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Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years.[1]

Born in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward, and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe. Though widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington embraced the phrase "beyond category" as a liberating principle, and referred to his music as part of the more general category of American Music, rather than to a musical genre such as jazz.[2]

Some of the musicians who were members of Ellington's orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered to be among the best players in jazz. Ellington melded them into the best-known orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Some members stayed with the orchestra for several decades. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington often composed specifically to feature the style and skills of his individual musicians.

Often collaborating with others, Ellington wrote more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, with many of his works having become standards. Ellington also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, for example Juan Tizol's "Caravan", and "Perdido", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. After 1941, Ellington collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion.[3] With Strayhorn, he composed many extended compositions, or suites, as well as additional short pieces. Following an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, in July 1956, Ellington and his orchestra enjoyed a major career revival and embarked on world tours. Ellington recorded for most American record companies of his era, performed in several films, scoring several, and composed stage musicals.

Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and charisma, Ellington is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other more traditional musical genres. His reputation continued to rise after he died, and he was awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999.[4]

Early lifeEdit

Ellington was born on April 29, 1899, to James Edward Ellington and Daisy (Kennedy) Ellington in Washington, D.C. Both his parents were pianists. Daisy primarily played parlor songs and James preferred operatic arias. They lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place (now Ward Place), NW, in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D.C.[5] Duke's father was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on April 15, 1879, and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1886 with his parents.[6] Daisy Kennedy was born in Washington, D.C., on January 4, 1879, the daughter of a former American slave.[5][7] James Ellington made blueprints for the United States Navy. When Ellington was a child, his family showed racial pride and support in their home, as did many other families. African Americans in D.C. worked to protect their children from the era's Jim Crow laws.[8]

At the age of seven, Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners and teach him to live elegantly. Ellington's childhood friends noticed that his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman,[9] and began calling him "Duke." Ellington credited his chum Edgar McEntree for the nickname. "I think he felt that in order for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. So he called me Duke."[10]

Though Ellington took piano lessons, he was more interested in baseball. "President Roosevelt (Teddy) would come by on his horse sometimes, and stop and watch us play", he recalled.[11] Ellington went to Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, D.C. He gained his first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games.

In the summer of 1914, while working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Ellington wrote his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag" (also known as the "Poodle Dog Rag"). He created the piece by ear, as he had not yet learned to read and write music. "I would play the 'Soda Fountain Rag' as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango, and fox trot", Ellington recalled. "Listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire."[12] In his autobiography, Music is my Mistress (1973), Ellington wrote that he missed more lessons than he attended, feeling at the time that playing the piano was not his talent.

Ellington started sneaking into Frank Holiday's Poolroom at the age of fourteen. Hearing the poolroom pianists play ignited Ellington's love for the instrument, and he began to take his piano studies seriously. Among the many piano players he listened to were Doc Perry, Lester Dishman, Louis Brown, Turner Layton, Gertie Wells, Clarence Bowser, Sticky Mack, Blind Johnny, Cliff Jackson, Claude Hopkins, Phil Wurd, Caroline Thornton, Luckey Roberts, Eubie Blake, Joe Rochester, and Harvey Brooks.[13]

Ellington began listening to, watching, and imitating ragtime pianists, not only in Washington, D.C., but in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, where he vacationed with his mother during the summer months.[12] Dunbar High School music teacher Henry Lee Grant gave him private lessons in harmony. With the additional guidance of Washington pianist and band leader Oliver "Doc" Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, project a professional style, and improve his technique. Ellington was also inspired by his first encounters with stride pianists James P. Johnson and Luckey Roberts. Later in New York he took advice from Will Marion Cook, Fats Waller, and Sidney Bechet. Ellington started to play gigs in cafés and clubs in and around Washington, D.C. His attachment to music was so strong that in 1916 he turned down an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Three months before graduating he dropped out of Armstrong Manual Training School, where he was studying commercial art.[14]

Working as a freelance sign-painter from 1917, Ellington began assembling groups to play for dances. In 1919 he met drummer Sonny Greer from New Jersey, who encouraged Ellington's ambition to become a professional musician. Ellington built his music business through his day job: when a customer asked him to make a sign for a dance or party, he would ask if they had musical entertainment; if not, Ellington would offer to play for the occasion. He also had a messenger job with the U.S. Navy and State departments, where he made a wide range of contacts. Ellington moved out of his parents' home and bought his own as he became a successful pianist. At first, he played in other ensembles, and in late 1917 formed his first group, "The Duke's Serenaders" ("Colored Syncopators", his telephone directory advertising proclaimed).[14] He was also the group's booking agent. His first play date was at the True Reformer's Hall, where he took home 75 cents.[15]

Ellington played throughout the Washington, D.C. area and into Virginia for private society balls and embassy parties. The band included childhood friend Otto Hardwick, who began playing the string bass, then moved to C-melody sax and finally settled on alto saxophone; Arthur Whetsol on trumpet; Elmer Snowden on banjo; and Sonny Greer on drums. The band thrived, performing for both African-American and white audiences, a rarity in the segregated society of the day.[16]

Music careerEdit

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Early careerEdit

When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington made the fateful decision to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D.C., and move to Harlem, ultimately becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance. New dance crazes such as the Charleston emerged in Harlem, as well as African-American musical theater, including Eubie Blake's Shuffle Along. After the young musicians left the Sweatman Orchestra to strike out on their own, they found an emerging jazz scene that was highly competitive and hard to crack. They hustled pool by day and played whatever gigs they could find. The young band met stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, who introduced them to the scene and gave them some money. They played at rent-house parties for income. After a few months, the young musicians returned to Washington, D.C., feeling discouraged.

In June 1923, a gig in Atlantic City, New Jersey, led to a play date at the prestigious Exclusive Club in Harlem. This was followed in September 1923 by a move to the Hollywood Club – 49th and Broadway – and a four-year engagement, which gave Ellington a solid artistic base. He was known to play the bugle at the end of each performance. The group was initially called Elmer Snowden and his Black Sox Orchestra and had seven members, including trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley. They renamed themselves The Washingtonians. Snowden left the group in early 1924 and Ellington took over as bandleader. After a fire, the club was re-opened as the Club Kentucky (often referred to as the Kentucky Club).

