Editing Duke Ellington (section)

===Career revival===
Ellington's appearance at the [[Newport Jazz Festival]] on July 7, 1956, returned him to wider prominence. The feature "[[Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue]]" comprised two tunes that had been in the band's book since 1937. Ellington, who had abruptly ended the band's scheduled set because of the late arrival of four key players, called the two tunes as the time was approaching midnight. Announcing that the two pieces would be separated by an interlude played by tenor saxophonist [[Paul Gonsalves]], Ellington proceeded to lead the band through the two pieces, with Gonsalves' 27-chorus marathon solo whipping the crowd into a frenzy, leading the Maestro to play way beyond the curfew time despite urgent pleas from festival organizer [[George Wein]] to bring the program to an end.

The concert made international headlines, and led to one of only five ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine cover stories dedicated to a jazz musician,<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19560820,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061207074656/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0%2C16641%2C19560820%2C00.html |archive-date=December 7, 2006 |title=Jazzman Duke Ellington|magazine=Time |date=August 20, 1956 |access-date=February 2, 2013}}</ref> and resulted in an album produced by [[George Avakian]] that would become the best-selling LP of Ellington's career.<ref name="Sohmer">Jack Sohmer [http://jazztimes.com/articles/10496-ellington-at-newport-1956-complete-duke-ellington "Duke Ellington: ''Ellington at Newport 1956'' (Complete)"] ''JazzTimes'', October 1999.</ref> Much of the music on the LP was, in effect, simulated, with only about 40% actually from the concert itself. According to Avakian, Ellington was dissatisfied with aspects of the performance and felt the musicians had been under-rehearsed.<ref name="Sohmer"/> The band assembled the next day to re-record several numbers with the addition of the faked sound of a crowd, none of which was disclosed to purchasers of the album. Not until 1999 was the concert recording properly released for the first time. The revived attention brought about by the Newport appearance should not have surprised anyone, Johnny Hodges had returned the previous year,<ref>{{Harvnb|Hasse|1995|pp=317–318}}</ref> and Ellington's collaboration with Strayhorn was renewed around the same time, under terms more amenable to the younger man.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hajdu|1996|pp=153–154}}</ref>

The original ''[[Ellington at Newport]]'' album was the first release in a new recording contract with [[Columbia Records]] which yielded several years of recording stability, mainly under producer [[Irving Townsend]], who coaxed both commercial and artistic productions from Ellington.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wein|first=George|title=Myself Among Others: A Life in Music|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=2003}}</ref>

In 1957, [[CBS]] (Columbia Records' parent corporation) aired a live television production of ''[[A Drum Is a Woman]]'', an allegorical suite which received mixed reviews. Festival appearances at the new [[Monterey Jazz Festival]] and elsewhere provided venues for live exposure, and a European tour in 1958 was well received. ''[[Such Sweet Thunder]]'' (1957), based on [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] plays and characters, and ''[[The Ellington Suites|The Queen's Suite]]'' (1958), dedicated to Britain's [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II]], were products of the renewed impetus which the Newport appearance helped to create. However, the latter work was not commercially issued at the time. The late 1950s also saw [[Ella Fitzgerald]] record her ''[[Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook|Duke Ellington Songbook]]'' (Verve) with Ellington and his orchestra—a recognition that Ellington's songs had now become part of the cultural canon known as the '[[Great American Songbook]]'.

[[File:James Stewart-Duke Ellington in Anatomy of a Murder trailer.jpg|thumb|[[James Stewart]] and Ellington in ''[[Anatomy of a Murder]]'' (1959)]]
Around this time Ellington and Strayhorn began to work on film [[Film score|scoring]]. The first of these was ''[[Anatomy of a Murder]]'' (1959),<ref name="Hodeir"/> a courtroom drama directed by [[Otto Preminger]] and featuring [[James Stewart]], in which Ellington appeared fronting a roadhouse combo. Film historians have recognized the score "as a landmark—the first significant Hollywood film music by African Americans comprising [[Diegetic#Film sound and music|non-diegetic]] music, that is, music whose source is not visible or implied by action in the film, like an on-screen band." The score avoided the cultural [[stereotypes]] which previously characterized jazz scores and rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the [[French New Wave|New Wave]] cinema of the '60s".<ref>Mark Stryker, "Ellington's score still celebrated", ''[[Detroit Free Press]]'', January 20, 2009; Mervyn Cooke, ''History of Film Music'', 2008, Cambridge University Press.</ref> Ellington and Strayhorn, always looking for new musical territory, produced suites for [[John Steinbeck]]'s novel ''Sweet Thursday'', [[Tchaikovsky]]'s ''Nutcracker Suite'' and [[Edvard Grieg]]'s ''Peer Gynt''.

''Anatomy of a Murder'' was followed by ''[[Paris Blues]]'' (1961), which featured [[Paul Newman]] and [[Sidney Poitier]] as jazz musicians. For this work, Ellington was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Score]].

In the early 1960s, Ellington embraced recording with artists who had been friendly rivals in the past or were younger musicians who focused on later styles. The Ellington and [[Count Basie]] orchestras recorded together with the album ''[[First Time! The Count Meets the Duke]]'' (1961). During a period when Ellington was between recording contracts, he made records with [[Louis Armstrong]] ([[Roulette Records|Roulette]]), [[Coleman Hawkins]], [[John Coltrane]] (both for [[Impulse! Records|Impulse]]) and participated in a session with [[Charles Mingus]] and [[Max Roach]] which produced the ''[[Money Jungle]]'' ([[United Artists Records|United Artists]]) album. He signed to [[Frank Sinatra]]'s new [[Reprise Records|Reprise label]], but the association with the label was short-lived.

Musicians who had previously worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members: Lawrence Brown in 1960 and [[Cootie Williams]] in 1962.

<blockquote>The writing and playing of music is a matter of intent{{nbsp}}... You can't just throw a paintbrush against the wall and call whatever happens art. My music fits the tonal personality of the player. I think too strongly in terms of altering my music to fit the performer to be impressed by accidental music. You can't take doodling seriously.<ref name="current"/></blockquote>

He was now performing worldwide and spent a significant part of each year on overseas tours. As a consequence, he formed new working relationships with artists from around the world, including the Swedish vocalist [[Alice Babs]], and the South African musicians [[Abdullah Ibrahim|Dollar Brand]] and [[Sathima Bea Benjamin]] (''A Morning in Paris'', 1963/1997).

Ellington wrote an original score for director [[Michael Langham]]'s production of Shakespeare's ''[[Timon of Athens]]'' at the [[Stratford Shakespeare Festival|Stratford Festival]] in Ontario, Canada, which opened on July 29, 1963. Langham has used it for several subsequent productions, including a much later adaptation by [[Stanley Silverman]] which expands the score with some of Ellington's best-known works.