International Jazz Day is celebrated around the world on April 30, and it’s a day that brings the masses together in the spirit of jazz. The musical genre that was born around 1900 in New Orleans, where African American communities blended a variety of musical traditions, including blues, brass, and ragtime, to culminate in a distinctive sound that has inspired countless songs. If we want to get technical for a moment, we can say that jazz is distinguished by its complex chord structures, polyrhythms, swing and blues notes, and improvisation. But many might also say that jazz is a feeling, a movement, an essence all its own.
Jazz has experienced many heydays, from its emergence in the Crescent City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to its influence on the big-band scene of the 1930s and ‘40s; it saw a revival in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s by way of fusion jazz and later smooth jazz, and it’s at the heart of more recent musical movements, too. Some of the biggest names in jazz include the likes of Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, Nat King Cole, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius, Chet Baker, and Miles Davis. All are artists hailing from different periods and different walks of musical life who have helped shape jazz in their own ways over the last century. However, one of the most important jazz influencers is none other than Duke Ellington, who penned more than 3,000 compositions and, decades after his passing, continues leaving his legacy on the ever-evolving body of jazz music.
“It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing,” “In a Sentimental Mood,” “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Mood Indigo,” and “In a Mellow Tone” are just a handful of iconic tunes by Ellington. He was born in 1899 in Washington, D.C., and had formed his eponymous Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1924, leading the band until his passing in 1974 at the age of 75. He is honored on the 2009 District of Columbia Quarter, which shows Ellington proudly sitting at his grand piano ready as ever to grace the world with his music.