Duke In The Foreground

"A man is a god in ruins." — Duke Ellington

DUKE ELLINGTON, July 2011, 2' x 3'

Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) took the time to explain things. He invited the listener inside the music.

His live recordings reveal  the spaces he made to tell the audience what’s happening behind the scenes of a song: This event inspired that tune, these musicians highlight a certain theme, this player gets a nod of recognition.
''The memory of things gone,'' Ellington once said, ''is important to a jazz musician,'' and the stories he sometimes told about his songs are the record of those things gone.  A brief biography of Edward Kennedy Ellington is here: http://www.dukeellington.com/ellingtonbio.html

I decided to vertically crop and frame Duke, and chose a very light frame and matte to offset the dark of pencil.

"Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: When it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it."

The Duke led a big band from his piano, an American composer who brought the music in his mind to a broad international audience, and played along.

One face from three photographs.

This drawing of Ellington is drawn from three photographs, each with different lighting, but all showing him seated with composition papers  laid out across the piano. The period captured here is probably from around 1966.  He had a weathered face, slicked hair, and was always debonair.

"There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone."

Duke on Day Three.

 "I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."

Duke Ellington called his music "American Music" rather than jazz, according to his biography. But he took it on the road: In his 50-year career, he played more than 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.  He was the most creative while on the road. "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing," "Sophisticated Lady," "Mood Indigo," “Solitude," "In a Mellotone," and "Satin Doll" are among the more than 3,000 songs that he composed.

Ellington vinyl in mono and stereo from the Recorded Works Limited archives. Most are Columbia Records.

"You've got to find some way of saying it, without saying it."

Ellington was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1965, but was turned down. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966 and the Presidential medal of Freedom in 1969. He led his band from 1923 until his death.

More than 3,000 compositions

Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday. His last words? "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered."

"People do not retire. They are retired by others."

TW does a little outdoor work on The Duke and contemplates his own retirement.

   

DUKE IN THE FOREGROUND

This illustration is for sale.

For inquiries: hankbonesman@embarqmail.com