Ellington and Strayhorn

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on this day in 1899, in Washington D.C. Duke began piano lessons at age 7, but preferred baseball. He got his first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators games. He was 28 when he played his first gig at the Cotton Club in Harlem. The engagement lasted three years.

But it wasn't until 1938 that he met his muse and collaborator Billy Strayhorn. Ellington was 39, Strayhorn 17. Ellington called him "my right arm, my left arm... the eyes in the back of my head."