We Love You Madly

Mary Campbell

Thursday, April 29, 1999 | 9:59 a.m.

NEW YORK -- He was a composer and bandleader, a showman and charmer, a pianist, artist and musical genius who created some of the most complex -- as well as some of the loveliest -- music of the 20th century.

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington -- whose 100th birthday the world celebrates today -- was pure music, whether the graceful melodies of his "Sophisticated Lady," "Satin Doll" and other tunes he composed, or the classical jazz of "Black and Tan Fantasy" or the be-bopping stylings of "Perdido" or the splendor of his ballet scores, sacred music and orchestral tone poems.

He was admired and cherished by the music world, especially his peers.

"You are the encyclopedia of music. There is nothing we can't learn from your genius. Soul, sensitivity, jazz, art and love all come from you," the late singer Ella Fitzgerald said in a 1974 Down Beat magazine tribute to Ellington shortly before he died.

Ellington's good looks, keen sense of style and way with words made men respect him and women swoon. His rococo introductions of numbers played by the Ellington Band were full of words such as chinoiserie (an ornate 18th-century Chinese-influenced style).

And in a caressing voice, he always dedicated "Satin Doll" whenever he performed it: "to the most beautiful woman in the room. We don't want to embarrass her by pointing her out, but she knows who she is."

He ended his shows by smilingly informing the audience, "The musicians and I want you to know that we do love you madly."

Ellington was born in Washington, D.C., April 29, 1899. He studied piano as a child and worked as a sign painter before putting together bands to perform at dances. He played at various nightclubs throughout the 1920s and found huge success at the Cotton Club before the decade was out. For the next several decades, Ellington was involved with just about every innovation in jazz, and he and his orchestra toured the world and played at some of the most prestigious concert halls here and abroad.

He was the first black composer to write the soundtrack for a major movie, "Anatomy of a Murder" in 1959, and he also wrote the themes for TV shows.

Ellington and composer Billy Strayhorn had four freedoms, which attorney Leonard Garment recalled Ellington reciting when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on April 29, 1969: "'Freedom from hate unconditionally; freedom from self-pity; freedom from fear of possibly doing something that may help someone else more than it would him, and freedom from the kind of pride that could make a man feel that he is better than his brother."'

He died in New York City May 24, 1974.

As the centennial of his birth is celebrated, a number of friends and colleagues touch on various facets of Ellington's legacy as they speak about what the man and his music meant in their lives:

Susannah McCorkle, singer

"The first Ellington song that had a big impact on me was 'Solitude' as recorded by Billie Holiday, the singer who made me want to drop everything and try to be a singer myself. The melody was haunting and beautiful, perfectly evoking the romantic melancholy of solitude.

"As an artist, I learned early on two very important principles from the Duke. One I extrapolated from the photograph used for the cover of an album of the Ellington Band playing for dancers in North Dakota. It was so cold they wore coats, scarves and gloves to play in, and they must have been exhausted from a cross-country bus tour but, listening to the music, they really gave their all. And Duke's records also taught me how important it is to value the individual voices of your musicians, to play to their strengths, to let them be themselves and express their personalities in music."

Billy Taylor, pianist

"I was house pianist at Birdland between 1949 and 1951 when I first came to New York. Ellington's opening night, the band was hot. They closed the first set with (drummer) Louis Bellson on 'Skin Deep.' It was like a rock concert; people raised the roof. Everybody was exalting and screaming. He could have walked off and gone to his dressing room. He didn't. He stood there. He said, 'Louis Bellson loves you madly.' He kept talking until the sound of the room started to come down.

"He said, 'There's a young man from my home town, Washington. I ask you to listen to him. As I will. I ask you to listen to Billy Taylor.' It's one thing to be a superstar and accept the plaudits of your audience. It's another thing to be so generous."

Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter

"Duke Ellington's music is not only sophisticated as music on a technical level, but it also works from an emotional and spiritual standpoint. It is highly accurate. He actually knows how to describe American life in tone."

Tony Bennett, singer

"When meeting Duke for the first time, I was immediately struck by his magnificent 'aura.' He was the most mystic, positive, spiritual, hip, humanistic person I've ever encountered. While touring with him, I watched his ingenious moves on a daily basis. I'm almost positive that 500 years from now, Duke will be remembered as the first legitimate classical composer of America."

Judith Jamison, former dancer, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

"As a dancer, Ellington's music wraps around you. You could dive into the music because it was so thick, so dense. You dive into it and become one with the music. That's what I still love.

"Duke Ellington's music always had a little insinuation in it, sometimes sensual, a lot of it funny, things you could read between the lines. ... When you think of the chord structures, it would hit you as atonal then slide into something else. You don't know where he got that idea from, to make that sound the way it sounded."

George Wein, jazz impresario

"I grew close to Duke when he worked two or three times at Storyville, my club in Boston. I booked him at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956. ... He planned 'Crescendo and Diminuendo in Blue'; he knew it was swinging. It had a solo for Paul Gonsalves -- but not the 27 choruses he played. A woman was dancing, so Duke kept Paul improvising and everybody was standing up and crowding around. I was a little concerned about the crowd. Ellington took care of that. He went into a slow blues, 'Jeep's Blues,' and the crowd settled right back. Listen, I learned right then how to control a crowd with music."

Marian McPartland, pianist

"He gave me some pointers and good criticisms. He was a real mentor in my life.

"Anyplace he would be playing and I would show up, he would always make a big speech and ask me to sit in. I would sometimes sneak away from the Hickory House and go hear him at Birdland. One night he saw me coming down the stairs and said, 'Here comes Marian McPartland, that pulchritudinous purveyor of tonal zest.' Doesn't that sound Duke-ish! I was ready to crawl under the table. Needless to say I kept going, got to the piano, sat down and played.

"I'm sure there were a lot of situations he would much rather be by himself and not have some gang of people around. But I can't remember any time that he didn't act just like he was having the most fun. I sometimes get into these situations and I think, 'What would Duke Ellington do?' He would smile and act nice and pretend he was having a great time. Therefore, I do the same."

Lenny Kravitz, rock musician

"My parents took me to hear Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, everybody -- things I wouldn't have chosen at a young age -- that molded me. On my birthday, when I was 6 or 7 or 8, they took me to hear Duke Ellington at the Rainbow Grill in New York. I sat on his lap at the piano bench and he played. Later on during the show, Paul Gonsalves, the saxophone player, came over and played 'Happy Birthday' for me.

"Here was this guy I thought was a really cool, nice man. I didn't know he was DUKE ELLINGTON, who defines the best of American music. When I grew up and became a musician and realized who he was, it was just incredible to me I was so lucky to have this experience with him. It's something I will always remember. It's one of the highlights of my life."

Queen Esther Marrow, gospel singer

"One night while we were on the Sacred Concert tour in 1964, I peeked into Duke's hotel room to see what he was doing. As I had assumed, he was at the piano smoking Pall Mall cigarettes, eating cheeseburgers and deep in creative thought. He saw me out of the corner of his eye, looked up and said, 'Anytime you get a creative idea you must act on it immediately. Never let it sit.'

"This was a credo that I have lived by ever since."

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