Modern History (Music)

The "Duke" Ellington

Music history has become one of my favorite courses to teach. Music is always heard in my home. Either I am singing it, or listening to it. I gravitate more towards East Coast sounds....simply because some of my family roots begin there.

Brief Historical Facts:

My Grandfather was raised in California on the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation. He was Mojave and Apache. He enlisted around 16 or 17, and somewhere down another line, ended up in New York City. He met his wife, my dime piece Grandmother, they had an apartment full of smaller humans, he owned a restaurant, then became a police officer.....usually stationed in Spanish Harlem. He looked Mexican, and they figured....."Well, you look the part. You might as well be it." My Grandfather spoke fluent Spanish (Learned it in California, not New York) and our Native tongue; Yuman. I believe he spoke one of the languages from the Athabaskan family. If not a lot, then a little. He was a proud desert/river Indian. His kids were city Natives. In his time policing, he was also on duty for a lot of famous people, and musical artists back in his day, who would perform in the hotspots of New York city. The culture was so different in New York than it was down south, even in Ohio, where they ended up moving to. He raised his family in Far Rockaway, New York. They lived with and around Jewish and Puerto Rican people. Mostly Puerto Rican. So, if you can imagine.....a lot of that particular influence flowed into our family. On top of Black and Native cultures. From food, to language, pro-creation....all the way down to music.

As I grew older, I started traveling back and forth to the Dominican Republic for missionary work. I had planned on moving there and attending "Altos De Chevon" an art school in La Romana...but I met my ex-husband. I met him through his church organization, which was 99 percent, Hispanic, at the time. I spent some years building there, where the type of music that I would sing and worship to in church was all Latin. I was always around Mexicans, Guatemalans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans.....so their music is what I knew. The younger people (which was myself in those years) listened to Reggaeton, the older people: Salsa, Mariachi, Merengue, etc. I grew up in predominantly Black churches where Gospel music was a part of my life. My Grandmother had her own Gospel group and had a voice the mimicked, Mahalia Jackson.

Side Note: One of the greatest ways to learn a language is through music!

Even though I started my own musical traditions based on my life style, I always gravitated back to my Grandparents. My Grandfather would always sing bird songs that would put you to sleep, and my Grandmother was always singing Gospel. However, if I wanted to rebel, I knew that my Grandfather was my "sinful supplier." He taught me about music from Brazil, based on one of my now, favorite movies......"Orfeu Negro" (Black Orpheus). He introduced me to Jose Feliciano, Tito Puente, Sam Cooke, Frankie Lymon, The Duke, etc.

So yesterday, when my son had his modern history class and our lesson was over Edward "Duke" Ellington, I was so excited. Not only was he an amazing pianist and performed with some of the best musicians and singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, but, He was also an attractive Black man that was known for his well-mannered character...from his dress to his actions, which is why he was nicknamed: "The Duke".

History has its jewels, in between the treacherous traumas. Often times, we can all come to a place of rest from the long battle, when we hear, music. After all.......

"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast. To soften rocks, or bend the knotted oak." - William Congreve.

Raven