Ellington made eight records in 1924, receiving composing credit on three including "Choo Choo".[17] In 1925, Ellington contributed four songs to Chocolate Kiddies starring Lottie Gee and Adelaide Hall,[18] an all-African-American revue which introduced European audiences to African-American styles and performers. Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra grew to a group of ten players; they developed their own sound by displaying the non-traditional expression of Ellington's arrangements, the street rhythms of Harlem, and the exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, high-squealing trumpets, and sultry saxophone blues licks of the band members. For a short time soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet played with them, imparting his propulsive swing and superior musicianship to the young band members.

Cotton Club engagementEdit

In October 1926, Ellington made an agreement with agent-publisher Irving Mills,[19] giving Mills a 45% interest in Ellington's future.[20] Mills had an eye for new talent and published compositions by Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, and Harold Arlen early in their careers. After recording a handful of acoustic titles during 1924–26, Ellington's signing with Mills allowed him to record prolifically, although sometimes he recorded different versions of the same tune. Mills often took a co-composer credit. From the beginning of their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every label including Brunswick, Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Pathê (and its Perfect label), the ARC/Plaza group of labels (Oriole, Domino, Jewel, Banner) and their dime-store labels (Cameo, Lincoln, Romeo), Hit of the Week, and Columbia's cheaper labels (Harmony, Diva, Velvet Tone, Clarion) labels which gave Ellington popular recognition. On OKeh, his records were usually issued as The Harlem Footwarmers, while the Brunswick's were usually issued as The Jungle Band. Whoopee Makers and the Ten Black Berries were other pseudonyms.

In September 1927, King Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group as the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club;[21] the offer passed to Ellington after Jimmy McHugh suggested him and Mills arranged an audition.[22] Ellington had to increase from a six to eleven-piece group to meet the requirements of the Cotton Club's management for the audition,[23] and the engagement finally began on December 4.[24] With a weekly radio broadcast, the Cotton Club's exclusively white and wealthy clientele poured in nightly to see them. At the Cotton Club, Ellington's group performed all the music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers, vaudeville, burlesque, music, and illegal alcohol. The musical numbers were composed by Jimmy McHugh and the lyrics by Dorothy Fields (later Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler), with some Ellington originals mixed in. (Here he moved in with a dancer, his second wife Mildred Dixon). Weekly radio broadcasts from the club gave Ellington national exposure, while Ellington also recorded Fields-JMcHugh and Fats WallerAndy Razaf songs.

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Although trumpeter Bubber Miley was a member of the orchestra for only a short period, he had a major influence on Ellington's sound.[25] As an early exponent of growl trumpet, Miley changed the sweet dance band sound of the group to one that was hotter, which contemporaries termed Jungle Style. In October 1927, Ellington and his Orchestra recorded several compositions with Adelaide Hall. One side in particular, "Creole Love Call", became a worldwide sensation and gave both Ellington and Hall their first hit record.[26][27] Miley had composed most of "Creole Love Call" and "Black and Tan Fantasy". An alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider fame. He died in 1932 at the age of 29, but he was an important influence on Cootie Williams, who replaced him.

In 1929, the Cotton Club Orchestra appeared on stage for several months in Florenz Ziegfeld's Show Girl, along with vaudeville stars Jimmy Durante, Eddie Foy, Jr., Ruby Keeler, and with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Gus Kahn. Will Vodery, Ziegfeld's musical supervisor, recommended Ellington for the show, and, according to John Hasse's Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, "Perhaps during the run of Show Girl, Ellington received what he later termed ' valuable lessons in orchestration from Will Vodery.' In his 1946 biography, Duke Ellington, Barry Ulanov wrote:

Ellington's film work began with Black and Tan (1929), a nineteen-minute all-African-American RKO short[28] in which he played the hero "Duke". He also appeared in the Amos 'n' Andy film Check and Double Check released in 1930. That year, Ellington and his Orchestra connected with a whole different audience in a concert with Maurice Chevalier and they also performed at the Roseland Ballroom, "America's foremost ballroom". Australian-born composer Percy Grainger was an early admirer and supporter. He wrote "The three greatest composers who ever lived are Bach, Delius and Duke Ellington. Unfortunately Bach is dead, Delius is very ill but we are happy to have with us today The Duke".[29] Ellington's first period at the Cotton Club concluded in 1931.

The early 1930sEdit

Ellington led the orchestra by conducting from the keyboard using piano cues and visual gestures; very rarely did he conduct using a baton. By 1932 his orchestra consisted of six brass instruments, four reeds, and a four-man rhythm section.[30] As a bandleader, Ellington was not a strict disciplinarian; he maintained control of his orchestra with a combination of charm, humor, flattery and astute psychology. A complex, private person, he revealed his feelings to only his closest intimates and effectively used his public persona to deflect attention away from himself.

Ellington signed exclusively to Brunswick in 1932 and stayed with them through late 1936 (albeit with a short-lived 1933–34 switch to Victor when Irving Mills temporarily moved him and his other acts from Brunswick).

As the Depression worsened, the recording industry was in crisis, dropping over 90% of its artists by 1933.[31] Ivie Anderson was hired as their featured vocalist in 1931. She is the vocalist on "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932) among other recordings. Sonny Greer had been providing occasional vocals and continued to do in a cross-talk feature with Anderson. Radio exposure helped maintain Ellington's public profile as his orchestra began to tour. The other records of this era include: "Mood Indigo" (1930), "Sophisticated Lady" (1933), "Solitude" (1934), and "In a Sentimental Mood" (1935)

While the band's United States audience remained mainly African-American in this period, the Ellington orchestra had a significant following overseas, exemplified by the success of their trip to England and Scotland in 1933 and their 1934 visit to the European mainland. The British visit saw Ellington win praise from members of the serious music community, including composer Constant Lambert, which gave a boost to Ellington's interest in composing longer works.

Those longer pieces had already begun to appear. He had composed and recorded Creole Rhapsody as early as 1931 (issued as both sides of a 12" record for Victor and both sides of a 10" record for Brunswick), and a tribute to his mother, "Reminiscing in Tempo", took four 10" record sides to record in 1935 after her death in that year. Symphony in Black (also 1935), a short film, featured his extended piece 'A Rhapsody of Negro Life'. It introduced Billie Holiday, and won an Academy Award as the best musical short subject.[32] Ellington and his Orchestra also appeared in the features Murder at the Vanities and Belle of the Nineties (both 1934).

