Duke Ellington: How One Man Made an Orchestra His Instrument

Duke Ellington turned an entire orchestra into his personal instrument — composing not for generic "trumpet" or "sax," but for the specific musicians in his band. From "Mood Indigo" to "Take the 'A' Train" to the legendary 27-chorus comeback at Newport in 1956, this is the story of how one impeccably dressed bandleader wrote roughly 3,000 compositions and made jazz impossible to take lightly — or sit still to.


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