Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography (Lives & Legacies) [Hardcover]

Janna Tull Steed (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lives & Legacies | Publication Date: October 1, 1999

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington and his music have been an integral part of the American scene for most of the 20th Century. This interpretive biography offers insights into Ellington's enduring appeal, not only as a composer and piano-playing leader of a jazz orchestra, but as a cultural icon. Janna Tull Steed traces Ellington's journey from a protected childhood in Washington, D.C., through his early career as a jazzman in Harlem nightclubs to the presentation of his music in the world's grandest cathedrals in his last years.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Edward Kennedy Ellington, an icon of American music, is memorialized once again in the centennial year of his birth with this well-researched work. Although his music reflects sophistication, it also provides the foundation of American popular music. Ellington's personal style exuded a natural royalty, which he projected to audiences, earning him the name "Duke." Yet Steed finds that he was exceptionally protective of his privacy, full of personal complications, if not contradictions. Ellington displayed a commanding touch in his ability to bring people together and to bring out their best. This genius of Ellington's was attributed, in part, to his spiritual side, an element strongly present but often overlooked. Steed found evidence of this reflected in Ellington's work, performances, and in his own words. He saw himself as "God's messenger boy." It was Ellington's spiritual objective to share the wealth of his experience--his life, love, and talent--and to recognize the source of the deep well from which he drew. This book is a must read for fans of the Duke, music, and American music history. Vernon Ford

Review

A welcome addition to the growing body of research on the jazz master. -- Christianity Today

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company; 1st ed edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824523512
• ISBN-13: 978-0824523510
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging & eloquent. A great contribution!, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography (Lives & Legacies) (Hardcover)

This is an elegant and wonderfully accessible portrait of a seemingly nonreligious man with a compelling sense of spirituality. We get here an amazing & very surprisingly new side of the Duke, one I think few people are familiar with or aware of. When there is such a huge volume of works out there on the Duke, as a general reader with an amatuer's interest in Duke Ellington, it's hard to know where to begin. So it was a huge relief to find this little gem by such a gifted scholar and talented writer. The narrative is informative and holds your interest from beginning to end. The author's knowledge & impressions are impressive and her case for the connection between Ellington's music and his spirituality are wholly convincing. With vivid and recent interviews, and a strong, lively narrative the author draws the reader into the passions and ideals, and the all too humanly conflicted dreams, and profound spirituality of this great man. I simply cannot imagine a more effective or compelling introduction to The Maestro.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author Janna Steed breaks new ground, February 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography (Lives & Legacies) (Hardcover)

I just recently joined a book discussion group and last night, during my first meeting we were discussing Janna Tull Steed's new book "Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography." In just 192 pages Steed traces Ellington's development from a piano player to bandleader to composer and his truly thrilling and sublime sacred concerts in the last decade of his life. Steed also discusses in depth Ellington's ability to write for the individual voice, or band member, which seems to be, at least partly, what made and marks him as such an extraordinary and perhaps greatest American composer--that and his overwelming dedication to his music and a relentless ability to constantly break new ground.

Steed's grasp of Ellington and his music, particularly Ellington as a composer is tops. She draws on the enormous archives at the Smithsonian Institution but also on extensive firsthand interviews with scores of people who were intimately familiar with Duke Ellington and his music, and especially his development of his sacred music and concerts. It is in the area of the sacred concerts that Steed breaks new ground but also her focus of Ellinton as composer, as well as his oft forgotten important work in Hollywood. Her outstanding achievment is that she accomplished this in 192 pages. Steed covers the entire scope of Ellington's remarkable life and career and her insights are very welcome and as engaging as they are informative.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book! Great Series!, February 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography (Lives & Legacies) (Hardcover)

I picked this book up after reading Joan of Arc in this Lives and Legacies Series. This new book delivers everything it promises. I'm a real biography nut with an interest in a very broad range of subjects (and that's just what this series delivers) but have little time to immerse myself in a 500 or 700 page reading. So it's great to be able to pick up these short biographies, get a great read, and then decide if I want to explore a subject in further depth. But I can tell you with both these books, short as they are (192 pages), they are still very in-depth, scholarly and but still accessible to the popular audience. Duke Ellington was a particular pleasure as I knew nothing about his Sacred music and Concerts, nor have I run across anything that examines so fully the films that him and his orchestra were featured in, and which by the way Ellington had a significant role in developing. Author Janna Steed offers up a terrific little gem with this new book on Duke Ellington.