boy".

"Bad Cover Version" single by Pulp. Cave contributes a cover version of Pulp's "Disco 2000".

"Helpless" single by Neil Young. He did this in 1989 for the Neil Young tribute album ''The Bridge''.

''American IV: The Man Comes Around'' (2003) Duet with Johnny Cash on "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".

''Batman Forever'' soundtrack — contributes the track "There is a Light"

Ute Lemper's ''Punishing Kiss''. Cave co-wrote (with Bruno Pisek) "Little Water Song".

"''To Be By Your Side''" – from the OST for French documentary film ''Le Peuple Migrateur'' (2001).

Cave performs "I'm Your Man" and "Suzanne" in the documentary/concert film ''Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man'' (2005).

Seasick Steve's song "Just Like A King" includes Cave's vocals

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds appear on the Martin Scorsese series ''The Blues'' singing J. B. Lenoir's "I Feel So Good"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song "Up Jumped The Devil" was featured in the video game ''Alan Wake''. (2010)

''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1'' (2010). Cave contributed the song "O Children".

Nick Cave joins Neko Case to cover the The Zombies song ''She's Not There'' for HBO show True Blood. (2011)

Spoken-word lectures

''The Secret Life Of The Love Song & The Flesh Made Word: Two Lectures'' (2000).

Books by Nick Cave

''King Ink''. Los Angeles: 13 February 1961, 1988. ISBN 1-880985-08-X.

''And the Ass Saw the Angel'' Los Angeles: 13 February 1961, 1989. ISBN 1-880985-72-1.

''King Ink II''. Los Angeles: 13 February 1961, 1997. ISBN 2-84261-053-9.

Introduction to ''The Pocket Canons Bible Series: Authorised King James Version: The Gospel According to Mark''. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1998. ISBN 0-86241-796-1.

''Complete Lyrics''. London: Penguin, 2001. ISBN 0-14-100515-7.

* ''The Complete Lyrics'' (revised and updated). London: Penguin, 2007. ISBN 978-0-141-02714-2.

''The Death of Bunny Munro''. 2009

Awards and honours

2011 MOJO Awards: Song of the Year for "Heathen Child" by Grinderman

2010 made an honorary Doctor of Laws, by University of Dundee. 2008 ARIA Awards Male Artist of the Year (''Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!'').

2008 MOJO Awards: Best Album of 2008 (''Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!'').

2008 Awarded an Honorary degree as Doctor of Laws, by Monash University. 2007 ARIA Awards ARIA Hall of Fame inductee.

2006 Venice Film Festival: Gucci Award (for the script to ''The Proposition'').

2005 Q magazine: Q Classic Songwriter Award.

2005 AFI Awards: Best Original Music Score with Warren Ellis (''The Proposition'').

2005 Inside Film Awards: Best Music (''The Proposition'').

2005 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards: Best Musical Score (''The Proposition'').

2004 MOJO Awards: Best Album of 2004 (''Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus'').

2001 ARIA Awards: Best Male Artist (''No More Shall We Part''). 2001 APRA Music Awards: "The Ship Song" voted in the Top 30 Best Australian Songs of the previous 75 years.

1997 APRA Music Awards: Songwriter of the year.

1997 ARIA Awards: Best Original Soundtrack (''To Have and to Hold''). 1996 ARIA Awards: Song of the Year & Single of the Year & Best Pop Release ("Where the Wild Roses Grow").

1996 MTV Europe Music Awards: Nick Cave formally requested that his nomination for "Best Male Artist" be withdrawn as he was not comfortable with the "competitive nature" of such awards.

1990 ''Time Out'' Magazine: Book Of The Year (''And the Ass Saw the Angel'').

Further reading

''Bad Seed: A Biography of Nick Cave'', Ian Johnston (1997) ISBN 0-316-90833-9

''The Life and Music of Nick Cave: An Illustrated Biography'', Maximilian Dax & Johannes Beck (1999) ISBN 3-931126-27-7

Liner notes to the CDs ''Original Seeds: Songs that inspired Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds'', Kim Beissel (1998 & 2004), Rubber Records

''Kicking Against the Pricks: An Armchair Guide to Nick Cave'', Amy Hanson (2005), ISBN 1-900924-96-X

''Nick Cave Stories'', Janine Barrand (2007)

''Cultural Seeds: Essays on the Work of Nick Cave'', eds. Karen Welberry and Tanya Dalziell (2009) ISBN 0754663957

''Nick Cave Sinner Saint: The True Confessions'', ed. Mat Snow (2011) ISBN 978-0-85965-448-7

References

External links

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds official website

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds official merchandise

Category:1957 births Category:Alternative rock musicians Category:ARIA Award winners Category:ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Category:Australian male singers Category:Australian novelists Category:Australian songwriters Category:People educated at Caulfield Grammar School Category:Gothic rock musicians Category:Living people Category:People from Wangaratta Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds members Category:People from Brighton and Hove (district) Category:Post-punk musicians

af:Nick Cave bs:Nick Cave ca:Nick Cave cs:Nick Cave da:Nick Cave de:Nick Cave et:Nick Cave el:Νικ Κέιβ es:Nick Cave eo:Nick Cave eu:Nick Cave fa:نیک کیو fr:Nick Cave gl:Nick Cave hr:Nick Cave it:Nick Cave he:ניק קייב ka:ნიკ კეივი lt:Nick Cave hu:Nick Cave nl:Nick Cave ja:ニック・ケイヴ no:Nick Cave nn:Nick Cave pl:Nick Cave pt:Nick Cave ru:Кейв, Ник sk:Nick Cave sh:Nick Cave fi:Nick Cave sv:Nick Cave tr:Nick Cave uk:Нік Кейв

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name edward ellington| image	Duke Ellington restored.jpg
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Edward Kennedy Ellington
born	April 29, 1899Washington, D.C., U.S.
died	May 24, 1974New York City, New York, U.S.
instrument	Piano
genre	Orchestral jazz, swing, big band
occupation	Bandleader, pianist, composer
years active	1914–74
website	Duke Ellington Official Website

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions. In the words of Bob Blumenthal of ''The Boston Globe'' "In the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington."

