Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mercer Kennedy Ellington was born on March 11, 1919 in Washington, D.C. and is the only child of the composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington and his high school sweetheart Edna Thompson. He grew up primarily in Harlem from the age of eight and by the age of eighteen, he had written his first piece to be recorded by his father, Pigeons and Peppers. He attended New College for the Education of Teachers at Columbia University, New York University, and the Juilliard School.

In 1939, 1946 through 1949, and 1959, Mercer led his own bands, many of whose members later performed with his father, or achieved a successful career in their own right including Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham, Idrees Sulieman, Chico Hamilton, Charles Mingus, and Carmen McRae. During the 1940s, in particular, he wrote pieces that became standards, Things Ain’t What They Used to Be, Jumpin’ Punkins, Moon Mist, and Blue Serge. He also wrote the lyrics to Hillis Walters’ popular song, Pass Me By in 1946), which was recorded by Lena Horne, Carmen McRae, and Peggy Lee.

Composing for his father from 1940 until 1941, he later worked as the road manager for Cootie Williams’ orchestra in 1941 until 1943 and again in 1954. Ellington returned to work for his father playing alto horn in 1950, and then as general manager and copyist from 1955 until 1959. In 1960, he became Della Reese’s musical director, then later went on to take a job as a radio DJ in New York for three years beginning in 1962. He again returned to his father’s orchestra in 1965, this time as trumpeter and road manager. When his father died in 1974, Ellington took over the orchestra, traveling on tour to Europe in 1975 and 1977.

In the early 1980s, Ellington became the first conductor for a Broadway musical of his father’s music, Sophisticated Ladies which ran from 1981 until 1983. Mercer’s Digital Duke won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. From 1982 until the early 1990s, the Duke Ellington Orchestra included Barrie Lee Hall, Rocky White, Tommy James, Gregory Charles Royal, J.J. Wiggins, Onzy Matthews, and Shelly Carrol among others.

Trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader Mercer Ellington, who recorded ten albums as a leader and arranged Clark Terry’s Duke With A Difference album, passed away from a heart attack on February 8, 1996 at age 76 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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