Legendary Jazz Composer Duke Ellington Was a Brother of Alpha Phi Alpha

Did you know that one of the greatest composers in American history was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.? His name was Duke Ellington, and across a career that spanned half a century, he changed the sound of American music.

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born on April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C. A pianist, composer, and bandleader, he is remembered, as Britannica notes, as one of the originators of big-band jazz and the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of his time. He was a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans, which was founded in 1906 at Cornell University.

Ellington’s path into the fraternity was a remarkable one. According to Alpha Phi Alpha history, he was initiated through the fraternity’s Alpha Zeta Lambda Chapter in Bluefield, West Virginia, around 1936, and he was later honored with a twenty-year service pin. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History holds an Alpha Phi Alpha plaque presented to “Brother Edward ‘Duke’ Ellington” for his contributions to Black culture and to music.

Ellington rose to fame in the late 1920s during his legendary run at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and he led his orchestra for more than fifty years, composing thousands of works. His catalog includes some of the most beloved music ever written, among them “Mood Indigo,” “Sophisticated Lady,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” His signature theme, “Take the ‘A’ Train,” was written by Billy Strayhorn, his brilliant longtime collaborator, and Ellington also composed ambitious extended works such as the suite “Black, Brown and Beige.”

The honors he received matched his genius. In 1969, President Richard Nixon awarded Ellington the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, on his seventieth birthday. He won multiple Grammy Awards, and in 1999, twenty-five years after his death, he was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize honoring his lifetime of achievement.

Duke Ellington died on May 24, 1974, in New York City. From the Cotton Club to the concert hall, Alpha Phi Alpha’s Duke Ellington gave the world a body of music that will live forever.