A major figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing stage musicals, and world tours. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional genres of music. His reputation increased after his death and the Pulitzer Prize Board bestowed on him a special posthumous honor in 1999.

Ellington called his music "American Music" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category." These included many of the musicians who were members of his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most well-known jazz orchestral units in the history of jazz. He often composed specifically for the style and skills of these individuals, such as "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Concerto for Cootie" for Cootie Williams, which later became "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me" with Bob Russell's lyrics, and "The Mooche" for Tricky Sam Nanton and Bubber Miley. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan" and "Perdido" which brought the 'Spanish Tinge' to big-band jazz. Several members of the orchestra remained there for several decades. After 1941, he frequently collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his "writing and arranging companion." Ellington recorded for many American record companies, and appeared in several films.

Ellington led his band from 1923 until his death in 1974. His son Mercer Ellington, who had already been handling all administrative aspects of his father's business for several decades, led the band until his own death in 1996. At that point, the original band dissolved. Paul Ellington, Mercer's youngest son and executor of the Duke Ellington estate, kept the Duke Ellington Orchestra going from Mercer's death onwards.

Early life

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. Daisy and J.E. were both pianists. She primarily played parlor songs and he operatic airs. They lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place (now Ward Place), NW in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D.C. His father, James Edward Ellington was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina on April 15, 1879 and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1886 with his parents. Daisy Kennedy, was born in Washington, D.C. on January 4, 1879, and was the daughter of a former American slave. James Ellington made blueprints for the United States Navy. He also worked as a butler for Dr. Middleton F. Cuthbert, a prominent white physician, and occasionally worked as a White House caterer.

At the age of seven Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners and teach him to live elegantly. Ellington’s childhood friends noticed that "his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman", and began calling him Duke. Ellington credited his "chum" Edgar McEntree for the nickname. "I think he felt that in order for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. So he called me Duke."

Though Ellington took piano lessons, he was more interested in baseball. "President Roosevelt (Teddy) would come by on his horse sometimes, and stop and watch us play," he recalled. Ellington went to Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, D.C. He got his first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games.

In the summer of 1914, while working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Cafe, he wrote his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag" (also known as the "Poodle Dog Rag"). Ellington created "Soda Fountain Rag" by ear, because he had not yet learned to read and write music. "I would play the 'Soda Fountain Rag' as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango, and fox trot," Ellington recalled. "Listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire." In his autobiography, ''Music is my Mistress'' (1973), Ellington said he missed more lessons than he attended, feeling at the time that playing the piano was not his talent. Ellington started sneaking into Frank Holiday's Poolroom at the age of fourteen. Hearing the poolroom pianists play ignited Ellington's love for the instrument and he began to take his piano studies seriously. Among the many piano players he listened to, he listened to Doc Perry, Lester Dishman, Louis Brown, Turner Layton, Gertie Wells, Clarence Bowser, Sticky Mack, Blind Johnny, Cliff Jackson, Claude Hopkins, Phil Wurd, Caroline Thornton, Luckey Roberts, Eubie Blake, Joe Rochester, and Harvey Brooks.

Ellington began listening to, watching, and imitating ragtime pianists, not only in Washington, D.C., but in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, where he vacationed with his mother during the summer months. Dunbar High School music teacher Henry Lee Grant gave him private lessons in harmony. With the additional guidance of Washington pianist and band leader Oliver "Doc" Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, project a professional style, and improve his technique. Ellington was also inspired by his first encounters with stride pianists James P. Johnson and Luckey Roberts. Later in New York he took advice from Will Marion Cook, Fats Waller, and Sidney Bechet. Ellington started to play gigs in cafés and clubs in and around Washington, D.C. and his attachment grew to be so strong that he turned down an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1916. Three months before graduating he dropped out of Armstrong Manual Training School, where he was studying commercial art.

From 1917 through 1919, Ellington launched his musical career, painting commercial signs by day and playing piano by night. Through his day job, Duke's entrepreneurial side came out: when a customer would ask him to make a sign for a dance or party, he would ask them if they had musical entertainment; if not, Ellington would ask if he could play for them. He also had a messenger job with the U.S. Navy and State Departments. 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). He was not only a member, but also the booking agent. His first play date was at the True Reformer's Hall, where he took home 75 cents.

Ellington played throughout the Washington, D.C. area and into Virginia for private society balls and embassy parties. The band included Otto Hardwick, who switched from bass to saxophone; Arthur Whetsol on trumpet; Elmer Snowden on banjo; and Sonny Greer on drums. The band thrived, performing for both African-American and white audiences, a rarity during the racially divided times.

Music career

Early career

When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington made the fateful decision to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D.C., and move to Harlem, becoming one of the figures of the Harlem Renaissance. New dance crazes like the Charleston emerged in Harlem, as well as African-American musical theater, including Eubie Blake's ''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 and hard to crack. They hustled pool by day and played whatever gigs they could find. The young band met 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 a gig in Atlantic City, New Jersey, led to a play date at the prestigious Exclusive Club in Harlem. This was followed in September 1923 by a move to the Hollywood Club – 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 called Elmer Snowden and his Black Sox Orchestra and had seven members, including 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"), an engagement which set the stage for the biggest opportunities in Ellington's life.

Ellington made eight records in 1924, receiving composing credit on three including ''Choo Choo''. In 1925 Ellington contributed four songs to ''Chocolate Kiddies'', 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 ten-piece organization; they developed their distinct sound by displaying 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 sultry saxophone blues licks of the band members. For a short time soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet played with the group, imparting his propulsive swing and superior musicianship to the young band members. This helped attract the attention of some of the biggest names of jazz, including Paul Whiteman.

In 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. With a weekly radio broadcast and famous white clientele nightly pouring in to see them, Ellington and his band thrived in the period from 1932 to 1942, a golden age for the band.

