Duke Ellington.

Edward Kennedy Ellington, known as Duke Ellington, born on April 29, 1899, in Washington (District of Columbia) and died on May 24, 1974, in New York, was an American pianist, composer of jazz, musicals, and contemporary music, and a jazz bandleader.

His big band orchestra was one of the most renowned in jazz history, alongside those of Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, featuring musicians who are sometimes considered, as much as he was, masters of this music and virtuosos of their instruments. Some of these musicians remained in his orchestra for decades. Some of them were already noteworthy in their own right, but it was primarily Ellington who transformed them. He used to compose specifically for certain of his musicians, taking into account their strengths, such as Prelude to a Kiss or Jeep's Blues for Johnny Hodges, Concerto for Cootie ("Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me") for Cootie Williams, and The Mooche for Joe Nanton. He also recorded pieces composed by members of his orchestra, such as Caravan and Perdido by Juan Tizol. After 1941, he regularly collaborated with composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his "alter ego."

Duke Ellington is one of the principal composers of American popular music, alongside Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, Oscar Hammerstein II, Burt Bacharach, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, Jimmy Van Heusen, etc. His contribution to music was recognized with numerous international distinctions. Several of his titles are part of the Great American Songbook or have become jazz standards.

Duke Ellington is one of the most famous African-American personalities of the 20th century. He recorded for a large number of American record labels and appeared in several films. With his orchestra, he toured regularly in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia from the orchestra's creation in 1923 until his death in 1974.

He was also a supporter of the civil rights movement for African Americans and a spokesperson for their socio-political condition.