For agent Mills the attention was a publicity triumph, as Ellington was now internationally known. On the band's tour through the segregated South in 1934, they avoided some of the traveling difficulties of African-Americans by touring in private railcars. These provided easy accommodations, dining, and storage for equipment while avoiding the indignities of segregated facilities.

Competition was intensifying though, as swing bands like Benny Goodman's, began to receive popular attention. Swing dancing became a youth phenomenon, particularly with white college audiences, and danceability drove record sales and bookings. Jukeboxes proliferated nationwide, spreading the gospel of swing. Ellington's band could certainly swing, but their strengths were mood, nuance, and richness of composition, hence his statement "jazz is music, swing is business".[33]

The later 1930sEdit

From 1936, Ellington began to make recordings with smaller groups (sextets, octets, and nonets) drawn from his then-15-man orchestra and he composed pieces intended to feature a specific instrumentalist, as with "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Yearning for Love" for Lawrence Brown, "Trumpet in Spades" for Rex Stewart, "Echoes of Harlem" for Cootie Williams and "Clarinet Lament" for Barney Bigard. In 1937, Ellington returned to the Cotton Club which had relocated to the mid-town Theater District. In the summer of that year, his father died, and due to many expenses, Ellington's finances were tight, although his situation improved the following year.

After leaving agent Irving Mills, he signed on with the William Morris Agency. Mills though continued to record Ellington. After only a year, his Master and Variety labels, the small groups had recorded for the latter, collapsed in late 1937, Mills placed Ellington back on Brunswick and those small group units on Vocalion through to 1940. Well known sides continued to be recorded, "Caravan" in 1937, and "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" the following year.

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Billy Strayhorn, originally hired as a lyricist, began his association with Ellington in 1939.[34] Nicknamed "Swee' Pea" for his mild manner, Strayhorn soon became a vital member of the Ellington organization. Ellington showed great fondness for Strayhorn and never failed to speak glowingly of the man and their collaborative working relationship, "my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine".[35] Strayhorn, with his training in classical music, not only contributed his original lyrics and music, but also arranged and polished many of Ellington's works, becoming a second Ellington or "Duke's doppelganger". It was not uncommon for Strayhorn to fill in for Duke, whether in conducting or rehearsing the band, playing the piano, on stage, and in the recording studio.[36] The 1930s ended with a very successful European tour just as World War II loomed in Europe.

Ellington in the early to mid-1940sEdit

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Some of the musicians who joined Ellington at this time created a sensation in their own right. The short-lived Jimmy Blanton transformed the use of double bass in jazz, allowing it to function as a solo/melodic instrument rather than a rhythm instrument alone. Terminal illness forced him to leave by late 1941 after only about two years. Ben Webster, the Orchestra's first regular tenor saxophonist, whose main tenure with Ellington spanned 1939 to 1943, started a rivalry with Johnny Hodges as the Orchestra's foremost voice in the sax section.

Trumpeter Ray Nance joined, replacing Cootie Williams who had defected to Benny Goodman. Additionally, Nance added violin to the instrumental colors Ellington had at his disposal. Recordings exist of Nance's first concert date on November 7, 1940, at Fargo, North Dakota. Privately made by Jack Towers and Dick Burris, these recordings were first legitimately issued in 1978 as Duke Ellington at Fargo, 1940 Live; they are among the earliest of innumerable live performances which survive. Nance was also an occasional vocalist, although Herb Jeffries was the main male vocalist in this era (until 1943) while Al Hibbler (who replaced Jeffries in 1943) continued until 1951. Ivie Anderson left in 1942 after eleven years: the longest term of any of Ellington's vocalists.[37]

Once again recording for Victor (from 1940), with the small groups recording for their Bluebird label, three-minute masterpieces on 78 rpm record sides continued to flow from Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Ellington's son Mercer Ellington, and members of the Orchestra. "Cotton Tail", "Main Stem", "Harlem Airshaft", "Jack the Bear", and dozens of others date from this period. Strayhorn's "Take the "A" Train" a hit in 1941, became the band's theme, replacing "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo". Ellington and his associates wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices who displayed tremendous creativity.[38] Mary Lou Williams, working as a staff arranger, would briefly join Ellington a few years later.

Ellington's long-term aim though was to extend the jazz form from that three-minute limit, of which he was an acknowledged master.[39] While he had composed and recorded some extended pieces before, such works now became a regular feature of Ellington's output. In this, he was helped by Strayhorn, who had enjoyed a more thorough training in the forms associated with classical music than Ellington. The first of these, "Black, Brown, and Beige" (1943), was dedicated to telling the story of African-Americans, and the place of slavery and the church in their history. Ellington debuted Black, Brown and Beige in Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, beginning an annual series of concerts there over the next four years. While some jazz musicians had played at Carnegie Hall before, none had performed anything as elaborate as Ellington's work. Unfortunately, starting a regular pattern, Ellington's longer works were generally not well received.

A partial exception was Jump for Joy, a full-length musical based on themes of African-American identity, debuted on July 10, 1941, at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. Hollywood luminaries such as actors John Garfield and Mickey Rooney invested in the production, and Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles offered to direct.[40] At one performance though, Garfield insisted Herb Jeffries, who was light-skinned, should wear make-up. Ellington objected in the interval, and compared Jeffries to Al Jolson. The change was reverted, and the singer later commented that the audience must have thought he was an entirely different character in the second half of the show.[41]

Although it had sold-out performances, and received positive reviews,[42] it ran for only 122 performances until September 29, 1941, with a brief revival in November of that year. Its subject matter did not make it appealing to Broadway; Ellington had unfulfilled plans to take it there.[43] Despite this disappointment, a Broadway production of Ellington's Beggar's Holiday, his sole book musical, premiered on December 23, 1946.[44] under the direction of Nicholas Ray.