Ellington was joined in New York City by his wife, Edna Thompson, and son Mercer in the late twenties, but the couple soon permanently separated. According to her obituary in ''Jet'' magazine, she was "[h]omesick for Washington" and returned (she died in 1967).

Although trumpeter Bubber Miley was a member of the orchestra for only a short period, he had a major influence on Ellington's sound. An early exponent of growl trumpet, his style changed the "sweet" dance band sound of the group to one that was hotter, which contemporaries termed 'jungle' style. He also composed most of "Black and Tan Fantasy" and "Creole Love Call". An alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider fame. He died in 1932 at the age of 29. He was an important influence on Cootie Williams, who replaced him.

In 1927 Ellington made a career-advancing agreement with agent-publisher Irving Mills, giving Mills a 45% interest in Ellington's future. Mills had an eye for new talent and early on published compositions by Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, and Harold Arlen. During the 1930s Ellington's popularity continued to increase – largely as a result of the promotional skills of Mills – who got more than his fair share of co-composer credits. Mills arranged recording sessions on the Brunswick, Victor, and Columbia labels which gave Ellington popular recognition. Mills lifted the management burden from Ellington's shoulders, allowing him to focus on his band's sound and his compositions. Ellington ended his association with Mills in 1937, although he continued to record under Mills' banner through to 1940.

At the Cotton Club, Ellington's group performed all the music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers, vaudeville, burlesque, music, and illegal alcohol. The musical numbers were composed by Jimmy McHugh and the lyrics by Dorothy Fields (later Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler), with some Ellington originals mixed in. Weekly radio broadcasts from the club gave Ellington national exposure. In 1929 Ellington appeared in his first movie, a nineteen-minute all-African-American RKO short, ''Black and Tan'', in which he played the hero "Duke". In the same year, 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., Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, and with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Gus Kahn. That feverish period also included numerous recordings, under the pseudonyms "Whoopee Makers", "The Jungle Band", "Harlem Footwarmers", and the "Ten Black Berries". In 1930 Ellington and his Orchestra connected with a whole different audience in a concert with Maurice Chevalier and they also performed at the Roseland Ballroom, "America's foremost ballroom". Noted composer Percy Grainger was also an early admirer and supporter.

In 1929, when Ellington conducted the orchestra for ''Show Girl'', he met Will Vodery, Ziegfeld’s musical supervisor. In his 1946 biography, ''Duke Ellington'', Barry Ulanov wrote:

As the Depression worsened, the recording industry was in crisis, dropping over 90% of its artists by 1933. Ellington and his orchestra survived the hard times by taking to the road in a series of tours. Radio exposure also helped maintain popularity. Ivie Anderson was hired as their featured vocalist. Sonny Greer had been providing occasional vocals and continued to do in a cross-talk feature with Anderson. Ellington, however, later had many different vocalists, including Herb Jeffries (until 1943) and Al Hibbler (who replaced Jeffries in 1943 and continued until 1951).

Ellington led the orchestra by conducting from the keyboard using piano cues and visual gestures; very rarely did he conduct using a baton. As a bandleader Ellington was not a strict disciplinarian; he maintained control of his orchestra with a crafty combination of charm, humor, flattery, and astute psychology. A complex, private person, he revealed his feelings to only his closest intimates and effectively used his public persona to deflect attention away from himself.

While the band's United States audience remained mainly African-American in this period, the Cotton Club had a near-exclusive white clientele and the Ellington orchestra had a huge following overseas, exemplified by the success of their trip to England in 1933 and their 1934 visit to the European mainland. The English visit saw Ellington win praise from members of the 'serious' music community, including composer Constant Lambert, which gave a boost to Ellington's aspiration to compose longer works. For agent Mills it 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 easy accommodations, dining, and storage for equipment while avoiding the indignities of segregated facilities.

The death of Ellington's mother in 1935 led to a temporary hiatus in his career. Competition was also intensifying, as African-American and white swing bands began to receive popular attention, including those of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Carter, Earl Hines, Chick Webb, and Count Basie. 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 band could certainly swing, but Ellington's strengths were mood and nuance, and richness of composition; hence his statement "jazz is music; swing is business". Ellington countered with two developments. He made recordings of smaller groups (sextets, octets, and nonets) drawn from his then-15-man orchestra and he composed pieces intended to feature specific instrumentalist, as with "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Yearning for Love" for Lawrence Brown, "Trumpet in Spades" for Rex Stewart, "Echoes of Harlem" for 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. Things improved in 1938 and he met and moved in with Cotton Club employee Beatrice "Evie" Ellis. After splitting with agent Irving Mills, he signed on with the William Morris Agency. The 1930s ended with a very successful European tour just as World War II loomed.

Ellington delivered some huge hits during the 1930s, which greatly helped to build his overall reputation. Some of them include: "Mood Indigo" (1930), "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932), "Sophisticated Lady" (1933), "Solitude" (1934), "In a Sentimental Mood" (1935), "Caravan" (1937), "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" (1938). "Take the "A" Train" which hit big in 1941, was written by Billy Strayhorn.

Strayhorn, originally hired as a lyricist, began his association with Ellington in 1939. Nicknamed "Swee' Pea" for his mild manner, Strayhorn soon became a vital member of the Ellington Organization. Ellington showed great fondness kept the Duke Ellington Orchestra going 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 doppelganger". 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.

Duke in the 1940s

The band reached a creative peak in the early 1940s, when Ellington and a small hand-picked group of his composers and arrangers wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices who displayed tremendous creativity.

Some of the musicians created a sensation in their own right. The short-lived Jimmy Blanton transformed the use of double bass in jazz, allowing it to function as a solo rather than a rhythm instrument alone. Ben Webster, the Orchestra's first regular tenor saxophonist, started a rivalry with Johnny Hodges as the Orchestra's foremost voice in the sax section. Ray Nance joined, replacing Cootie Williams (who had "defected", contemporary wags claimed, to Benny Goodman). Nance, however, added violin to the instrumental colors Ellington had at his disposal.

