Editing Duke Ellington (section)

===Cotton Club engagement===
In October 1926, Ellington made an agreement with agent-publisher [[Irving Mills]],<ref>Gary Giddins ''Visions of Jazz: The First Century'', New York & Oxford, 1998, pp. 112–113.</ref> giving Mills a 45% interest in Ellington's future.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hasse|1993|p=90}}</ref> Mills had an eye for new talent and published compositions by [[Hoagy Carmichael]], [[Dorothy Fields]], and [[Harold Arlen]] early in their careers. After recording a handful of [[Acoustic recording|acoustic sides]] during 1924–26, Ellington's signing with Mills allowed him to record prolifically. However, sometimes he recorded different versions of the same tune. Mills regularly took a co-composer credit. From the beginning of their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every label, including [[Brunswick Records|Brunswick]], [[Victor Talking Machine Company|Victor]], [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], [[Okeh Records|OKeh]], [[Pathe Records|Pathé]] (and its subsidiary, Perfect), the ARC/Plaza group of labels (Oriole, Domino, Jewel, Banner) and their dime-store labels (Cameo, Lincoln, Romeo), Hit of the Week, and Columbia's cheaper labels (Harmony, Diva, Velvet Tone, Clarion), labels that gave Ellington popular recognition. On OKeh, his records were usually issued as The Harlem Footwarmers. In contrast, the Brunswicks were usually issued as The Jungle Band. Whoopee Makers and the Ten BlackBerries were other pseudonyms.

In September 1927, [[King Oliver]] turned down a regular booking for his group as the house band at Harlem's [[Cotton Club]];<ref>{{Harvnb|Lawrence|2001|p=77}}</ref> the offer passed to Ellington after [[Jimmy McHugh]] suggested him and Mills arranged an audition.<ref>Gutman, Bill. ''Duke: The Musical Life of Duke Ellington'', New York: E-Rights/E-Reads, 1977 [2001], p. 35.</ref> Ellington had to increase from a six to 11-piece group to meet the requirements of the Cotton Club's management for the audition,<ref>Duke Ellington ''Music is my Mistress'', New York: Da Capo, 1973 [1976], pp. 75–76.</ref> and the engagement finally began on December 4.<ref>John Franceschina ''Duke Ellington's Music for the Theatre'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2001, p. 16.</ref> With a weekly radio broadcast, the Cotton Club's exclusively white and wealthy clientele poured in nightly to see them. At the Cotton Club, Ellington's group performed all the music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers, vaudeville, burlesque, music, and [[Prohibition in the United States|illicit alcohol]]. The musical numbers were composed by Jimmy McHugh and the lyrics were written by Dorothy Fields (later Harold Arlen and [[Ted Koehler]]), with some Ellington originals mixed in. (Here, he moved in with a dancer, his second wife [[Mildred Dixon]]). Weekly radio broadcasts from the club gave Ellington national exposure. At the same time, Ellington also recorded Fields-JMcHugh and [[Fats Waller]]–[[Andy Razaf]] songs.

[[File:Vu (magazine) N°77.JPG|thumb| [[Adelaide Hall]] recorded "[[Creole Love Call]]" with Ellington in 1927. The recording became a worldwide hit.]]

Although trumpeter Bubber Miley was a member of the orchestra for only a short period, he had a major influence on Ellington's sound.<ref name="schuller">{{cite journal|last=Schuller|first=Gunther|date=October 1992|title=Jazz and Composition: The Many Sides of Duke Ellington, the Music's Greatest Composer|journal=Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences|volume=46|issue=1|pages=36–51|doi=10.2307/3824163|jstor=3824163}}</ref> As an early exponent of growl trumpet, Miley changed the sweet dance band sound of the group to one that was hotter, which contemporaries termed Jungle Style, which can be seen in his feature chorus in ''East St. Louis Toodle-Oo'' (1926).{{sfn|page=33|Brothers|2018}} In October 1927, Ellington and his Orchestra recorded several compositions with [[Adelaide Hall]]. One side in particular, "[[Creole Love Call]]", became a worldwide sensation and gave both Ellington and Hall their first hit record.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjI1tbAXO2w |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105220224/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjI1tbAXO2w |archive-date=January 5, 2014 |url-status=live |title=Adelaide Hall talks about 1920s Harlem and Creole Love Call |publisher=jazzgirl1920s |via=YouTube |access-date=February 2, 2013 }}{{unreliable source?|date=August 2022}}</ref><ref>Williams, Iain Cameron, [http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/underneath-a-harlem-moon-9780826458933/ ''Underneath a Harlem Moon ... The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226182123/https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/underneath-a-harlem-moon-9780826458933/ |date=February 26, 2021 }}, Continuum Publishing Int., 2002 (on pp. 112–117 Williams talks about "Creole Love Call" in-depth).</ref> Miley had composed most of "[[Creole Love Call]]" and "[[Black and Tan Fantasy]]". An alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider fame. He died in 1932 at the age of 29, but he was an important influence on [[Cootie Williams]], who replaced him.

In 1929, the Cotton Club Orchestra appeared on stage for several months in [[Florenz Ziegfeld]]'s Show Girl, along with vaudeville stars [[Jimmy Durante]], [[Eddie Foy, Jr.]], [[Ruby Keeler]], and with music and lyrics by [[George Gershwin]] and [[Gus Kahn]]. [[Will Vodery]], Ziegfeld's musical supervisor, recommended Ellington for the show.{{sfn|pages=53–54|Brothers|2018}} According to John Edward Hasse's ''Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington'', "Perhaps during the run of ''Show Girl'', Ellington received what he later termed 'valuable lessons in orchestration from Will Vody." In his 1946 biography, ''Duke Ellington'', [[Barry Ulanov]] wrote:

{{blockquote|From Vodery, as he (Ellington) says himself, he drew his [[chromatic scale|chromatic]] convictions, his uses of the tones ordinarily extraneous to the [[diatonic scale]], with the consequent alteration of the harmonic character of his music, it's broadening, The deepening of his resources. It has become customary to ascribe the classical influences upon Duke—[[Frederick Delius|Delius]], [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], and [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]—to direct contact with their music. Actually, his serious appreciation of those and other modern composers, came after he met with Vody.<ref>Ulanov, Barry. ''Duke Ellington'', Creative Age Press, 1946.</ref>}}

Ellington's film work began with ''[[Black and Tan (film)|Black and Tan]]'' (1929), a 19-minute all-African-American [[RKO Pictures|RKO]] short<ref>Stratemann, Klaus. ''Duke Ellington: Day by Day and Film by Film'', 1992. {{ISBN|8788043347}}</ref> in which he played the hero "Duke". He also appeared in the [[Amos 'n' Andy]] film ''[[Check and Double Check]]'' released in 1930, which features the orchestra playing "Old Man Blues" in an extended ballroom scene.{{sfn|page=65|Brothers|2018}} That year, Ellington and his Orchestra connected with a whole different audience in a concert with [[Maurice Chevalier]] and they also performed at the [[Roseland Ballroom]], "America's foremost ballroom". Australian-born composer [[Percy Grainger]] was an early admirer and supporter. He wrote, "The three greatest composers who ever lived are [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]], [[Frederick Delius|Delius]] and Duke Ellington. Unfortunately, Bach is dead, Delius is very ill but we are happy to have with us today The Duke".<ref>John Bird, ''Percy Grainger''.</ref> Ellington's first period at the Cotton Club concluded in 1931.