Duke Ellington has inspired a unique devotion among his most ardent fans. In contrast to many cults built around music legends the Ellingtonians are focused on studying his nearly inexhaustible musical output rather than separating biographical fact from fiction. This musical rather than narrative focus, and the artistic aspirations of Ellington’s greatest works make coming to grips with him a unique challenge for the jazz enthusiast.
Jack Chambers has found in this book an inspired way to further inform the most arduous students of Ellington while also explaining him to the uninitiated. The nine chapters, described in Ellingtonian fashion as themes, are stand alone essays. Chambers has edited them for print, drawing on twenty years of oral presentations he made at meetings of the Toronto Duke Ellington Society.
The chapters may be read in any order and overlapping content is kept to a minimum. For those who do read straight through there is somewhat of a natural arc from the most biographical theme at the beginning of the book to the exploration of a late life effort at the end of it. Each section includes a chronological "playlist" of recordings referred to in the chapter as well as further references and useful supplementation.
In his introduction Chambers discusses the importance of Ellington as the last great composer of American music without words. Popular music from
