What were Duke Ellington's notable accomplishments?

Answer 1

Undeniably one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century, Ellington has also been recognized as one of the most important innovators in the history of music. Duke Ellington re-invented harmonic and rhythmic vocabularies. The Duke’s popular songs, Dance tunes, Big Band songs, Broadway Scores, Sacred Works, Film Scores and Symphonies brought the full breadth of the African-American sensibility to the center of American music, and defined what we now call jazz. These Ellington songs are popular standards, classics for all time, and they make Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies an evening of musical elegance and pure entertainment.

By paying homage to Ellington’s legacy we champion his role as a pioneer of 20th century American music and to the Duke Ellington Orchestra as one of the foremost American cultural institutions. The Duke Ellington Orchestra achieved American fame through playing the Cotton Club, the Apollo, the Kennedy Center, touring the American circuit, and having a wide reach through its vast recording career. Ellington’s universal scope widened as he toured Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the influence of each destination’s cultural expression enriched his subsequent compositions. Furthermore, while Ellington and his orchestra toured the world during the 60s and 70s his recordings were more widely reissued in Europe than in the United States. The Alliance Theatre champions Ellington and his collaborators for expressing, through their musical genius, a reality of American culture that deepens, sculpts, and inspires the world-at-large.