Duke Ellington is widely held to be the greatest jazz composer. This comprehensive and accessible Companion is the first collection of essays to provide an in-depth overview of Ellington's career, music, and place in popular culture and will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in his enduring legacy.

Chronology Evan Spring; Editor's introduction: Ellington and Aesthetic Realism Edward Green; Part I. Ellington in Context: 1. Artful entertainment: Ellington's formative years in context John Howland; 2. The process of becoming: composition and recomposition David Berger; 3. Conductor of music and men: Duke Ellington through the eyes of his nephew Stephen D. James and J. Walker James; 4. Ellington abroad Brian Priestley; 5. Edward Kennedy Ellington as a cultural icon Olly W. Wilson and Trevor Weston; Part II. Duke Through the Decades: The Music and Its Reception: 6. Ellington's afro-modernist vision in the 1920s Jeffrey Magee; 7. Survival, adaptation and experimentation: Duke Ellington and his orchestra in the 1930s Andrew Berish; 8. The 1940s: The Blanton¿Webster Band, Carnegie Hall, and the challenge of the postwar era Anna Harwell Celenza; 9. Duke in the 1950s: renaissance man Anthony Brown; 10. Ellington in the 1960s and 1970s: triumph and tragedy Dan Morgenstern; Part III. Ellington and the Jazz Tradition: 11. Ellington and the blues Benjamin Givan; 12. 'Seldom seen, but always heard': Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington Walter van de Leur; 13. Duke Ellington and the world of jazz piano Bill Dobbins; 14. Duke and descriptive music Marcello Piras; 15. Sing a song of Ellington, or, the accidental songwriter Will Friedwald; 16. The land of suites: Ellington and extended form David Berger; 17. Duke Ellington's legacy and influence Benjamin Bierman.