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Duke Ellington: Jazz's First Great Virtuoso

Max Jones, Melody Maker, 1 June 1974

OFTEN, DURING my years of writing on the MM, I have used a phrase such as "there'll always be an Ellington" or "there's always been an Ellington." And in my musical awareness, at least from the time I first recognised the new American music as something called rhythm music or jazz, there always was. I grew up, in one crucial sense, with Duke, as with Louis Armstrong.

Total word count of piece: 1815

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