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The Musicians Duke Ellington Admired (Coronet Magazine, 1951)"Of all the jazz musicians who link yesterday's ragtime with today's dance music, Duke Ellington is the dean. In his 27 years as a pianist and composer, the Duke has played alongside every great brass, reed, and rhythm man of his day. Now he picks those music makers who, 'on the basis of their over-all contribution, their all-time record, consistently good performance, and love of music,' constitute 1951's All-American jazz band."
Duke Ellington made a list of his favorite eleven musicians; some of the names may surprise you. Duke Ellington: Twenty Years in the Spotlight (Click Magazine, 1943)"The top man in Negro music climbed on the bandwagon when he and his band played a hot spot called the Kentucky Club. That was twenty years ago, in New York City's Harlem. This year, Duke Ellington (1899 – 1974) made another debut, at Carnegie Hall, goal of the great in music...Piano lessons bored Ellington when he was six years old. He never learned to play conventionally, but he was only a youngster when his flare for improvisation reaped attention and landed him a job in a Washington theater...one by one, his compositions hit the jackpot: 'Mood Indigo', 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Ebony Rhapsody', 'Solitude', 'Caravan'". "Ellington calls his work Negro Music, avoids the terms 'jazz' or 'swing'. George Gershwin: Tin Pan Alley and Beyond (Magazine of Art, 1937)An interesting two page article about George Gershwin (1898 - 1937), written within days of his death and filled with fascinating bits about his career, education and his instant popularity: "The Gershwin invasion of Tin Pan Alley came at a time when history was being made. The Broadway-Negro tradition that stemmed from Stephen Foster and the anonymous tune-smiths who wrote old minstrel shows, was being carried on by bards like Paul Dresser, Harry von Tilzer, and the amazing Witmark family. Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin labored in the Alley cubicles. Something called ragtime was in the air and jazz was about to be born." The Saucy Ada Leonard and Her All-American Girl Orchestra (Yank Magazine, 1943)One of the most popular women's group of the 1940s was Ada Leonard and Her All-American Girl Orchestra; few were surprised to hear that they were first girl band to be signed by the USO when America entered W.W. II. Sired by two vaudevillians, Ada Leonard (1915 - 1997) briefly toiled as a stripper in Chicago nightclubs before embarking on her career in music. This interview displays for the readers her salty, fully-armored personality and her disgust concerning the total lack of glamor that accompanies USO shows, topped-off by a photo of her pretty face.
The article can be printed and we highly recommend that you view the video-short linked below. Recommended reading and listening: Take-Off: American All-Girl Bands During World War II
•Ada Leonard and Her All-American Girl Band Swing It in this Short Film Clip• Irving Berlin (Stage Magazine, 1938)"Irving Berlin (1888 – 1989) - publisher, key-polisher, apostle of melody, toast of the 'teens -holds his own in the dissonant nineteen-thirties." What is Boogie-Woogie? (The Clipper, 1941)A 1941 article by the screenwriting, piano playing novelist Eliot Paul (1891-1958) who put-forth a sincere effort to define that popular 1940s music known as "Boogie-Woogie". Paul went to great lengths explaining the roots of Boogie-Woogie, the origin of the term and the finest performers and composers of the music: "First, one can say that Boogie-Woogie is an authentic, soul-satisfying genre of piano music, native to America and for which America is indebted to the Negro people...If you ask Al Ammons (1907 — 1949), one of the foremost exponets of boogie-woogie, what boogie-woogie is, he would smile, his eyes would light up, and probably he would say: 'Man! It scares you' -and it does. There are deep reasons why it tugs at our memories and slumbering instincts."
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