The settlement of the first recording ban of 1942–43, leading to an increase in royalties paid to musicians, had a serious effect on the financial viability of the big bands, including Ellington's Orchestra. His income as a songwriter ultimately subsidized it. Although he always spent lavishly and drew a respectable income from the Orchestra's operations, the band's income often just covered expenses.[45]

Early post-war yearsEdit

World War II brought about a swift end to the big band era as musicians went off to serve in the military and travel restrictions made touring difficult. When the war ended, the focus of popular music shifted towards crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Jo Stafford, so Ellington's wordless vocal feature "Transblucency" (1946) with Kay Davis was not going to have a similar reach. With inflation setting in after 1945, the cost of hiring big bands went up and club owners preferred smaller jazz groups who played in new styles such as bebop. Dancing in clubs also subjected club owners to a new wartime tax which continued for many years after, which made small bands more cost-effective for club owners.

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Ellington continued on his own course through these tectonic shifts. While Count Basie was forced to disband his whole ensemble and work as an octet for a time, Ellington was able to tour most of Western Europe between April 6 and June 30, 1950, with the orchestra playing 74 dates over 77 days.[46] During the tour, according to Sonny Greer, the newer works were not performed, though Ellington's extended composition, Harlem (1950) was in the process of being completed at this time. Ellington later presented its score to music-loving President Harry Truman. Also during his time in Europe, Ellington would compose the music for a stage production by Orson Welles. Titled Time Runs in Paris[47] and An Evening With Orson Welles in Frankfurt, the variety show also featured a newly discovered Eartha Kitt, who performed Ellington's original song "Hungry Little Trouble" as Helen of Troy.[48]

In 1951, Ellington suffered a significant loss of personnel: Sonny Greer, Lawrence Brown, and most importantly Johnny Hodges left to pursue other ventures, although only Greer was a permanent departee. Drummer Louie Bellson replaced Greer, and his "Skin Deep" was a hit for Ellington. Tenor player Paul Gonsalves had joined in December 1950[46] after periods with Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie and stayed for the rest of his life, while Clark Terry joined in November 1951.[49]

During the early 1950s, Ellington's career was at a low point with his style being generally seen as outmoded, but his reputation did not suffer as badly as some artists. André Previn said in 1952: "You know, Stan Kenton can stand in front of a thousand fiddles and a thousand brass and make a dramatic gesture and every studio arranger can nod his head and say, Oh, yes, that's done like this. But Duke merely lifts his finger, three horns make a sound, and I don’t know what it is!"[50] However, by 1955, after three years of recording for Capitol, Ellington lacked a regular recording affiliation.

Career revivalEdit

Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956 returned him to wider prominence and introduced him to a new generation of fans. The feature "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" comprised two tunes that had been in the band's book since 1937 but largely forgotten until Ellington, who had abruptly ended the band's scheduled set because of the late arrival of four key players, called the two tunes as the time was approaching midnight. Announcing that the two pieces would be separated by an interlude played by tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, Ellington proceeded to lead the band through the two pieces, with Gonsalves' 27-chorus marathon solo whipping the crowd into a frenzy, leading the Maestro to play way beyond the curfew time despite urgent pleas from festival organizer George Wein to bring the program to an end.

The concert made international headlines, led to one of only five Time magazine cover stories dedicated to a jazz musician,[51] and resulted in an album produced by George Avakian that would become the best-selling LP of Ellington's career.[52] Much of the music on the vinyl LP was, in effect, simulated, with only about 40% actually from the concert itself. According to Avakian, Ellington was dissatisfied with aspects of the performance and felt the musicians had been under rehearsed.[52] The band assembled the next day to re-record several of the numbers with the addition of artificial crowd noise, none of which was disclosed to purchasers of the album. Not until 1999 was the concert recording properly released for the first time. The revived attention brought about by the Newport appearance should not have surprised anyone, Johnny Hodges had returned the previous year, and Ellington's collaboration with Strayhorn had been renewed around the same time, under terms more amenable to the younger man.Template:Citation needed

The original Ellington at Newport album was the first release in a new recording contract with Columbia Records which yielded several years of recording stability, mainly under producer Irving Townsend, who coaxed both commercial and artistic productions from Ellington.[53]

In 1957, CBS (Columbia Records' parent corporation) aired a live television production of A Drum Is a Woman, an allegorical suite which received mixed reviews. His hope that television would provide a significant new outlet for his type of jazz was not fulfilled. Tastes and trends had moved on without him. Festival appearances at the new Monterey Jazz Festival and elsewhere provided venues for live exposure, and a European tour in 1958 was well received. Such Sweet Thunder (1957), based on Shakespeare's plays and characters, and The Queen's Suite (1958), dedicated to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, were products of the renewed impetus which the Newport appearance helped to create, although the latter work was not commercially issued at the time. The late 1950s also saw Ella Fitzgerald record her Duke Ellington Songbook (Verve) with Ellington and his orchestra—a recognition that Ellington's songs had now become part of the cultural canon known as the 'Great American Songbook'.

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Ellington at this time (with Strayhorn) began to work directly on scoring for film soundtracks, in particular Anatomy of a Murder (1959),[30] with James Stewart, in which Ellington appeared fronting a roadhouse combo, and Paris Blues (1961), which featured Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as jazz musicians. Detroit Free Press music critic Mark Stryker concludes that the work of Billy Strayhorn and Ellington in Anatomy of a Murder a trial court drama film directed by Otto Preminger, is "indispensable, [although] . . . too sketchy to rank in the top echelon among Ellington-Strayhorn masterpiece suites like Such Sweet Thunder and The Far East Suite, but its most inspired moments are their equal."[54]

Film historians have recognized the soundtrack "as a landmark – the first significant Hollywood film music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, music whose source is not visible or implied by action in the film, like an on-screen band." The score avoided the cultural stereotypes which previously characterized jazz scores and rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the New Wave cinema of the '60s".[55] Ellington and Strayhorn, always looking for new musical territory, produced suites for John Steinbeck's novel Sweet Thursday, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt.

In the early 1960s, Ellington embraced recording with artists who had been friendly rivals in the past, or were younger musicians who focused on later styles. The Ellington and Count Basie orchestras recorded together. During a period when he was between recording contracts, he made records with Louis Armstrong (Roulette), Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane (both for Impulse) and participated in a session with Charles Mingus and Max Roach which produced the Money Jungle (United Artists) album. He signed to Frank Sinatra's new Reprise label, but the association with the label was short-lived.

Musicians who had previously worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members: Lawrence Brown in 1960 and Cootie Williams in 1962.

