"Classic Jazz" 

For many years Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were the perfect examples of jazz.   Any jazz musician worth his salt tried to copy these two.  The style of jazz they played became what is now called  "Classic Jazz."

• Duke Ellington
           Composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington led one of the most remarkable and self-defined orchestras in jazz for 50 years.   It not only held to a consistent musical vision that sprang directly from his own work as a composer, but it carried on for decades with a loyal core of soloists who made their own marks on jazz history.  Ellington gave his band members a great amount of freedom, which made for something different every night.  His manuscripts were always tailored for the particular musicians in his orchestra.   And the musicians made the manuscripts sound wonderful.

           Ellington had competition from the many talented bands also playing during the swing era.  Many people felt Duke’s band mature period was in the1930s and peak years in 1940 - 1945.  Ellington was considered in the same area as greats such as Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin.

   

• Louis Armstrong
          Trumpeter - singer Louis Armstrong, from New Orleans was the creative artist of jazz history.  He came to Chicago in 1922 going to New York in 1924 where he recorded extensively during those years, building the core work upon which his reputation would forever last.  1929 saw Armstrong recording popular songs with various orchestras in solos that kept him at the center of every performance.  Thus setting the parameters in which many, soon to become noted instrumentalists, followed his lead for ten to fifteen years.

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Duke reading a manuscript

Louis Armstrong

The "Duke" himself

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