Beyond Category: The Life And Genius Of Duke Ellington - Hardcover

John Edward Hasse

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671703870 ISBN 13: 9780671703875

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1993

Synopsis

A comprehensive biography of one of the century's premier musicians focuses on his accomplishments as a composer rather than his popularity as a bandleader.

About this title

Review:

One of the 20th century's greatest composers, Duke Ellington (1899-1974) led a fascinating life. The first biography to draw on the vast Duke Ellington archives at the Smithsonian Institution, this book recounts the entirety of his remarkable career: his childhood in Washington, D.C. and musical apprenticeship in Harlem; his long engagement at the glamorous, gangster-owned Cotton Club; the challenging years during the Depression; his tours to Europe and into America's deep South, where he helped lower racial barriers; the postwar years when television and bebop threatened to eclipse the big bands; Ellington's own triumphant comeback at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival; his collaborations with Billy Strayhorn, Johnny Hodges, Ella Fitzgerald, and John Coltrane, among others; and of course, the music itself, five decades of hits and masterpieces that constantly broke new ground.

John Edward Hasse serves as Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian Institution, curator of its traveling exhibition Beyond Category, and producer and annotator of the boxed set of recordings by the same name.

About the Author:

Music historian, musician, award-winning author and record producer, John Edward Hasse has served as curator of American music at the Smithsonian Institution. He is the editor of Ragtime: Its History, Composers and Music, and coeditor of Discourse in Ethnomusicology.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0671703870
• ISBN 13: 9780671703875
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480