"The writing and playing of music is a matter of intent.... You can't just throw a paint brush against the wall and call whatever happens art. My music fits the tonal personality of the player. I think too strongly in terms of altering my music to fit the performer to be impressed by accidental music. You can't take doodling seriously."[12]
He was now performing all over the world; a significant part of each year was spent on overseas tours. As a consequence, he formed new working relationships with artists from around the world, including the Swedish vocalist Alice Babs, and the South African musicians Dollar Brand and Sathima Bea Benjamin (A Morning in Paris, 1963/1997).

Ellington wrote an original score for director Michael Langham's production of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada which opened on July 29, 1963. Langham has used it for several subsequent productions, including a much later adaptation by Stanley Silverman which expands the score with some of Ellington's best-known works.

Last yearsEdit

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Ellington was a Pulitzer Prize for Music nominee in 1965 but no prize was awarded that year.[56] Then 66 years old, he said: "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young."[57] In 1999 he was posthumously awarded a special Pulitzer Prize (not the Music prize), "commemorating the centennial year of his birth, in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture."[4][58]

In September 1965, he premiered the first of his Sacred Concerts. He created a jazz Christian liturgy. Although the work received mixed reviews, Ellington was proud of the composition and performed it dozens of times. This concert was followed by two others of the same type in 1968 and 1973, known as the Second and Third Sacred Concerts. These generated controversy in what was already a tumultuous time in the United States. Many saw the Sacred Music suites as an attempt to reinforce commercial support for organized religion, though Ellington simply said it was "the most important thing I've done".[59] The Steinway piano upon which the Sacred Concerts were composed is part of the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Like Haydn and Mozart, Ellington conducted his orchestra from the piano – he always played the keyboard parts when the Sacred Concerts were performed.[60]

Despite his advancing age (he turned 65 in the spring of 1964), Ellington showed no sign of slowing down as he continued to make vital and innovative recordings, including The Far East Suite (1966), New Orleans Suite (1970), Latin American Suite (1972) and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (1971), much of it inspired by his world tours. It was during this time that he recorded his only album with Frank Sinatra, entitled Francis A. & Edward K. (1967).

Although he made two more stage appearances before his death, Ellington performed what is considered his final full concert in a ballroom at Northern Illinois University on March 20, 1974.[61]

The last three shows Ellington and his orchestra performed were one on March 21, 1973 at Purdue University's Hall of Music and two on March 22, 1973 at the Sturges-Young Auditorium in Sturgis, Michigan.[62]

Personal lifeEdit

File:Duke Ellington 1.JPG

Ellington married his high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson (d. 1967), on July 2, 1918, when he was 19. The next spring, on March 11, 1919, Edna gave birth to their only son, Mercer Kennedy Ellington.

Ellington was joined in New York City by his wife and son in the late twenties, but the couple soon permanently separated.[63] According to her obituary in Jet magazine, she was "homesick for Washington" and returned.[64] In 1928, Ellington became the companion of Mildred Dixon, who traveled with him, managed Tempo Music, inspired songs at the peak of his career, and reared his son Mercer.

In 1938 he left his family (his son was then 19) and moved in with Beatrice "Evie" Ellis, a Cotton Club employee. Their relationship, though stormy, continued after Ellington met and formed a relationship with Fernanda de Castro Monte in the early 1960s. Ellington supported both women for the rest of his life.[65]

File:Mildred Dixon - Duke Ellington's wife.jpg

Ellington's sister Ruth (1915–2004) later ran Tempo Music, his music publishing company. Ruth's second husband was the bass-baritone McHenry Boatwright, whom she met when he sang at her brother's funeral.Template:Citation needed As an adult, son Mercer Ellington (d. 1996) played trumpet and piano, led his own band, and worked as his father's business manager.

Ellington died on May 24, 1974, of complications from lung cancer and pneumonia,[66] a few weeks after his 75th birthday. At his funeral, attended by over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, "It's a very sad day. A genius has passed."[67] He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx, New York City.[68]

Numerous memorials have been dedicated to Duke Ellington, in cities from New York and Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. Ellington is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

In Ellington's birthplace, Washington, D.C., the Duke Ellington School of the Arts educates talented students, who are considering careers in the arts, by providing intensive arts instruction and strong academic programs that prepare students for post-secondary education and professional careers. Originally built in 1935, the Calvert Street Bridge was renamed the Duke Ellington Bridge in 1974.

In 1989, a bronze plaque was attached to the newly named Duke Ellington Building at 2121 Ward Place, NW.[69] In 2012, the new owner of the building commissioned a mural by Aniekan Udofia that appears above the lettering "Duke Ellington".

In 2010 the triangular park, across the street from Duke Ellington's birth site, at the intersection of New Hampshire and M Streets, NW was named the Duke Ellington Park.[70] Ellington's residence at 2728 Sherman Avenue, NW, during the years 1919–1922,[71] is marked by a bronze plaque.

On February 24, 2009, the United States Mint launched a new coin featuring Duke Ellington, making him the first African American to appear by himself on a circulating U.S. coin.[72] Ellington appears on the reverse (tails) side of the District of Columbia quarter.[72] The coin is part of the U.S. Mint's program honoring the District and the U.S. territories[73] and celebrates Ellington's birthplace in the District of Columbia.[72] Ellington is depicted on the quarter seated at a piano, sheet music in hand, along with the inscription "Justice for All", which is the District's motto.[73]

File:2009 DC Proof.png

Ellington lived for years in a townhouse on the corner of Manhattan's Riverside Drive and West 106th Street. After his death, West 106th Street was officially renamed Duke Ellington Boulevard. A large memorial to Ellington, created by sculptor Robert Graham, was dedicated in 1997 in New York's Central Park, near Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, an intersection named Duke Ellington Circle.

A statue of Ellington at a piano is featured at the entrance to UCLA's Schoenberg Hall. According to UCLA Magazine:

The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival is a nationally renowned annual competition for prestigious high school bands. Started in 1996 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the festival is named after Ellington because of the large focus that the festival places on his works.

