Beyond Category: The Life And Genius Of Duke Ellington

One of the 20th century's greatest composers, Duke Ellington (1899-1974) led a fascinating life. The first biography to draw on the vast Duke Ellington archives at the Smithsonian Institution, this book recounts the entirety of his remarkable career: his childhood in Washington, D.C. and musical apprenticeship in Harlem; his long engagement at the glamorous, gangster-owned Cotton Club; the challenging years during the Depression; his tours to Europe and into America's deep South, where he helped lower racial barriers; the postwar years when television and bebop threatened to eclipse the big bands; Ellington's own triumphant comeback at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival; his collaborations with Billy Strayhorn, Johnny Hodges, Ella Fitzgerald, and John Coltrane, among others; and of course, the music itself, five decades of hits and masterpieces that constantly broke new ground.

John Edward Hasse serves as Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian Institution, curator of its traveling exhibition Beyond Category, and producer and annotator of the boxed set of recordings by the same name.