Three-minute masterpieces flowed from the minds of Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Ellington's son Mercer Ellington, Mary Lou Williams and members of the Orchestra. "Cotton Tail", "Main Stem", "Harlem Airshaft", "Sidewalks of New York (East Side, West Side)", "Jack the bear", and dozens of others date from this period.

Privately made recordings of Nance's first concert date, at Fargo, North Dakota, on November 7, 1940 by Jack Towers and Dick Burris, are probably the most effective display of the band during this period. These recordings, later released as ''Duke Ellington at Fargo, 1940 Live'', are among the first of innumerable live performances which survive, made by enthusiasts or broadcasters, significantly expanding the Ellington discography.

Ellington's long-term aim became to extend the jazz form from the three-minute limit of the 78 rpm record side, of which he was an acknowledged master. He had composed and recorded ''Creole Rhapsody'' as early as 1931 (issued as both sides of 12" record for Victor and both sides of a 10" record for Brunswick), and his tribute to his mother, "Reminiscing in Tempo," had filled four 10" record sides in 1935; however, it was not until the 1940s that this became a regular feature of Ellington's work.

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. Ellington debuted ''Black, Brown and Beige'' in Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, beginning a series of concerts there suited to displaying Ellington's longer works. While some jazz musicians had played at Carnegie Hall before, few had performed anything as elaborate as Ellington’s work.

Unfortunately, starting a regular pattern, Ellington's longer works were generally not well-received. ''Jump for Joy'', a full-length musical based on themes of African-American identity, debuted on July 10, 1941 at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. Although it had the support of the Hollywood establishment, and received mostly positive reviews, its socio-political outlook provoked a negative reaction among some members of the public. It ran for 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, despite Ellington's plans to take it there.

The settlement of the first recording ban of 1942–43 had a serious effect on all the big bands because of the increase in royalty payments to musicians which resulted from it. The financial viability of Ellington's Orchestra came under threat, though Ellington's income as a songwriter ultimately subsidized it. Ellington always spent lavishly and although he drew a respectable income from the Orchestra's operations, the band's income often just covered expenses.

The music industry's focus shifted away from the Big Bands to the work of solo vocalists such as the young Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday and mainstream groups like The Andrews Sisters as World War II drew to a close. While Ellington had featured some of the most talented singers of the day fronting his orchestra, he and his band took a back seat to no one, which set him down a path that put him increasingly at odds with the growing recording industry which was profiting from celebrity singers who were cheaper to keep than a big band, and produced bigger revenues.

By the mid 1940s, artists were creatively changing. One of Ellington's composer-arrangers, Mary Lou Williams, left Ellington in 1943 and by 1945 was working with Dizzy Gillespie on a new form of jazz music, "Bebop."

Bebop rebelled against mainstream jazz and the strict forms of which Ellington was perhaps its most well known standard-bearer. The music, which had redefined the American sound over 35 years, was about to be shaken up.

It would take another ten years for Bebop to begin catching on with jazz aficionados world-wide, but it was an early hit with club owners of smaller venues who could draw the jazz form's growing audiences in New York City at a fraction of the cost of hosting a big band, particularly one of Ellington's caliber. Newer, smaller bands and splinter forms of music increasingly put pressure on the bigger clubs who paid out increasingly more to maintain their big bands. Ellington's elite band was a costly enterprise that, along with his excessive personal spending, always teetered on the brink of break-even. The new music trends eventually pushed it over the edge and put Ellington out on the road in search of venues that could afford to showcase his music.

Bebop was also a huge shift for young talent, from Charlie Parker to John Coltrane to Thelonious Monk who did not embrace Big Band and sought out new creative frontiers, redefining "modern" jazz music forever. Ellington did not recruit or embrace these new artists and change with the times.

In 1950, another emerging musical trend, the African-American popular music style known as Rhythm and Blues driven by a new generation of composers and musicians like Fats Domino drew away young audiences from both the African-American and white communities, and ultimately unified those audiences as R&B morphed into Rock & Roll which expanded the cults of the singers from the Big Band era to the singer/songwriters from Domino to Elvis Presley to Buddy Holly. Again, Ellington did not embrace the new musical form, leaving him further in the growing dust cloud of musical history.

Ellington continued on his own course through these tectonic shifts in the music business. He did not wholly resist trends while trying to turn out major works. The Kay Davis vocal feature "Transblucency" was an attempt to cater to the singer-centric music world. He still performed major extended compositions such as ''Harlem'' (1950), whose score he presented to music-loving President Harry Truman, but these works were rapidly becoming reflections of his greatness in the 1930s and 1940s, and not ground-breaking works that rattled the music world back into the Big Band camp.

In 1951, Ellington suffered a major loss of personnel, with Sonny Greer, Lawrence Brown, and most significantly Johnny Hodges, leaving to pursue other ventures. Lacking overseas opportunities and motion picture appearances, Ellington's Orchestra survived on "one-nighters" and whatever else came their way.

By the summer of 1955 the band was performing for six weeks at the Aquacade in Flushing, New York, where Ellington is supposed to have "invented" a drink known as "The Tornado," the only alcoholic concoction that features his signature Coca-Cola and sugar.

Ellington's hope that television would provide a significant new outlet for his type of jazz was not fulfilled. Tastes and trends had moved on without him. The introduction of the 33 1/3 rpm LP record and hi-fi phonograph though, did give new life to many of his older compositions. However by 1955, after three years of recording for Capitol, Ellington no longer had a regular recording affiliation.

Career revival

The music business' increasing factionization into specific forms of rock-and-roll, country, bluegrass, or jazz broke down into even more sub-sets, and opened the door for the second act in Duke Ellington's career. An international fascination with Jazz re-opened the door at record labels to artists like Ellington and Louis Armstrong who had found themselves out of step with the times for the last half-decade. The Ellington who was too big or too proud to change would now appear with a variety of artists from the different jazz forms.

Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956 returned him to wider prominence and exposed him to new audiences. The feature "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", with saxophonist Paul Gonsalves's six-minute saxophone solo, had been in the band's book since 1937, but on this occasion nearly created a riot. The revived attention should not have surprised anyone – Hodges had returned to the fold the previous year, and Ellington's collaboration with Strayhorn had been renewed around the same time, under terms more amenable to the younger man. ''Such Sweet Thunder'' (1957), based on Shakespeare's plays and characters, and ''The Queen's Suite'', dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II, were products of the renewed impetus which the Newport appearance helped to create.

A new record contract with Columbia produced Ellington's best-selling LP ''Ellington at Newport'' and yielded six years of recording stability under producer Irving Townsend, who coaxed both commercial and artistic productions from Ellington. In 1957, CBS (Columbia's 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 wildly received.

After a 25-year gap, Ellington (with Strayhorn) returned to work on film scores, this time for ''Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959) and ''Paris Blues'' (1961). Ellington and Strayhorn, always looking for new musical territory, produced adaptations of John Steinbeck's novel ''Sweet Thursday'', Tchaikovsky's ''Nutcracker Suite'' and Edvard Grieg's ''Peer Gynt''. The late 1950s also saw Ella Fitzgerald record her ''Duke Ellington Songbook'' 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".

''Detroit Free Press'' music critic Mark Stryker concludes that the work of Billy Strayhorn and Ellington in ''Anatomy of a Murder'', the trial court drama film directed by Otto Preminger in 1959, is "indispensable, [although] . . . too sketchy to rank in the top echelon among Ellington-Strayhorn masterpiece suites like ''Such Sweet Thunder'' and ''The Far East Suite'', but its most inspired moments are their equal." Film historians have recognized the soundtrack "as a landmark – the first significant Hollywood film music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, music whose source is not visible or implied by action in the film, like an on-screen band." The score avoided the cultural stereotypes which previously characterized jazz scores and rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the New Wave cinema of the ’60s".

In the early 1960s, Ellington embraced recording with artists who had been fierce rivals of the past, or who had been young artists from the Bebop beginnings whom he did not associate with. The Ellington and Count Basie orchestras recorded together. During a period when he 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 ''Money Jungle'' (United Artists) album.

Ironically, the singer most responsible for setting off the changes that brought an end to the big band era became Ellington's salvation. He signed to Frank Sinatra's new Reprise label. Musicians who had previously worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members: Lawrence Brown in 1960 and Cootie Williams in 1962.

The international mania for jazz reinstated Ellington as one of the highest earning artists in jazz. He performed all over the world; a significant part of each year was now spent making overseas tours.

He formed notable new working relationships with international artists from around the world, including the Swedish vocalist Alice Babs, and South African musicians Dollar Brand and Sathima Bea Benjamin (''A Morning in Paris'', 1963/1997).

His earlier hits became big sellers in the rediscovery of the music world-wide, earning Ellington impressive royalties.

"The writing and playing of music is a matter of intent.... You can't just throw a paint brush 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."

Last years

Ellington was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1965, but was turned down. His reaction at 67 years old: "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young." In September of the same year, the first of his Sacred Concerts was given its premiere. It was an attempt to fuse Christian liturgy with jazz, and even though it 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. This caused controversy in what was already a tumultuous time in the United States. Many saw the Sacred Music suites as an attempt to reinforce commercial support for organized religion, though 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 continued to make vital and innovative recordings, including ''The Far East Suite'' (1966), the ''New Orleans Suite'' (1970), and ''The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse'' (1971), much of it inspired by his world tours. It was during this time that Ellington recorded his only album with Frank Sinatra, entitled ''Francis A. & Edward K.'' (1967).

Ellington was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. He was later awarded several other prizes, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, an Honorary PhD from the Berklee College of Music in 1971, and the Legion of Honor by France in 1973, the highest civilian honors in each country.

Work in films and the theater

Ellington's film work began in 1929 with the short film ''Black and Tan''. ''Symphony in Black'' (1935) featured his extended piece 'A Rhapsody of Negro Life'. It introduced Billie Holiday, and won an Academy Award as the best musical short subject. He also appeared in the Amos 'n' Andy film ''Check and Double Check'' (1930). Ellington and his Orchestra continued to appear in films through the 1930s and 1940s, both in short films and in features such as ''Murder at the Vanities'' and ''Belle of the Nineties'' (1934), and ''Cabin in the Sky'' (1943). In the late 1950s, his work in films took the shape of scoring for soundtracks, notably ''Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959), with James Stewart, in which he appeared fronting a roadhouse combo, and ''Paris Blues'' (1961), which featured Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as jazz musicians.

He wrote an original score for director Michael Langham's production of Shakespeare's ''Timon of Athens'' at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada which opened on July 29, 1963. Langham has used it for several subsequent productions, most recently in an adaptation by Stanley Silverman which expands the score with some of Ellington's best-known works.

Ellington composed the score for the musical ''Jump For Joy'', which was performed in Los Angeles during 1941. Ellington's sole book musical, ''Beggar's Holiday'', was staged on Broadway in 1946. ''Sophisticated Ladies'', an award-winning 1981 musical revue, incorporated many tunes from his repertoire.

Personal life

Ellington married his high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson, on July 2, 1918, when he was 19. Shortly after their marriage, on March 11, 1919 Edna gave birth to their only son, Mercer Kennedy Ellington. Mercer played trumpet, led his own band and worked as his father's business manager, eventually taking full control of the band after Duke's death. He was an important archivist of his father's musical life.

Ellington's sister Ruth (1915–2004) later ran Tempo Music, Ellington's music publishing company. Ruth's second husband was the bass-baritone McHenry Boatwright, whom she met when he sang at her brother's funeral.

Ellington's eldest grandson Edward Kennedy Ellington II also is a musician and maintains a small salaried band known as the Duke Ellington Legacy, which frequently comprises the core of the big band operated by The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts.