After Duke died, his son Mercer took over leadership of the orchestra, continuing until his own death in 1996. Like the Count Basie Orchestra, this "ghost band" continued to release albums for many years. Digital Duke, credited to The Duke Ellington Orchestra, won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. Mercer Ellington had been handling all administrative aspects of his father's business for several decades. Mercer's children continue a connection with their grandfather's work.

Gunther Schuller wrote in 1989:

Ellington composed incessantly to the very last days of his life. Music was indeed his mistress; it was his total life and his commitment to it was incomparable and unalterable. In jazz he was a giant among giants. And in twentieth century music, he may yet one day be recognized as one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time.[74]

Martin Williams said: "Duke Ellington lived long enough to hear himself named among our best composers. And since his death in 1974, it has become not at all uncommon to see him named, along with Charles Ives, as the greatest composer we have produced, regardless of category."[75]

In the opinion of Bob Blumenthal of The Boston Globe in 1999: "[i]n the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington."[76]

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Duke Ellington on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[77]

File:Duke Ellington star HWF.JPG

His compositions have been revisited by artists and musicians around the world both as a source of inspiration and a bedrock of their own performing careers.

There are hundreds of albums dedicated to the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn by artists famous and obscure. Sophisticated Ladies, an award-winning 1981 musical revue, incorporated many tunes from Ellington's repertoire. A second Broadway musical interpolating Ellington's music, Play On!, debuted in 1997.

Template:Main article

Awards and honorsEdit

Grammy AwardsEdit

Ellington earned 12 Grammy awards from 1959 to 2000, three of which were posthumous.

Duke Ellington Grammy Award History[79]
Year Category Title Genre Result
1999 Historical Album The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition
RCA Victor Recordings (1927–1973)
Jazz Winner
1979 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band Duke Ellington At Fargo, 1940 Live Jazz Winner
1976 Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band The Ellington Suites Jazz Winner
1972 Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band Togo Brava Suite Jazz Winner
1971 Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band New Orleans Suite Jazz Winner
1968 Best Instrumental Jazz Performance – Large Group
Or Soloist With Large Group
...And His Mother Called Him Bill Jazz Winner
1967 Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Large Group
Or Soloist With Large Group
Far East Suite Jazz Winner
1966 Best Original Jazz Composition "In The Beginning God" Jazz Winner
1965 Best Instrumental Jazz Performance -
Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group
Ellington '66 Jazz Winner
1959 Best Performance By A Dance Band Anatomy of a Murder Pop Winner
1959 Best Musical Composition First Recorded
And Released In 1959
(More Than 5 Minutes Duration)
Anatomy of a Murder Composing Winner
1959 Best Sound Track Album – Background Score
From A Motion Picture Or Television
Anatomy of a Murder Composing Winner

Grammy Hall of FameEdit

Recordings of Duke Ellington were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have qualitative or historical significance.

Duke Ellington: Grammy Hall of Fame Award[80]
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted
1932 "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" Jazz (single) Brunswick 2008
1934 "Cocktails for Two" Jazz (single) Victor 2007
1957 Ellington at Newport Jazz (album) Columbia 2004
1956 "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" Jazz (single) Columbia 1999
1967 Far East Suite Jazz (album) RCA 1999
1944 Black, Brown and Beige Jazz (single) RCA Victor 1990
1928 "Black and Tan Fantasy" Jazz (single) Victor 1981
1941 "Take the "A" Train" Jazz (single) Victor 1976
1931 "Mood Indigo" Jazz (single) Brunswick 1975

Honors and inductionsEdit

Year Category Notes
2009 Commemorative U.S. quarter D.C. and U.S. Territories Quarters Program.[81][82]
2008 Gennett Records Walk of Fame
2004 Nesuhi Ertegün Jazz Hall of Fame
at Jazz at Lincoln Center
1999 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation[4]
1992 Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame
1986 22¢ commemorative U.S. stamp Issued April 29, 1986[83]
1978 Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
1973 French Legion of Honor[84] July 6, 1973
1973 Honorary Degree in Music from Columbia University May 16, 1973
1971 Honorary Doctorate Degree from Berklee College of Music
1971 Honorary Doctor of Music from Howard University[85]
1971 Songwriters Hall of Fame
1969 Presidential Medal of Freedom
1968 Grammy Trustees Award Special Merit Award
1967 Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from Yale University[86][87]
1966 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
1964 Honorary degree, Milton College, Wisconsin
1959 NAACP Spingarn Medal
1956 Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame inductee

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  • Cohen, Harvey G. Duke Ellington's America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Template:ISBN
  • Ellington, Duke. Music Is My Mistress. New York: Da Capo, 1976 Template:ISBN
  • Ellington, Mercer. Duke Ellington in Person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. Template:ISBN.
  • Hajdu, David, Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996. Template:ISBN.
  • Hasse, John Edward. Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington. New York: Da Capo, 1995. Template:ISBN

  • Lawrence, A. H. Duke Ellington and His World: A Biography. New York: Routledge, 2001. Template:ISBN
  • Schuller, Gunther. Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Template:ISBN. Especially pp. 318–357.
  • Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development Of Jazz, 1930–1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Template:ISBN. Esp. pp. 46–157.
  • Stratemann, Dr. Klaus. Duke Ellington: Day by Day and Film by Film. Copenhagen: JazzMedia, 1992. Template:ISBN Covers all of Duke's travels and films from the 1929 short film Black and Tan onwards.

  • Template:Cite book
  • Terkel, Studs (2002), Giants of Jazz (2nd ed.), New York: The New Press, Template:ISBN.
  • Tucker, Mark. Ellington, The Early Years, University of Illinois Press, 1991. Template:ISBN
  • Tucker, Mark. The Duke Ellington Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993 Template:ISBN .
  • Ulanov, Barry. Duke Ellington, Creative Age Press, 1946.
  • Weisbard, Eric, ed.. This Is Pop: In Search of the Elusive at Experience Music Project. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. Template:ISBN.

External linksEdit

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Template:Redirect Template:Infobox music genre Krautrock (sometimes called "kosmische Musik", Template:Lang-de[1]Template:Sfn) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s.[2] The term "krautrock" was originated by English-speaking music journalists as a humorous name for a diverse range of German bands whose music drew from sources such as psychedelic rock, the avant-garde, electronic music, funk, minimalism, jazz improvisation, and world music styles. Largely divorced from the traditional blues and rock and roll influences of British and American rock music up to that time, the period contributed to the evolution of electronic music and ambient music as well as the birth of post-punk, alternative rock and New Age music.[3][4] Important acts of the scene include Can, Kraftwerk, Neu!, Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, Popol Vuh, and Faust.

