THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO DUKE ELLINGTON (CAMBRIDGE COMPANIONS TO MUSIC) by Green, Edward

ISBN: "9780521707534

Cambridge University Press 16 February 2015 

Paperback 320 pages

Duke Ellington is widely held to be the greatest jazz composer and one of the most significant cultural icons of the twentieth century. This comprehensive and accessible Companion is the first collection of essays to survey, in depth, Ellington's career, music, and place in popular culture. An international cast of authors includes renowned scholars, critics, composers, and jazz musicians. Organized in three parts, the Companion first sets Ellington's life and work in context, providing new information about his formative years, method of composing, interactions with other musicians, and activities abroad; its second part gives a complete artistic biography of Ellington; and the final section is a series of specific musical studies, including chapters on Ellington and song-writing, the jazz piano, descriptive music, and the blues. Featuring a chronology of the composer's life and major recordings, this book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Ellington's enduring artistic legacy.

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This volume offers a treasure trove for musicologists. Though the depth of its entries ranges widely, several chapters constitute major contributions to musicology, on a par with the level of original research and interpretation ordinarily reserved for doctoral theses. It also features an excellent bibliography of selected readings and a comprehensive index."
Mark Gridley, Music Reference Services Quarterly

"Essential reading - addressed to anyone who wants to deepen his knowledge of one of the most significant cultural icons of the twentieth century."
Danny Camerlengo, Suono (Italy)

"For the Ellington fan, the Ellington scholar, for anyone remotely interested in learning more about the man whom Green quite rightly calls "America's greatest composer", The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington is indispensable."
Mick Carlon, JazzTimes

"The book is extraordinary indeed!"
Thomas Riis, Director of the American Music Research Center, University of Colorado

"[I] couldn't stop reading it. I am glad it has been published and the book can be recommended highly."
Louis Tavecchio, Universiteit van Amsterdam

'This Cambridge Companion helps the reader see two divide-and-conquer approaches to his artistic oeuvre: by decade, and by genres such as suites, songs, and the blues. Elling-tonians and professors will read this book from cover to cover, and students needing material for jazz term papers will be thankful for the analyses of individual pieces that are embedded in some of the essays.' Edward Komara, Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association

Book Description
This comprehensive and accessible Companion is the first collection of essays to provide an in-depth overview of Ellington's career.

About the Author
Edward Green is a professor at Manhattan School of Music, where since 1984 he has taught jazz, music history, composition, and ethnomusicology. He is also on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation and studied with the renowned philosopher Eli Siegel, the founder of Aesthetic Realism. Dr Green serves on the editorial boards of The International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Haydn (the journal of the Haydn Society of North America), Проблемы Музыкальной Науки (Music Scholarship), which is published by a consortium of major Russian conservatories, and is editor of China and the West: The Birth of a New Music (2009). An active composer, he received a 2009 Grammy nomination for his Piano Concertino (Best Contemporary Classical Composition) and a commission offered jointly by thirteen of America's major concert wind ensembles, which resulted in his 2012 Symphony for Band.