Beyond Category: The Life And Genius Of Duke Ellington

by John Edward Hasse

One of the twentieth century's greatest composers, Duke Ellington (1899–1974) led a fascinating life. Beyond Category, the first biography to draw on the vast Duke Ellington archives at the Smithsonian Institution, recounts his remarkable career: his childhood in Washington, D.C., and his musical apprenticeship in Harlem; his long engagement at the Cotton Club; the challenging years of the depression; his tours to Europe and into America's deep South, where he helped lower racial barriers; the postwar years when television and bebop threatened to eclipse the big bands; Ellington's own triumphant comeback at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival; his collaborations with Billy Strayhorn, Johnny Hodges, and Ella Fitzgerald; as well as five decades of hits and masterpieces that constantly broke new ground.The art of Duke Ellington was a musical expression of the African-American experience, in all its pain, pride, and glory. He composed his music as he composed his life—with flair, passion, and individuality—and no book reveals the man and his artistic evolution more brilliantly than Beyond Category.

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Jazz, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

480 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 1993

Reviews

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellington was a genius, truly the greatest American composer. In addition, his command of his "instrument" -- his band--knows no parallel in modern music. Hasse gives ample evidence of the facts underlining these conclusions in this terrifically interesting portrait. The periods of Duke's creativity spanning most of the twentieth century provide the structure for the tale, and details of the "problems" identified and solved by the master create a compelling story for the reader to follow. One might wish for more personal details of Ellington's life and relationships--particularly that with Billy Strayhorn--and more depth on his creative inspirations, but this is a sturdy overview of a career of inspiration and hard work nonetheless.
Of no small value are the codas to each chapter which identify essential recordings representing the period concerned, so reading becomes an impetus to listening, which is where the true treasure lies.

[Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Beyond Category: The Life and Genius Of Duke Ellington by John Hasse is most definitely a fantastic book. Beyond Category is about the full life, and achievements of Duke Ellington in great detail. John Hasse goes into great explanation about the beginning, middle, and end of "The Great Duke's" Life and ties it into why, and how he did what he did. There was much detail about Duke Ellington growing up in Washington D.C., including information about his mother being very lucky to have graduated high school, his father being a butler and acting as if he were a rich man, as well as the love of music and the arts within their entire family. Other topics the book touches upon is times in Duke Ellington's life during the Harlem renaissance where he played at the Cotton club and various other establishments, as well as the awards that he had achieved, and finally the days of his life.
I am no expert on Duke Ellington, so judging how the author wrote the biography I feel as though it was a very good job. It had a ton of useful information that was clear, and never confusing. Reading it, I never had to question the way he worded things, or what he was trying to explain. I feel as though, this book did a wonderful job on educating people about Duke Ellington's life, if anyone needed to a project on him like I did this book would be the most perfect thing to read. Usually I don't enjoy reading books, especially about informational subject, but this book made it extremely enjoyable so in my honest opinion I feel like this would be the best book to read on Duke Ellington... Although I really don't have anything to compare it too, although it is one of the most interesting book I've read.
If I were to rate this book I would give a full fledged 5. I think I liked this book so much because it was very easy to find the information that I needed for my project, and their was not a whole lot of deeper meaning, the author just straight up told the information in a story like format that was easy to understand.

[Leslie]

Ok, so this was initially a bit of a fluff book--it lightly described Duke Ellington's life without going into the nitty gritty of relationships but deeper into the book it starts to examine Duke Ellington's politics, his influence on early recording technology, the music industry as well as the development of jazz as a legitimate American art form. Particularly of interest are photos which lend to the mood of Ellington's emphasis on appearance. The man was a great dresser and a lady's man. But the book tells you more, so you should read it!

[Katherine Pena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duke elington is one of my favorite musicians of all time, the book is almost 500 pages but trust me, it is a great read :)

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond Category is a veritable Duke Ellington feast! My experience combined reading J.E. Hasse's well-written, comprehensive Ellington "career biography" with a nearly continuous Ellington music streaming concert guided by Hasse's informative Essential Ellington segments included at the end of most of the books chapters. My guess is that anyone other than the most devoted Ellington scholar or fan will find lots of 'new' material - both biographical and musical for your reading or listening enjoyment!

Duke Ellington - from a teenager enamored with ragtime to a world-renowned pianist, orchestra leader, composer.

Duke Ellington - who composed hundreds of pieces, many now regarded as classics, composing both individually and collaboratively, and doing so in the "free time" in buses, trains, hotels while touring as leader and member of his orchestra.

Duke Ellington - who gathered and sustained an orchestra of highest quality musicians, saying that he needed to keep his orchestra together so that he could immediately hear and adjust his draft compositions. Duke, who learned the unique styles and skills of each orchestra member and created and revised pieces so that each had vehicles through which they could shine. Duke, who fought through financial thick and thin to maintain the orchestra's membership stability through decades of depression, war, changing racial relations, changing national musical tastes and technologies for music transmission.