Death

Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday, and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City. At his funeral attended by over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, "It's a very sad day. A genius has passed." Mercer Ellington picked up the reins of the orchestra immediately after Duke's death. Ellington's last words were, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered."

Legacy

Duke Ellington's work has come to be recognized as a cornerstone of American culture and heritage. He is widely regarded as the most important composer in jazz; he was also a galvanizing bandleader who inspired many of his musicians to produce their best work, whilst himself being a significant exponent of jazz piano. His works have been revisited by artists and musicians around the world both as a source of inspiration and a bedrock of their own performing careers. Ellington's compositions are now the staple of the repertoire of music conservatories, and even high school band programs that have embraced his music continue to give it life and voice.

His son, Mercer Ellington kept his big band alive after his passing. When Mercer died, Paul Ellington kept the Duke Ellington Orchestra going. It plays in concert halls around the world to this day.

Discography

Awards, honors and recognitions

Memorials

Numerous memorials have been dedicated to Duke Ellington, in cities from New York and Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles.

In Ellington's birthplace of Washington, D.C., there is a school dedicated to his honor and memory as well as one of the bridges over Rock Creek Park. The Duke Ellington School of the Arts educates talented students, who are considering careers in the arts, by providing intensive arts instruction and strong academic programs that prepare students for post-secondary education and professional careers. The Calvert Street Bridge was renamed the Duke Ellington Bridge; built in 1935, it connects Woodley Park to Adams Morgan.

On February 24, 2009, the United States Mint launched a new coin featuring Duke Ellington, making him the first African-American to appear by himself on a circulating U.S. coin. Ellington appears on the reverse ("tails") side of the District of Columbia quarter. The coin is part of the U.S. Mint's program honoring the District and the U.S. territories and celebrates Ellington's birthplace in the District of Columbia. Ellington is depicted on the quarter seated at a piano, sheet music in hand, along with the inscription "Justice for All", which is the District's motto.

Ellington lived for years in a townhouse on the corner of Manhattan's Riverside Drive and West 106th Street. After his death, West 106th Street was officially renamed Duke Ellington Boulevard. A large memorial to Ellington, created by sculptor Robert Graham, was dedicated in 1997 in New York's Central Park, near Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, an intersection named Duke Ellington Circle.

Although he made two more stage appearances before his death, Ellington performed what is considered his final "full" concert in a ballroom at Northern Illinois University on March 20, 1974. The hall was renamed the Duke Ellington Ballroom in 1980.

A statue of Ellington at a piano is featured at the entrance to UCLA's Schoenberg Hall. According to ''UCLA Magazine'':

He is one of only five jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of ''Time'' (the other four being Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Wynton Marsalis, and Dave Brubeck).

The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival is a nationally renowned annual competition for prestigious high school bands. Started in 1996 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the festival is named after Ellington because of the large focus that the festival places on his works.

Tributes

Sathima Bea Benjamin - the South African vocalist wrote "Gift of Love", in memory of Duke Ellington, for her 1987 album ''Love Light''.

Dave Brubeck - dedicated "The Duke" (1954) to Ellington and it became a standard covered by others, both during Ellington's lifetime (such as by Miles Davis on ''Miles Ahead'', 1957) and posthumously (such as George Shearing on ''I Hear a Rhapsody: Live at the Blue Note'', 1992). The album The Real Ambassadors has a vocal version of this piece, ''You Swing Baby (The Duke)'', with lyrics by Iola Brubeck, Dave's wife. It is performed as a duet between Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae. It is also dedicated to Duke Ellington.

Tony Bennett frequently altered the lyrics to "Lullaby of Broadway" in live performance, to sing, "You rock-a-bye your baby 'round/to Ellington or Basie," as a personal tribute to the two jazz masters.

Judy Collins - wrote "Song For Duke" in 1975, and included it on her album ''Judith''.

Miles Davis - one month after Ellington's death, created his half-hour dedicated dirge "He Loved Him Madly" (1974) collected on ''Get Up with It''.

The jazz-influenced band Steely Dan recorded a note-for-note version of an early Ellington standard, "East St. Louis Toodle-oo," on their album ''Pretzel Logic'', released in 1974, using treated slide guitars to re-create the plunger-muted "jungle sound" of the original Ellington horns.

Stevie Wonder - wrote the song "Sir Duke" as a tribute to Ellington in 1976.

Charles Mingus - composed "Open Letter to Duke" and "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love"

Lorraine Feather - has composed lyrics to many of Ellington's instrumental compositions,recorded on CD's including "Dooji Wooji" and "Such Sweet Thunder."

The Modern Jazz Quartet composed two original Ellington tributes for their album ''For Ellington''.

There are hundreds of albums dedicated to the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn by artists famous and obscure. The more notable artists include Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Claude Bolling, Oscar Peterson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Dick Hyman, Joe Pass, Milt Jackson, Earl Hines, André Previn, World Saxophone Quartet, Ben Webster, Zoot Sims, Kenny Burrell, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Martial Solal, Clark Terry and Randy Weston.

Homage from critics

Gunther Schuller wrote, "Ellington composed incessantly to the very last days of his life. Music was indeed his mistress; it was his total life and his commitment to it was incomparable and unalterable. In jazz he was a giant among giants. And in twentieth century music, he may yet one day be recognized as one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time."

Martin Williams said "Duke Ellington lived long enough to hear himself named among our best composers. And since his death in 1974, it has become not at all uncommon to see him named, along with Charles Ives, as the greatest composer we have produced, regardless of category."

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Duke Ellington on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Andre Previn said, "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!"

