He started his own band which grew into an orchestra. He decided he needed to learn how to play this kind of music.

Years later he would hear someone play the piano in a different way which was called Ragtime. We learn about Duke and how his parents wanted him to play the piano. What makes this story so good is that it is told in the vernacular of the time period when jazz was just starting.

This story is a biography about Duke Ellington, one of the early figures in the development of jazz. All in all, a very engaging book, one I recommend to young music lovers and/or biography readers, although I think my friend Lisa is right, that it would have benefited from the inclusion of some actual music (a CD, perhaps?). I appreciated the fact that Ellington discovered he was wrong about the piano - that it could be used in other ways, and to express other styles - because I am someone who listens to a very eclectic mixture of music (everything from Tuvan throat singing to Schubert's lieder), and think that sometimes people fall into the trap of thinking that music can only sound a certain way, or that various styles are mutually exclusive. An afterword provides additional information, as well as a list of sources.I enjoyed this brief introduction to the life of Duke Ellington, particularly as I know so little about him, and think that Brian Pinkney's lively illustrations - with their exuberant use of color and motion - were very deserving of the Caldecott Honor they received in 1999. Chronicling the life of an American legend, from his boyhood in early twentieth century Washington, D.C., when he rebelled against the piano lessons imposed by his parents - the sound of the music he was asked to practice led 'nowhere worth following,' in his view - through his discovery that this was an instrument that could be used in a variety of genres and styles, Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra follows its subject through the creation of his Jazz group (Duke Ellington and his Orchestra) and their ascent to fame, and concludes with the famous 1943 concert at Carnegie Hall, where the piece Black, Brown and Beige was introduced. Husband-and-wife team Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney turn to the story of the great Jazz musician and composer Duke Ellington in this picture-book biography, with very engaging results.

Duke ellington by andrea davis pinkney