Customer Reviews

Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography (Lives & Legacies)

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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.

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.

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.

Despite the author being a minister and this being a "spiritual biography," there is no beating of the religious drum here (thank God, for that was my fear, inspite of the fact that I was interested and intrigued in the idea of a "spiritual biography.) Nor is there any Pollyanna-ish writing. I agree with other reviewers in that Steed makes an astounding and perfectly convincing case for Duke Ellington's spirituality and its presense in and influence on his music. Her breezy yet scholarly approach is direct and simple and this biography makes an interesting addition to the still ever growing (and glutted) literature on Ellington. Adding to the book's appeal are the several side bars--a couple involve interesting profiles, and a couple others and of particular interest, are a close look at the several films featuring Ellington and his orchestra and Ellington's role in shaping these films. The book is always engaging, well-crafted and original. "Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography" should find a very wide audience and is a welcome primer for those new to Ellington, and regardless of spiritual inclination.

Although the book traces all the larger well-known facts of Ellington's life (which any biography must, necessarily, do), the author offers many new and original insights, which makes this book well worth the buy and read. Duke Ellington's music and life would seem to imply that historical stylistic boundaries can be breached--that music, in effect, ought to aspire to a place beyond style, or to use the words which Duke used to describe himself-- "beyond category." Steed's treatment of Ellington as a complex--and spiritual man is compelling--and without every sounding preachy, and without romanicization, despite the author's clear sympathy with her subject. Steed's careful and extensive research and colorful storytelling result in an impressive and dynamic new side of this great man of jazz. The author's prose style is down-to-earth as she offers readers an intriguing glimpse behind Ellington's long-maintained veil of privacy and public mask. Steed does not exploit Ellington's more gossipy or sensational story (though nor does she deny it), but instead, she deftly weaves her story of Duke's spirituality into a detailed, respectful and ultimately fuller and truer portrait. Steed delivers a far more poignant account than the scores of other biographies on the Duke. I especially and highly recommend this book for new initiates to this great king of Jazz.

Janna Tull Steed does a remarkable job of demonstrating the transcendence of Duke Ellington over man-made dichotomies such as mind and body, religious and secular life, etc. She convincingly portrays a complex man whose spirtuality encompases both body and soul. The importance of both Ellington's inward, meditative life and his involvement in the external world is clearly demonstrated. I am impressed with way in which he incorporated the unique qualites of his musicians in his compositions rather than writing pieces for "generic" musicians. Ms. Steed has written a scholarly, easy reading, absorbing book. She has done an outstanding job of presenting not only the man but also the social and historical context of his life. As I read this book, I found that it shed a new light not only on spiritual aspect of the life of Duke Ellington but on contemporary spirituality and creativity. There is much to be found in this book for readers with an interest in spirituality, music, creativity, and specifically Duke Ellington. My words do not do justice to Ms. Steed's work and I strongly recommend that others read her book and discover the treasures that Ms. Steed has shared with us.

Very accesible book & good introduction not only to Duke Ellington but the world of Jazz. I suppose an author is limited by the number of pages how in depth one can get but still I expected a more critical examination of the contradiction of Ellington's public persona w/ his spirituality and how he reconciled these contradictions. That said, I still found Steed's argument convincing, especially his leading up to his sacred music. This is especially a good book for the new initiate to Duke Ellington.

The author's knowledge of Duke Ellington, and descriptions of his compositions is impressive. After studying Ellington's life and compositions through this book more closely, in his music, even when it is not overtly religious, one can quickly see that Ellington did indeed work out his spirituality through his music, as this author so convincingly argues. Of especial interest is the author's conception of spirituality and her deep artistry of both genuinely recognizing Ellington's and making that connection with his music, and how both shaped and influenced his life. This is not a scholarly tome, but rather a wonderfully quick, short read. As one of many old Ellington fans, my guess is that Duke Ellington would have smiled brightly and given his big stamp of approval to this book.

I just got finished listening to the new CDs of Duke Ellington's Sacred Music, picked up at Borders. Wow! While I was listening to this great stuff I was reading this book. And Wow! again. If you want the nitty, gritty, the lowdown, or dope so to speak, on the Duke you'll have to go somewhere else. Miss Steed does give you the whole story but her emphasis is on his work, his artistry, and his legend--what the Good Man left us with--and his Sacred Music, which he said, was not his best work, but his most important work. And it was real, man, this is what I was looking for, someone who really had something new to say about The Man, and knew what they were talking about! Buy this book and get to know the Duke and the man behind the legend.

Duke Ellington is known as one of the great artists of the twentieth century, a musical innovator, a man of style, a pioneer for people of color in America. What few realize is the profound religious impulse that informed his life and work. In this wonderful new book, Janna Tull Steed gives her readers an entré into the rather eclectic but deeply-held spirituality of the Duke. The book does not pretend to be a full-scale biography. Rather, in the spirit of the "Lives and Legacies" series from Crossroad Publishing, in which this volume appears, Steed tries to help us see the formative influences and personal struggles that defined Ellington's relation with his God-the God he learned of at his mother's knee and who had endowed him with the gift of "swing."

Steed offers us a readable and entertaining narrative. The familiar landmarks are all here-Ellington's childhood in Washington, his apprenticeship in the 1920's, the breakthrough at the Cotton Club, adulation in Europe, the decisive collaboration with Billy Strayhorn, "Mood Indigo" and "Take the A-Train." What Steed does brilliantly is to weave these well-known pieces of Ellington's story into an account of his fitful spiritual quest. This is a sometimes elusive task, since Ellington did not write *about* God but, in a very real sense, wrote his music *for* God. It is Steed's ability to listen for hints of the transcendent in Ellington's own work-aided, to be sure, by the Duke's few explicit utterances on the subject-that makes the book a genuine journey of discovery.

The climax of the work, and in a sense the lens through which the author views Ellington's entire creative existence, is formed by the Sacred Concerts of the 1960's and 1970's. Although these are scorned by some jazz fans, Steed makes a convincing case that the Concerts are an important clue to interpreting Ellington's life and work. The Sacred Concerts, he said repeatedly to interviewers, were his most important work or statement. Steed shrewdly notes that Ellington didn't say his most important *music*. Rather, the concerts were an attempt, near the end of his life, to render something back to the mysterious Other who had always been present to him, and to summon others to humble praise of the Creator.

One need not be conventionally "religious" to enjoy this book. A Methodist minister (and jazz singer!) herself, the author is open to hints of grace in the secular world and especially in the world of the arts.

Sidebars on issues such as Ellington on screen and the early development of jazz enliven the presentation. This book opens up an important new avenue in Ellington research, and deserves to be widely read and quoted.