Duke Ellington “has always been a little hard to figure,” said Chris Foran in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He embodied civilized refinement on stage but struggled offstage to juggle all of his ...

This year marks 125 years since the birth of jazz legend Duke Ellington. The bandleader, composer and pianist died 50 years ago. In the new book “The Jazzmen,” biographer Larry Tye sets out to ...

Duke Ellington's impact on jazz seems beyond measure, no matter how you count it. He wrote, co-wrote or took credit for writing more than 1,000 compositions over a 50-year span. According to one ...

Why another Ellington biography? The sub-title, A Spiritual Biography, is critical. While Steed does an excellent job of re-telling the standard Ellington story, her special province is the spiritual ...

This spring marks both the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s death, and what would have been his 125th birthday. Why is it that out of the hundreds of musicians who electrified the nightclubs of ...

For the past nine years, award-winning trombonist and recording artist Reginald Cyntje has inspired audiences around the ...

In an age where the term "relevance" feels like the single dominant tenant of nearly all of us in the education community, the significance of the work of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington continues to ...

Jazz lore is filled with anecdotes about Charlie Parker’s fondness for country music. On the road, his sidemen would rib him as he fed jukeboxes to hear weepers like “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” When they ...