Editing Jazz (section)

===The influence of Duke Ellington===
[[File:Duke Ellington at the Hurricane Club 1943.jpg|thumb|upright|Duke Ellington at the Hurricane Club (1943)]]

While swing was reaching the height of its popularity, [[Duke Ellington]] spent the late 1920s and 1930s in Washington, D.C.'s jazz scene, developing an innovative musical idiom for his orchestra. Abandoning the conventions of swing, he experimented with orchestral sounds, harmony, and [[musical form]] with complex compositions that still translated well for popular audiences; some of his tunes became [[hit single|hits]], and his own popularity spanned from the United States to Europe.<ref>{{cite book|last=Van de Leur |first=Walter |chapter=12 "Seldom seen, but always heard": Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington |title=The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Edward |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-3161-9413-3 |date=2015}}</ref>

Ellington called his music ''American Music'', rather than ''jazz'', and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category".<ref>{{Harvnb|Tucker|1995|p=6}} writes "He tried to avoid the word 'jazz' preferring 'Negro' or 'American' music. He claimed there were only two types of music, 'good' and 'bad' ... And he embraced a phrase coined by his colleague [[Billy Strayhorn]] – 'beyond category' – as a liberating principle."</ref> These included many musicians from his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most popular jazz orchestras in the history of jazz. He often composed for the style and skills of these individuals, such as "Jeep's Blues" for [[Johnny Hodges]], "Concerto for Cootie" for [[Cootie Williams]] (which later became "[[Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me]]" with [[Bob Russell (songwriter)|Bob Russell]]'s lyrics), and "The Mooche" for [[Tricky Sam Nanton]] and [[Bubber Miley]]. He also recorded compositions written by his bandsmen, such as [[Juan Tizol]]'s "[[Caravan (1937 song)|Caravan]]" and "[[Perdido (song)|Perdido]]", which brought the "Spanish Tinge" to big-band jazz. Several members of the orchestra remained with him for several decades. The band reached a creative peak in the early 1940s, when Ellington and a small hand-picked group of his composers and arrangers wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices who displayed tremendous creativity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theoryjazz.com/artists/ellington.html |title=Jazz Musicians – Duke Ellington |publisher=Theory Jazz |access-date=July 14, 2009  |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903233432/http://theoryjazz.com/artists/ellington.html |archive-date=September 3, 2015}}</ref>