Edward Kennedy Ellington was born April 29, 1899, in Washington D.C. Both parents played piano, his mother "by note", his father "by rote". He began playing piano at age six. He played in high school, where he got the nickname "The Duke". In New York City, in 1927, he began playing at the Cotton Club in Harlem. He introduced many innovations in popular music, including "jungle" effects using growl and plunger (1926), human voice as instruments (1927), amplified bass (1928), trombone trio (1932) (which anticipated swing), cuban effects (1937), and echo chamber (1938). He was the first jazz composer in the conventional sense, and the first to write long jazz compositions. His best-known compositions include "Take the 'A' Train", "Mood Indigo", "Sophisticated Lady", "Solitude", "In a Sentimental Mood", and "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good". He received numerous awards and honors, including 16 honorary doctorates, the President's Gold Medal (1966), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1969), and the French Legion of Honor. He died in New York City May 24, 1974.
For info on Duke Ellington in films, click here.
Harold Arlen was born February 15, 1905, in Buffalo, New York, son of a cantor Samuel Arluck. He was given the name Hyman Arluck, or "Chaim Arluk", eventually taking the name Arlen based on his father's name and his mother's maiden name of Orlin. He wrote revue songs for the Cotton Club in Harlem (1930-4), including "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", "I've Got the World on a String", "I Love a Parade", "Ill Wind", and "Stormy Weather". He blended forms from Tin Pan Alley with blues and popularized black music.
At a time when films tended to have a spectacular song and dance number nearly unrelated to the story, Arlen attempted to integrate the use of song into plot and character development in films, especially in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939).
From 1941 to 1945 he worked with Johnny Mercer on jazz-influenced songs, including "Blues in the Night", "That Old Black Magic", "One for My Baby", and "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive".
He found success in five Broadway musical shows: Bloomer Girl (1944) and Jamaica (1957), written with E. Y. Harburg; St Louis Woman (1946) and Saratoga (1959), written with Johnny Mercer; and House of Flowers (1954), written with Truman Capote. He also wrote music for other films, including Let's Fall in Love (1934), Gold Diggers of 1937 (with Harburg), and Blues in the Night (1941, with Mercer).
Arlen attempted to introduce the 12-bar harmonic structure of blues into popular songs. And he was among the first to help provide a mass commercial market for black entertainment.
For more on Arlen's film music, click here.
Johnny Mercer was born November 18, 1909, in Savannah, Georgia, of Scottish descent. He had some success as a composer, but he is best remembered as a lyricist, having won four oscars, and had 14 songs which made number one on "Your Hit Parade". He wrote about 1500 songs for over 70 films and seven Broadway musicals. He wrote lyrics for Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Henry Mancini, and Jerome Kern. He was a founder and president of Capitol Records.
He was unable to read music his whole life. His lyrics had a predilection for alliteration.
Two of his number one songs were "Jeepers Creepers" and "And the Angels Sing" (music by Ziggy Elman). His films include Hollywood Hotel (1937) with the song "Hooray for Hollywood". Many of his successes were written with Harold Arlen, as mentioned above, including "Blues in the Night", "Ac-cent-chu-ate the Positive" the show St Louis Woman (with the famous song "Come Rain or Come Shine"), and "That Old Black Magic". With Henry Mancini he wrote "Moon River" in Breakfast at Tiffany's and the theme songs from Days of Wine and Roses and Charade. With Gene de Paul he wrote the lyrics to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and his greatest success, the show Li'l Abner with its best-known song "Jubilation T. Cornpone".
With Harry Warren he wrote "On the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls. He wrote lyrics to "Autumn Leaves", which was originally a French instrumental piece.
Mercer died in Bel Air, California, June 25, 1976.
For more on Johnny Mercer, click here. For more on Johnny Mercer's film songs, click here. Also visit www.johnnymercer.com.
Note: Some of the above information from The Great Song Thesaurus, 2nd Ed., by Roger Lax and Frederick Smith, Oxford University Press: New York, 1989.