Duke Ellington - who couldn't find the energy and inspiration to write his own autobiography or memoirs because he was driven to continue to create the music of the continuing future - avoiding signifying his own "end."

John Edward Hasse - the author, who was part of the Smithsonian curation team that brought the massive Ellington collection to the Institute in the mid-1980s, grew it, and featured it. This book is part of the fruit of those labors and we are all the benefactors!

Beyond Category as a Reference Resource - In addition to the chronologically organized chapters and Essential Ellington supplements listed below, Hasse has included lists of: Ellington's Key Musicians; Most Essential Ellington Recordings; Selected Films and Videos; Selected Reading; and, Ellington Songbooks and Folios, as well as an extensive Index.

Chapters and "Essential Ellington" (EE) summaries:
1. Enjoying A Capital Childhood, 1899-1913
2. Starting A Career, 1913-23
3. Special Sounds 1923-27 - EE 1923-27, pp 96-97
4. Composing At The Cotton Club q1927-31 - EE 1927-31, pp 140-143
5. Taking The Road 1931-35 - EE 1931-35, pp 188-192
6. Swinging to a Different Drummer 1935-39 - EE 1935-39, pp 226-230
7. Making Masterpieces 1939-43 - EE 1939-43, pp 265-269
8. Composing for Concerts 1943-51 - EE 1943-51 pp 298-302
9. Playing For Time 1951-56 - EE 1951-56 pp 322-324
10. Renewing Career and Creativity 1956-65 - EE 1956-65 pp 360-366
11. Achieving Final Glories 1966-74 - EE 1966-74 pp 387-390
12. Elevating Ellington 1974-

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very readable biography of Duke Ellington, hitting all of the important notes without getting bogged down in extraneous detail. That said, it's impressive that John Edward Hasse has managed to include some critical analysis of the music in addition detailing the life itself.

Particularly appreciated is the author's inclusion of notes at the end 0f each chapter highlighting the best available recordings from that particular phase of Ellington's career, with some background on each selected piece.

The book-ending chapter on "Elevating Ellington" does a great job of assessing The Duke's achievements and how they fit into the broad scope of American music and culture. Ellington's unique role as a prominent African-American artist with a strong sense of patriotism sometimes seems at odds with the challenging times in which he lived, and yet his strong sense of purpose and his drive to create were unquenchable, and he marshaled those forces to defy the odds and become one of the greatest creative talents this nation has produced.

[Erin Peck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Jazz and therefore a big fan of Duke Ellington. Although I feel this book was a bit impersonal to the person, Duke Ellington, I do think it was a good simplified overview of his history. The illustrations were beautiful, different, and interesting. The book was an easy read and I learned a bit about the key terms of The music scene that became jazz!

[P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book about a man without peer in Music and, perhaps, in Life.

[CyLarge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have preferred to give this a 2.5, but choosing between 2 and 3, I choose 3 stars simply because the book is extremely helpful and does what is intended. The book does a very good job of chronicling his band and bandmembers over the years, although towards the end of the book is almost exclusively focused on that. I have some issues with Hasse's writing approach, and the book seemed flawed to me in a few ways.

(1) He has a tendency to state certain conclusions he makes REPEATEDLY throughout the book (e.g. in talking about Ellington's method of balancing commercial with art or his hustler tendencies) as if he never mentioned it before. It's a tactic I used in high school and a freshman in college to extend a paper's length. It's annoying.

(2) Hasse has a problem reconciling Ellington's flaws with the image of him being a great, historic figure. For instance, Hasse seems defensive when he talks about how Ellington abandoned his girlfriend for another but left his children (along with all his clothes apparently) in the apartment with that previous girlfriend. It is still possible to simultaneously address the contradictions and the huge accomplishments of a complex individual.

(3) The most important flaw of this book is that I don't really get a sense of what Ellington's actual influence was on the music world, let alone jazz. Hasse hammers it in over and over on how unique his compositions were and how he stood out from the pack, but he hardly ever talks about the concrete contributions he made to jazz. I can only remember a part when Hasse mentions how many of the big band leaders of the time adored him, such as Paul Whiteman and Tommy Dorsey, and used to attend his shows at the Cotton Club. The "weird" or "strange chords" that Hasse and Ellington's band members constantly allude to changed the face of jazz and, what would become, popular music. That's big.

All in all, this is very good book to start with on learning about this great jazz figure.

[Andrew Kopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful history of not just a musician, but of jazz itself. I highly recommend listening to the tracks listed at the end of each chapter. (Most can be found on YouTube). The listening gives a very good sense of the style of any given time. They also give a wonderful overreaching arch of Duke Ellingtons progression and maturation through music.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic but solid Ellington bio. The primary focus is how Ellington balanced artistic ambitions with commercial survival over the course of his career. Discussion of the music as music is limited, but the listening suggestions at the end of each chapter are helpful.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid overview and a fine appreciation-- even if it sacrifices depth for breadth, especially where Duke's recordings, and his relationship with Strayhorn, are concerned.