Until around 1973, the word "Deutsch-Rock" ("German Rock") was used to refer to the new groups from West Germany.Template:Sfn "Krautrock" was originally a humorous term coined in the early 1970s by British disc jockey John PeelTemplate:Sfn or by the UK music newspaper Melody Maker, in which experimental German bands found an early and enthusiastic following, and ironically retained by its practitioners.[5] The term derives from the ethnic slur "kraut", and its use by the music press was inspired by a track from Amon Düül's Psychedelic Underground titled "Mama Düül und Ihre Sauerkrautband Spielt Auf" ('Mama Düül and her Sauerkrautband Strike Up').[6][7][8] According to author Ulrich Adelt, it should be noted that "kraut" in German can refer to herbs, weeds, and drugs.Template:Sfn Other names thrown around by the British music press were "Teutonic rock" and "Götterdämmer rock".Template:Sfn

Its musicians tended to reject the name "krautrock".[8]Template:Sfn This was also the case for "kosmische Musik" ("cosmic music"), a marketing name invented by record producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser for krautrock bands like Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze.Template:Sfn Musicologist Julian Cope, in his book Krautrocksampler, says "Krautrock is a subjective British phenomenon," based on the way the music was received in the UK rather than on the actual West German music scene out of which it grew.[6] For instance, while one of the main groups originally tagged as krautrock, Faust, recorded a seminal 12-minute track they titled "Krautrock", they would later distance themselves from the term, saying: "When the English people started talking about Krautrock, we thought they were just taking the piss... and when you hear the so-called 'Krautrock renaissance,' it makes me think everything we did was for nothing."[9] West German's music press initially used "krautrock" as a pejorative, but the term lost its stigma after the music gained success in Britain.Template:Sfn

Template:See also

Krautrock merges elements of psychedelic rock, the avant-garde, electronic music, funk, improvisational jazz and world music styles,[3] and expands on the type of musical explorations associated with art rock and progressive rock.[10] Critic Simon Reynolds described the style as "where the over-reaching ambition and untethered freakitude of late '60s acid rock is checked and galvanised by a proto-punk minimalism ... music of immense scale that miraculously avoided prog-rock's bombastics."[3]

The key component characterizing such groups is the synthesis of rock and roll rhythm and energy with a decided will to distance themselves from specifically American blues origins, drawing on German or other sources instead. Jean-Hervé Peron of Faust says: "We were trying to put aside everything we had heard in rock 'n' roll, the three-chord pattern, the lyrics. We had the urge of saying something completely different."[9] According to Peel, the only American or British band to "clearly influence" the genre was England's Pink Floyd, particularly for their "spacey music".Template:Sfn

Some artists drew on ideas from contemporary experimental classical music (especially minimalism[11] and composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, with whom, for example, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of Can had previously studied) and from the new experimental directions that emerged in jazz during the 1960s and 1970s (mainly the free jazz pieces by Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler). Moving away from the patterns of song structure and melody of much rock music in America and Britain, some in the movement also drove the music to a more mechanical and electronic sound.[4]

Motorik beat Edit

Template:Main A common rhythm featured in the music was a steady 4/4 beat, often called "motorik".[12] The beat is characterised by a bass drum-heavy, pulsating groove, that created a forward-flowing feel.[12] The motorik beat was first used by Neu! on their debut album[13] and were later adopted by other krautrock bands. The motorik beat has been widely used in many different styles of music beyond krautrock.[14]

Background and originsEdit

Template:Refimprove section

File:TU Berlin 1968a.jpg

By the end of the 1960s, the American and British counterculture and hippie movement had moved rock towards psychedelia, heavy metal, progressive rock and other styles that incorporated socially and politically incisive lyrics. The 1968 German student movement, French protests and Italian student movement had created a class of young, intellectual continental listeners, while nuclear weapons, pollution, and war inspired protests and activism.Template:Sfn Avant-garde music had taken a turn towards the electronic in the mid-1950s. The avant-garde minimalist music current emerged in the early 1960s with the works of Americans La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Steve Reich. They used drones and loops (often with synthesizers and tapes) in a kind of psychedelic and space-oriented music.Template:Citation needed

These developments influenced what came to be termed krautrock, which appeared at the first major German rock festival in 1968 in Essen.Template:Sfn Like their American, British and international counterparts, German rock musicians played a kind of psychedelic music. In contrast, however, there was no attempt to reproduce the effects of drugs. Their sound was an innovative fusion of jazz and the electronic avant-garde.[3]Template:Failed verification

1968 also saw the foundation of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab in Berlin by Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Conrad Schnitzler, which further popularized the psychedelic-rock sound in the German mainstream.Template:Sfn Originally krautrock was a form of Free art, which meant that krautrock bands gave their records away at Free Art Fairs. Template:Citation needed

The next few years saw a wave of pioneering groups. In 1968 two former students of Karlheinz Stockhausen formed Can, adding jazz to the mix. (In that way the krautrock scene can be seen to parallel the Canterbury scene emerging in England at the same time.) The following year saw Kluster (later Cluster) begin recording keyboard-based electronic instrumental music with an emphasis on static drones.Template:Citation needed

Legacy and influenceEdit

Template:Multiple issues Krautrock has proved to be highly influential on a succession of other musical styles and developments. Early contemporary enthusiasts outside Germany included Hawkwind and in particular Dave Brock who supposedly penned the sleeve notes for the British edition of Neu!'s first album [15] Faust's budget release The Faust Tapes has been cited as a formative teenage influence by several musicians growing up in the early 1970s such as Julian Cope (who has always cited krautrock as an influence, and wrote the book Krautrocksampler on the subject). The genre also had a strong influence on David Bowie's Station to Station (1976) and the experimentation it inspired led to his 'Berlin Trilogy'.[16][17]

Krautrock was also highly influential on the late-'70s development of post-punk, notably artists such as The Fall, Joy Division, Public Image Ltd, This Heat and Simple Minds, and on Galloping Coroners' shaman punk.

