Mercer Ellington

Mercer Kennedy Ellington ( born March 11, 1919 in Washington, DC; † February 8, 1996 in Copenhagen ) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and arranger. He is the son of the famous composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington.

Life and work

The young musical Ellington was taught by his father. He studied at Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music. His first recorded song, Pigeons and Peppers, he wrote eighteen.

In the years 1939, from 1946 to 1949 and 1959 he led his own bands, whose members often continued to play with his father, or even well-known musicians were, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham, Idrees Sulieman, Chico Hamilton, Charles Mingus and Carmen McRae. In the forties he wrote some pieces which later became jazz standards, including Things Is not What They Used to Be, Jumpin ' Punkins, Moon Mist and Blue Serge.

He composed for his father from 1940 to 1941, spent his Army service 1943-45 in a military band under the direction of Sy Oliver and subsequently worked as a road manager for the Cootie Williams Orchestra and as a producer for the small label Sunrise Records. In 1950 he first played as a musician with his father and later worked as a manager. In 1960 he became music director at Della Reese, 1962, he was disc jockey in New York City. In 1965 he came again to the Ellington Orchestra, this time as a trumpet player and road manager.

After the death of his father in 1974, he took over the leadership of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and went with him on tour in Europe (1975, 1977). In 1978 Mercer Ellington in collaboration with the critic Stanley Dance a biography of his father out: Duke Ellington in Person: An Intimate Memoir. In the early eighties he was a conductor in the Duke Ellington Broadway revue Sophisticated Ladies, and in 1986 participated in the performance of Duke Ellington 's opera Queenie Pie. In the late eighties he moved to Denmark, where he largely withdrew from the music world. 1988 his album Digital Duke ( GRP) was awarded a Grammy Award.

Mercer Ellington's son, Edward, played in the late seventies at the Ellington Orchestra. His younger son, Paul, the orchestra took over after his death. His daughter Mercedes is a dancer and choreographer.

Ellington died shortly before his seventy-seventh birthday of heart failure.

Discography as a bandleader (selection)

  • Stepping into Swing Society ( Coral Records, 1959)
  • Colors in Rhythm ( Coral, 1959)
  • Black and Tan Fantasy, 1958/59 (MCA Records, 1973)
  • Hot and Bothered (Doctor Jazz, 1985)
  • Continuum ( Fantasy Records, 1975)
  • Digital Duke ( GRP Records, 1987) with Barrie Lee Hall Jr.
  • Music Is My Mistress ( Music Masters, 1989)

Sources and links

  • Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley: Jazz: The Rough Guide. ISBN 1-85828-528-3. Page 240 f
  • Mercer Ellington at Allmusic
  • The New York Times: Mercer Ellington, 76, This; Led His Father's band. Obituary of 9 February 1996, New York NY 6.1857,14. Sept.ff. ISSN 0362-4331 ISSN: 0362-4331
  • Jazz trumpeter
  • Big Band Leader
  • Arranger
  • American composer
  • American musician
  • Born in 1919
  • Died in 1996
  • Man
  • Duke Ellington
Broadway theatre Ricky Ford Barrie Lee Hall, Jr. Integrated Authority File
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