Tucker, Mark (Ellington, Duke)

Ellington: The Early Years

ISBN: 0252065093
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1995. First Trade Softcover Edition. Softcover. “New York in 1923 offered more than glamor and celebrity to a young black bandleader from Washington. Then, as now, it boasted a rich concentration of musical talent and represented the proving ground for achievement. Musicians flocked to New York in search of good jobs, high wages, and opportunities to sell and distribute their music through publishing houses and record companies. The resident New York expert in Ellington's circle was drummer Sonny Greer. For several years Greer had been entertaining his friends in Washington with tales about the city and its colorful inhabitants: "I was an authority, because my two aunts lived [in New York) and I had spent a good part of my schooldays in the city. I painted a glowing picture, a fabulous picture. We sat around drinking corn and telling lies, and I won the lying contest” (pp. 79-80). Offered here is Mark Tucker’s excellent, period-focused biography of seminal American jazz musician, Duke Ellington (1899-1974). In it, Tucker profitably details the twenty-eight year period between Ellington’s birth in 1899 through 1927, — but it’s the historical & scholastic clarity that Tucker brings to the first of Duke’s great New York periods (namely, that transpiring between the years of 1923 & 1927) that make this work worth while. Tucker’s accessible treatment “aids reflection” (to steal a phrase from Coleridge) greatly, — revealing to its readers a cast of little-known, contributory influences & friendships that helped a young Edward Kennedy Ellington become “The Duke.” The First Trade Softcover Edition (the “Illini Books edition” of 1995, as indicated on copyright page: First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. In very fine condition with only minute shelf-wear & faintly visible, low-impact exhibits of light bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge, otherwise clean. Very Fine. [Item #6757]

Price: $20.00