Edward Kennedy Ellington's Soda Fountain Rag

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The Duke of Jazz
Jazz was introduced to a new level of style and sophistication that it had never seen before. Duke’s unique and individual style greatly impacted the jazz community, with over two thousand hit songs (PBS. 2002, para. 1).
Early Years. Edward Kennedy Ellington, born April 29, 1899 (Happy Early Birthday Duke!) grew up in Washington D.C. Growing up, Ellington enjoyed playing baseball ("Jazz Index," n.d, para. 3) though his parents encouraged Ellington to play the piano—this being that his mother was a pianist. Ellington continued to play the piano and by the age of fifteen he was composing. During his 1914 summer job as a soda clerk, Ellington—nicknamed Duke—wrote his first song, “Soda Fountain Rag”. Although, at this time Duke had yet to learn how to read and write music, meaning “Soda Fountain Rag” was written by ear.
Passion for Music
Ellington’s passion for music grew immensely, this lead him to turn down a scholarship opportunity to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn during the year of 1916. (Ruhlmann, n.d). It was with the passion that Duke was motivated to practice piano lessons at night, therefore his time during the day was spent creating signs for events. Ellington used this to his advantage, when approached to create signage for an event he would inquire if they already had musical …show more content…
This leading him to move to New York by early 1920’s. He formed his band which grew from six people to then over 10 people. Duke’s band was named the band of the cotton club (1927-1931), which only served whites. Without limitations he wrote music for not only himself but also for the ballroom, comedy stages, etc. He also wrote film, music, popular music, religious music, and even some music that could be called classical. Amid the Great Depression and the 1950s, the band was scarcely working on the grounds that the attention was on the artist as opposed to the
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