Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader who led his orchestra for over five decades and composed more than 3,000 works, making him one of the most prolific and significant composers in the history of American music. His long residency at the Cotton Club in Harlem in the late 1920s and early 1930s helped popularize jazz and swing to national audiences, and works such as "Mood Indigo," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," and "Take the A Train" are jazz standards. He was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in 1999.