Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born 114 years ago today in Washington, D.C. In this April 1950 photo, he is illustrating part of the reason the name “Duke” was bestowed upon him by childhood friends who admired him for his killer style. He even wore suits and ties in high school and once blew everyone away at a party when he showed up in a shimmy back herringbone suit that was shirred and pleated in the back—a style that no one else was wearing at the time. Photo y Lipnitzki/Roger Viollet/Getty Images.
Sarah Vaughan plays the piano as Duke Ellington and Billy Eckstine look on, circa 1950. The Newark, NJ-born Ms. Vaughan studied piano as a child and went on to win first prize at the Apollo Theater’s famous Amateur Night competition. Billy Eckstine was in the audience that night and before long, Ms. Vaughan would sing with Mr. Eckstine in his band. Her recording of “The Duke Ellington Songbook, Vol. 1 and 2,” is still unmatched for its beauty and brilliance. Photo by Gilles Petard/Redferns.
Just noticed that Vintage Black Glamour now has over 100,000 followers - Thank you!! Phyllis Hyman helping musician Mercer Ellington, son of Duke Ellington, celebrate his father’s birthday in April 1981. Photo by Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.
Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Diahann Carroll and Harry Belafonte in the same photo? YES! Mr. Hughes wrote the script and Mr. Belafonte produced this television special called “The Strollin’ 20’s”, a celebration of the Harlem Renaissance. The show aired on CBS on February 21, 1966 and this iconic photo was taken by Rowland Scherman.
From left: Comedian George Kirby, Sidney Poitier, singer Gloria Lynne, Langston Hughes (he wrote the script for the show!), Harry Belafonte, singer Joe Williams, Diahann Carroll, Nipsey Russell, Paula Kelly and, yes, Duke Ellington.
Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Diahann Carroll and Harry Belafonte in the same photo? YES! Mr. Hughes wrote the script and Mr. Belafonte produced this television special called “The Strollin’ 20’s”, a celebration of the Harlem Renaissance. The show aired on CBS on February 21, 1966.
From left: Comedian George Kirby, Sidney Poitier, singer Gloria Lynne, Langston Hughes (he wrote the script for the show!), Harry Belafonte, singer Joe Williams, Diahann Carroll, Nipsey Russell, Paula Kelly and, yes, Duke Ellington.
Duke Ellington, amid “his 20 suits, 15 shirts, suede shoes and his ever present piano” in his dressing room at the Paramount Theater in New York in September 1946. This picture appeared in a series of intimate dressing room shots by the now legendary photographer, William Gottlieb, for Down Beat magazine, where he was a staff photographer at the time. Photo via The Library of Congress.
Vintage Black Glamour hit 25,000 “likes” today! I think I will celebrate that along with the birthday of Louis Armstrong, seen here in Paris in 1960 with Duke Ellington in a photo by Herman Leonard. Mr. Armstrong was actually born on August 4, 1901 - but he believed he was born on July 4th for his entire life (he died in 1971). In the mid-1980s, baptismal records were discovered that revealed his real birthdate.
Duke Ellington and President Harry Truman comparing musical notes at the White House on September 29, 1950. During another visit to Truman’s White House, the president, “wanting to converse as one piano player to another,” dismissed his guards and, as Mr. Ellington described it, he and the president acted like “a couple of cats in a billiard parlor.”
Photo: Bettman/Corbis
Duke Ellington with (r to l) my aunt Margaret Tynes and Joya Sherrill rehearsing for the television version of Ellington’s jazz suite A Drum is a Woman. The one-hour television special aired on CBS’s “U.S. Steel Hour” on May 8, 1957. Photo (obviously) via Getty Images.
Kay Davis, sang with Duke Ellington for six years in the 1940s. Best known for Creole Love Call, the lyric soprano with a bachelor’s and master’s degree (1943) from Northwestern University, will turn 91 on December 5, 2011. This 2009 interview with her is a treasure.
Duke Ellington and his singers Joya Sherrill, Kay Davis and Maria Ellington (no relation - later Mrs. Nat King Cole, mother of Natalie and niece of Charlotte Hawkins Brown).
Boxing legend Joe Frazier with none other than Duke Ellington after defeating Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 8, 1971. Mr. Frazier died tonight at the age of 67.
