Worthy Words, Part 8: Duke Ellington

Today is the 125th anniversary of Duke Ellington's birth. Edward Kennedy Ellington (1899 – 1974) was a bandleader who kept his orchestra touring for more than a half-century and an extraordinary pianist. As for his great musical compositions, I rank him as peerless among American composers and second to none among the classical Europeans. Ellington's range was staggering, from blues to sacred compositions. His music, especially his suites, continues to give me countless hours of pleasure, and I'm glad that Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will celebrate the maestro's contribution to world music with three concerts later this week.

Ellington was also an exceptional writer, as he shows in his endlessly entertaining 500-page autobiography, Music My Mistress. In what amounts to a scrapbook of his long career, the book pays homage to hundreds of people Duke met and loved throughout his life. He mentions each one in a positive light, proof that none of us can get where we're going all on our own. 

One particular passage in a section called "Music and the Primeval" strikes me as emblematic of how Ellington saw humanity:

The human being has patterned his every move, sound, and image after God's other creatures and natural wonders. Birds whistle like birds, leopards walk like leopards, horses run like horses, gulls fly like gulls, lions roar like lions, and fish swim like fish. All animals, except people, act like their species.

Music, for instance, began with man, primitive man, trying to duplicate Nature's sounds—winds, birds, animals, water, the crescendo of fire—after which great systems of learning were set up, only to discover that music is limitless. The more you learn, the more you want to learn. And the more you hear it, the more you want to hear it. (page 436)

I have read numerous writers, starting from the Ancient Greeks and the New Testament right through the existentialists, describe what makes humans different from other species, but none has explained it any better than Duke. His words capture humanity's ingenious nature, our desire to understand and drive to create. He makes me want to listen to his "Sunset and the Mockingbird"; excuse me as I do that now.