We remember Duke Ellington who was born in Washington DC on this day in 1899. He died in 1974.
Duke was a jazz giant. However, I first heard of him many years ago when my father used to listen to The Voice of America in Cuba.
Duke’s “Take the A train” was the intro-music for Willis Conover’s jazz show broadcast to the world on short wave.
Conover broke the Iron Curtain, The Berlin Wall and came into Communist Cuba, too.
It was a very catchy tune and millions around the world came to know Duke that way.
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