Duke: The Musical Life of Duke Ellington

by Bill Gutman

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was one of jazz’s greatest innovators. Join Bill Gutman as he explores the fascinating life of this legend from his birth at the turn of the century to his death at the age of seventy‑five. Interviewing Duke’s friends, fans, and fellow musicians, Gutman documents the progress of a man who dedicated his life to crafting the ever‑changing sound of jazz. Gutman plunges into the history of jazz from its origin in the honky‑tonk sounds of the Ragtime Era to the forms that are widely enjoyed today. Jazz has evolved through the years to become one of the most popular forms of music, with Duke Ellington as chief composer, artist, and perfomer. Gutman’s account of Ellington’s life as it parallels the history of jazz provides a fascinating history for both jazz veterans and those new to the art form.

134 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Bill Gutman is the author of more than two hundred books for both children and adults in a writing career that has spanned some five decades. His first book was an adult-level biography of former basketball star Pistol Pete Maravich, and since then he has written children's and young adult biographies and profiles of many prominent sports stars such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Shaquille O'Neal, Ken Griffey, Jr., Bo Jackson, Brett Favre and many others.

Some of his adult books include a biography of former football coach Bill Parcells, Parcells: A Biograpy; When the Cheering Stops, interviews with some 25 former baseball players from the 1940s through the 1960s on life after baseball; Won For All: The Inside Story of the New England Patriots' Improbable Run to the Super Bowl, written with former linebacker and then Patriots assistant coach Pepper Johnson; Twice Around the Bases, written with former big league manager Kevin Kennedy; The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant! which was the story of the 1951 pennant race between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, written with home run hero Bobby Thomson; Miracle Year, Amazing Mets, Super Jets, the story of both New York teams winning championship in 1969; Being Extreme, interviews with 22 of the most daring, high risk athletes in the world of mountain climbing, BASE jumping, ski diving, big wave surfing rock climbing, extreme skiing and snowboarding. Of more recent vintage is What if the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox: And Other Fascinating Alternate Histories from the World of Sports, a book of What Ifs. His most recent sports book is a young adult biography of Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge called All Rise: The Aaron Judge Story.

Bill's current passion is The Mike Fargo Mysteries, a series of novels and novellas about a tough detective working in the New York City of the 1920. The novel, Murder on Murderer's Row is available as both an ebook and in paperback on Amazon, an ebook on other venues. The novellas, Death of a Flapper, Murder on Broadway, Seven Days to Murder and The Grab-A-Cab Murder are currently available as ebooks. A sixth book, Roaring Twenties Cop, Mike Fargo's Own Story is told in Fargo's words and serves to bring the lead character of the series to life, as he talks about his childhood on Staten Island, the reason he became a cop, the New York City of the 1920s and some of his cases. The book serves as an introduction to the series and is available for free on the Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo and Smashwords websites.

And hopefully there is much more to come.