Awards

Grammy Awards

Ellington earned 12 Grammy awards from 1959 to 2000, nine while he was alive. {| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Duke Ellington Grammy Award History |- ! Year ! Category ! Title ! Genre ! Result |- align=center | 1999 | Historical Album | The Duke Ellington Centennial EditionRCA Victor Recordings (1927–1973) | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1979 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | Duke Ellington At Fargo, 1940 Live | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1976 | Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band | ''The Ellington Suites'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1972 | Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band | ''Togo Brava Suite'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1971 | Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band | ''New Orleans Suite'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1968 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance - Large GroupOr Soloist With Large Group | ''...And His Mother Called Him Bill'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1967 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Large GroupOr Soloist With Large Group | ''Far East Suite'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1966 | Best Original Jazz Composition | "In The Beginning God" | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1965 | Best Instrumental Jazz Performance -Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group | ''Ellington '66'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1959 | Best Performance By A Dance Band | ''Anatomy of a Murder'' | Pop | Winner |- align=center | 1959 | Best Musical Composition First RecordedAnd Released In 1959(More Than 5 Minutes Duration) | ''Anatomy of a Murder'' | Composing | Winner |- align=center | 1959 | Best Sound Track Album - Background ScoreFrom A Motion Picture Or Television | ''Anatomy of a Murder'' | Composing | Winner |- align=center |}

Grammy Hall of Fame

Recordings of Duke Ellington were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Duke Ellington: Grammy Hall of Fame Award |- ! Year Recorded ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Year Inducted |- align=center | 1932 | "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" | Jazz (Single) | Brunswick | 2008 |- align=center | 1934 | "Cocktails for Two" | Jazz (Single) | Victor | 2007 |- align=center | 1957 | ''Ellington at Newport'' | Jazz (Album) | Columbia | 2004 |- align=center | 1956 | "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" | Jazz (Single) | Columbia | 1999 |- align=center | 1967 | ''Far East Suite'' | Jazz (Album) | RCA | 1999 |- align=center | 1944 | ''Black, Brown and Beige'' | Jazz (Single) | RCA Victor | 1990 |- align=center | 1928 | "Black and Tan Fantasy" | Jazz (Single) | Victor | 1981 |- align=center | 1941 | "Take the "A" Train" | Jazz (Single) | Victor | 1976 |- align=center | 1931 | "Mood Indigo" | Jazz (Single) | Brunswick |1975 |- align=center |}

Honors and inductions

{| class=wikitable |- ! Year ! Category ! Notes |- align=center | 2009 | Commemorative U.S. quarter | D.C. and U.S. Territories Quarters Program. |- align=center | 2008 | Gennett Records Walk of Fame |- align=center | 2004 | Nesuhi Ertegün Jazz Hall of Fameat Jazz at Lincoln Center |- align=center | 1999 | Pulitzer Prize | Special Citation |- align=center | 1986 | 22¢ commemorative U.S. stamp | Issued April 29, 1986 |- align=center | 1978 | Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame |- align=center | 1973 | French Legion of Honor | July 6, 1973 |- align=center | 1973 | Honorary Degree in Music from Columbia University | May 16, 1973 |- align=center | 1971 | Honorary Doctorate Degree from Berklee College of Music |- align=center | 1971 | Songwriters Hall of Fame |- align=center | 1969 | Presidential Medal of Freedom |- align=center | 1956 | Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame inductee |- align=center | 1968 | Grammy Trustees Award | Special Merit Award |- align=center | 1966 | Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award |- align=center | 1959 | NAACP Spingarn Medal |}

Notes

Bibliography (further reading)

Cohen, Harvey G. ''Duke Ellington's America.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-226-11263-3

Collier, James Lincoln. ''Duke Ellington''. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-19-503770-7

Dailey, Raleigh. "Ellington as a Composer for the Piano," in ''Jazz Research Proceedings Yearbook,'' #31 (Jan.2001), pp. 151–156.

Dance, Stanley. ''The World Of Duke Ellington''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970. ISBN 0-306-80136-1

Ellington, Duke. ''Music Is My Mistress''. New York: Da Capo, 1976 ISBN 0-7043-3090-3

Ellington, Mercer. ''Duke Ellington In Person''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. ISBN 0-395-27511-5.

Hajdu, David, ''Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn''. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1996. ISBN 978-0-86547-512-0.

Hasse, John Edward. ''Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington''. New York: Da Capo, 1995. ISBN 0-306-80614-2

Lawrence, A. H. ''Duke Ellington and His World: A Biography''. New York: Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0-415-93012-X

Schuller, Gunther. ''Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. ISBN 978-0-19-504043-2. Especially pp. 318–357.

Schuller, Gunther. ''The Swing Era: The Development Of Jazz, 1930-1945''. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 9780195072405. Esp. pp. 46–157.

Gilles Tordjman, François Billard, ''Duke Ellington'', Le Seuil, Paris, 1994. ISBN 978-2-02-013700-3

Terkel, Studs (2002), Giants of Jazz (2nd ed.), New York: The New Press, ISBN 978-1-56584-769-9.

Tucker, Mark. ''Ellington, The Early Years'', University of Illinois Press, 1991. ISBN 0-252-01425-1

Tucker, Mark. ''The Duke Ellington Reader''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993 ISBN 978-0-19-509391-9 .

Ulanov, Barry. ''Duke Ellington'', Creative Age Press, 1946.

Weisbard, Eric, ed.. ''This Is Pop: In Search of the Elusive at Experience Music Project''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-674-01344-1.

Reference works (discographies, filmographies, etc.)

Massagli, Luciano and Volonté, Giovanni. ''The New Desor: Duke Ellington's Story on Records Parts One and Two'', 1999, Milan, Italy. Privately published two part discography with no ISBN number. The most comprehensive Ellington discography for sessions and record issues.

Stratemann, Dr. Klaus. ''Duke Ellington: Day by Day and Film by Film''. Copenhagen: JazzMedia, 1992. ISBN 87-88043-34-7 Covers all of Duke's travels and films from the 1929 short film ''Black and Tan'' onwards

Timner, W.E.. ''Ellingtonia: The Recorded Music of Duke Ellington and His Sidemen''. 5^th ed. Lanham, Md. & Toronto: Scarecrow Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8108-5889-4 Has a unique discography of Ellington's sidemen.

External links

Official website

Official family website

Symphony In Black (discussion and film)

Duke Ellington Biography, in ''Down Beat Magazine''.

