A major new biography of Duke Ellington from the acclaimed author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century—and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world’s most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style. He wrote some fifteen hundred compositions, many of which, like “Mood Indigo” and “Sophisticated Lady,” remain beloved standards, and he sought inspiration in an endless string of transient lovers, concealing his inner self behind a smiling mask of flowery language and ironic charm. As the biographer of Louis Armstrong, Terry Teachout is uniquely qualified to tell the story of the public and private lives of Duke Ellington. Duke peels away countless layers of Ellington’s evasion and public deception to tell the unvarnished truth about the creative genius who inspired Miles Davis to say, “All the musicians should get together one certain day and get down on their knees and thank Duke.”
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“In his clear-eyed reassessment of a man regarded in
godlike terms, Teachout…delves behind ‘the mask of smiling, noncommittal
urbanity that he showed to the world.’ The facts and stories he relates aren’t
new, but rarely have they had such a compelling narrative flow or ring of
reliability…Teachout keeps his psychoanalyzing within safe limits; he
contextualizes historically without sounding contrived, and honors his subject’s
musical achievements through just the right amount of close analysis…Teachout
relates even the most dramatic episodes in the Ellington story with a poised
impartiality. He doesn’t take a novelistic approach, nor does he describe music
with…lyrical flights of fancy…Teachout writes in an earthbound style marked by
sound scholarship and easy readability.”
—
New York Times Book Review