Gordon Parks Duke Ellington Photo

 

Who better to feature for Black History Month than the great Duke Ellington, shown here in a photo by the legendary African American photographer Gordon Parks. From reading Terry Teachout's biography of Ellington, I learned that his life revolved around three core practices: composing music, performing music, and getting laid. In regards to the latter, Duke considered it a far better pursuit than the massively heavy drinking most of his band engaged in. Okay, now that that is settled, I should note that Ellington was unequivocally motivated by a twofold mission: first, to show through his art that black music was the crowning achievement of 20th century American music, and relatedly, that black culture is American culture, and, further, that there is no American culture that doesn't include it. He succeeded.