Terry Teachout on the life and music of Duke Ellington

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GUEST: TERRY TEACHOUT

We’ll learn about the man whose name is associated with over 1,500 compositions from the 20th century including “Caravan,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got that Swing,” and “Sophisticated Lady,” with the Wall Street Journal’s drama critic, TERRY TEACHOUT. Many biographies have been written about Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, but Teachout reveals more about the musician’s private life than previous written accounts. And we’ll examine the writing behind the music – how much of the songs were written by Ellington and how many musical ideas were created by his collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, and other band members?  Teachout’s new book about the Pulitzer Prize and Grammy-winning musician, composer and bandleader is “Duke: A Life of Ellington.”

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