Duke Ellington Collection: Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Archive Center.

A Duke Ellington Panorama; including detailed discography.

The Duke Ellington Society, TDES, Inc

Duke Ellington: 20th International Conference. May 2008, London.

Duke Ellington Orchestra at Wenig-LaMonica Associates

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Juan Tizol (22 January 1900 – 23 April 1984) was a Puerto Rican trombonist and composer.

He was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Music was a large part of his life from an early age. His first instrument was the violin, but he soon switched to valve trombone, the instrument he would play throughout his career. His musical training came mostly from his uncle Manuel Tizol, who was the director of the municipal band and the symphony in San Juan. Throughout his youth, Juan played in his uncle’s band and also gained experience by playing in local operas, ballets and dance bands. In 1920, Juan joined a band that was traveling to the United States to work in Washington D.C. The group eventually made it to Washington (traveling as stowaways) and established residence at the Howard Theater where they played for touring shows and silent movies. At the Howard they also were hired to play in small jazz or dance groups. This is where Juan first came in contact with Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington.

Tizol got the call to join the Ellington band in the summer of 1929. Arthur Whetsol, a trumpeter whom Juan played with in the White Brothers’ Band, apparently made the recommendation. Juan sat beside Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton in the two-man trombone section and became the fifth voice in the brass section of Ellington’s orchestra. This opened up new possibilities for Duke’s writing, as he now could write for trombones as a section instead of just having them play with the trumpets. Juan’s rich, warm tone also blended nicely with the saxophone section, so he was often scored carrying the lead melody with the saxes. Along with his distinctive sound, Juan was also known for being one of the best sight-readers and over all musicians in the band. He played with fierce accuracy and was considered to be the solid rock of the trombone section through the years. He was not a major improviser in the band, but he was often featured playing written out solos that displayed his masterful technique and agility on the horn.

Juan made many contributions to the Ellington band throughout the 1930s and 40s. One of his major roles in the band was copying parts from Ellington’s scores. Tizol spent many hours and sometimes days extracting parts that needed to by written out for upcoming shows. Besides copying, Juan also was a band composer. His best known compositions, "Caravan" (1936) and "Perdido" (1941), are still played by jazz musicians today. Tizol was responsible for bringing Latin influences into the Ellington band with compositions such as "Moonlight Fiesta", "Jubilesta", "Conga Brava", and others. He also played valide trombone.

Juan left Ellington’s band in 1944 to play in the Harry James Orchestra. The main reason for this was to allow him to spend more time with his wife who lived in Los Angeles. In 1951, he returned to Ellington, along with James's drummer and alto saxophonist, in what became known as 'the James raid'. However, he returned to James’ band in 1953 and remained predominantly on the West Coast for the remainder of his career. In Los Angeles he played sporadically with Harry James, Nelson Riddle, and on the Nat “King” Cole television show. Juan returned very briefly to Ellington’s band in the early 60s, but eventually retired in Los Angeles. He died on April 23, 1984 in Inglewood, California, two years after the death of his wife, Rosebud.

References

Dietrich, Kurt. Duke's Bones. Germany: Advance Music, 1995. Print.

Sarrano, Basilio. "Juan Tizol: His talents, his collaborators, his legacy." Centro Journal Vol XVIII. Number 11 (2006). Print.

External links

[ All Music]

Music of Puerto Rico

Spaceagepop

Category:1900 births Category:Swing trombonists Category:Puerto Rican jazz musicians Category:People from San Juan, Puerto Rico Category:1984 deaths Category:Duke Ellington Orchestra members

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Don Sebesky
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Donald Sebesky
born	December 10, 1937Perth Amboy, New Jersey, U.S.
instrument	Trombone
genre	JazzBig band
occupation	Trombonist, Arranger, Author
years active	1956-Present
associated acts	Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill
notable instruments	}}

Don Sebesky (b. December 10, 1937, Perth Amboy, New Jersey) is an American jazz trombonist and arranger.

Biography

Sebesky trained in trombone at the Manhattan School of Music; in his early career, he played with Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, Tommy Dorsey, Warren Covington, Maynard Ferguson and Stan Kenton. In 1960 he began devoting himself primarily to arranging and conducting; one of his best-known arrangements was for Wes Montgomery's 1965 album ''Bumpin'''. Other credits include George Benson's ''The Shape of Things to Come'', Paul Desmond's ''From the Hot Afternoon'' and Freddie Hubbard's ''First Light''. His 1973 release, ''Giant Box'', hit #16 on the U.S. Billboard Jazz Albums chart.

He won three Grammy Awards in the 1990s: Best Instrumental Arrangement for "Waltz for Debby" (1998) and "Chelsea Bridge" (1999), and Best Instrumental Composition for "Joyful Noise Suite" (1999). He also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for ''Parade'' (1999) and ''Kiss Me, Kate'' (2000). Sebesky has also written a book, ''The Contemporary Arranger'' (1975).

Discography

''Don Sebesky and the Jazz-Rock Syndrome'' (1968)

''Distant Galaxy'' (1968)

''Giant Box'' (1973)

''The Rape of El Morro'' (CTI Records, 1975)

''Three Works for Jazz Soloists and Symphony Orchestra'' (1979)

''Sebesky Fantasy'' (1980)

''Moving Lines'' (1984)

''Full Cycle'' (1984)

''Symphonic Sondheim'' (1991)

''Our Love Is Here To Stay'' (Telarc, 1997) - John Pizzarelli w/ Don Sebesky combo

''I Remember Bill: The Tribute to Bill Evans'' (1998)

''Joyful Noise: A Tribute to Duke Ellington'' (1999)

''Kiroron I-Kiroro Melodies'' (2000)

References

External links

Don Sebesky at the Internet Off Broadway Database

Category:1937 births Category:Living people Category:people from Perth Amboy, New Jersey Category:musicians from New Jersey Category:American trombonists Category:American composers Category:Tony Award winners Category:Drama Desk Award winners

de:Don Sebesky