DUKE

This bulletin board looks best down in black, white, silver and another accent color (like red or yellow). I use a white background, with sparkly silver trim, and black construction paper behind all of the letters, and the big photo of Duke Ellington in the middle of the board. I type up info about Duke Ellington, cut it down to a tall rectangular shape and then glue it to a piece of black construction paper that is cut in the shape of a top hat. I put the top hat with the info on it on a colored square of construction paper (red or yellow) and attach them in a semi-circle around the main picture of him in the middle of the board. I use top hats because the picture that I use of him has him in one. It looks sorta like this one-CLICK HERE. Here is the info that I use on the top hats.

Born 29 April 1899 in Washington DC, composer, bandleader, and pianist Edward Kennedy ("Duke") Ellington was recognized in his lifetime as one of the greatest jazz composers and performers.

Nicknamed "Duke" by a boyhood friend who admired his regal air, the name stuck and became indelibly associated with the finest creations in big band and vocal jazz.

Beginning keyboard studies at the age of seven, Ellington's earliest influences were the ragtime pianists. He taught himself harmony at the piano and at 17, made his professional debut.

Encouraged by Fats Waller, he moved to New York in 1923 and, during the formative Cotton Club years, experimented with and developed the style that would quickly bring him worldwide success and recognition. Ellington would be among the first to focus on musical form and composition in jazz using ternary forms and "call-and-response" techniques in works like Concerto for Cootie (known in its familiar vocal version as Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me) and Cotton Tail and classic symphonic devices in his orchestral suites.

Among Ellington's many honors and awards were honorary doctorates from Howard and Yale Universities, membership in the American Institute of Arts and Letters, election as the first jazz musician member of the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.