List of artistsEdit

Template:Dynamic list Template:Columns-list

See alsoEdit

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External links Edit

Template:Rock Template:Avant-garde Template:Psychedelic music Template:Use dmy dates

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text:
• Curly Crown Spotlight

    Google Confirms the Creators of Cool

    This week Google, the world’s largest search engine, released an ad acknowledging the US Black History Month and is based on historical moments and individuals who are “most searched” for online.

    Google is largely recognised as the “go-to” search engine for enquiring minds and most people know what to do when they are told to “Google it”, in order to find out something they want to know.

    This would not be Google’s first ad for Black History month, as last year their campaign focused on #BlackGirlMagic. This year, their ad focuses on famous figures such as Beyonce, Serena Williams, Maya Angelou and Martin Luther King who all rank as the most searched when web users search on Google.

    "Most Searched" Ad Campaign Overview
    Google Highlight the “Most Searched” for Black History Month

    Google are experts in collecting data and the “most searched” categories in the ad have been confirmed by Google Trends – the website that shows what people are searching for online. There is even a website which shares details on the data for each category in the ad.

    Google Trends
    Google Trends is the website that provides data on what people are searching for online.

    The history makers in the ad have made an impact in science, dance, music, sports and a few other areas, which has inspired many. It’s also a confirmation that we, as a melanin-anointed community, create the cool, set trends and make a positive contribution on this planet, despite efforts by entities such as the mainstream media who often try to create a narrative that would suggest otherwise.

    For more details on the history makers featured in the ad and Google’s pledge to support Black and Latino students visit: g.co/blackhistorymonth

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text:
Ozone Hole Current Affairs - 2020

Phase Out of Ozone Depleting Chemicals achieved by India

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (EFoCC) recently announced that India has achieved the complete phase out of ozone depleting Hydro Chloro Fluoro Carbons (HCFC). The achievement has its route to the Montreal Protocol

In order to move towards environment friendly technologies, the Ministry of EFoCC prohibited import of HCFC-141b. The order was issued according to Ozone Depleting substances (Regulation and Control) amendment rules, 2019. The rules were issued under Environment (Protection) act, 1986.

The use of HCFC-141b by foam manufacturing industries have been come to an end with the stoppage of import of HCFC-141b. This is because, HCFC-141b is not produced in India. The domestic requirements of HCFC-141b so far had been met through imports.

The phase out of HCFC-141b will help in healing the ozone layer in the stratospheric zone. Also, it will help in climate change mitigation as the industries dependent on HCFC for foam production will be forced to work on alternative technologies that contribute to lesser global warming.

The step will have great impact on ozone layer. This is because around 50% of ozone depleting chemicals being used in the country attribute to HCFC-141b.

On the other hand, polyurethane dependent sectors will face dents. HCFC is used as blowing agent in the production of polyurethane foams. Polyurethane is used in applications such as water geysers, refrigerators, thermo wares, furniture appliance, commercial refrigeration.

Govt measures to reduce impacts

The after effect of the phase out will greatly affect the MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises). In order to prevent this, the Ozone Cell of Ministry of EFoCC had signed agreements with Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technologies to find alternate technologies. Assistance is being provide to field trails, training and product validation.

Montreal Protocol

The Montreal Protocol was signed by 190 countries in 1987 to phase out Ozone Depleting Substances. In order to achieve this, India in 2017 launched a phase out plan. Though the target of the plan was 2023, India achieved the goal far ahead of the deadline.

Ozone Hole: Smallest on record

NASA reported that ozone hole near south pole is in its smallest size since it was discovered. In 2006, the hole was 10.3 million square miles. However, recently it has reduced to 3.6 million square miles. Scientists say that the hole is smaller than it was found in 1985.

Every year, the ozone hole reaches its peak in September and October and disappears by late December.

Earth’s ozone layer shields life from harmful solar radiation. The man-made chlorine compounds that can last in air for 100 years nibbled at the Ozone particles. This led to thinning of the Ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere.

After it was found in 1985, the International Montreal Protocol was framed in 1987. It is the only protocol ratified at the United Nations that bans chlorine compounds in refrigerators and aerosols.

Unfortunately, the reason for the reduction of ozone hole is not the steps to reduce the usage of chlorine compounds. It is because of climate change.

Climate Change-a Reason

Chlorine in air requires cold temperatures in stratosphere to form chemical clouds that actually react with ozone. The clouds now go away as they are being warmed up due to elevated temperatures. The temperatures were 29 degrees warmer than the average. The winds dropped from 161 miles per hour to 67 miles per hour.

Though Climate change is the sole reason, it is being hastened by global warming. The Southern Polar Vortex just like the northern one started to break down. This is the main reason for the sudden and huge reduction in ozone hole.


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Step 1: Activate Your NYU NetID

You have been assigned a NetID, included in your admission letter, which is used to sign in to systems at NYU. If you have not already done so, you must activate your NYU NetID and create a password.

To activate this NetID and set your password:

  • Go to the NYU Information Technology Services (ITS) Start page at
  • Enter your NetID, click “start,” and follow the online instructions.
  • To complete the process, enter your date of birth and NYU University ID number (listed on your admissions letter).

NetID? University ID Number (N Number)? What’s the Difference? visit our FAQ page for more information.

Step 2: Confirm Enrollment

All admitted students should respond to our offer of admission. You must pay your $500 USD tuition deposit by the date indicated in your admissions offer. It will appear as a credit on your bursar bill once you register for classes. If you later decide not to enroll at NYU, you will forfeit your deposit. Go to NYUHome and follow the online candidate reply process by clicking on the “ADMISSIONS OFFER” link, which appears in the upper right hand corner of your “Application Status” page.

Step 3: Admitted Students Events

Please note that due to restrictions due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), NYU has suspended all on campus events through the summer.

You can watch our Admitted Students Webinar here.

Step 4: Proof of Original Documents

New York University requires all admitted students to present proof of undergraduate graduation prior to admission in a graduate program. Additionally, CUSP requires submission of official test scores (GRE, GMAT, TOEFL, IELTS) and post-secondary transcripts prior to matriculation and registration in classes.

Please submit transcripts and test scores by July 15th. If you require more time to submit your documents due to COVID-19, please email

Admitted students must provide official copies of transcripts from any previously attended post-secondary institution where credits were earned. Each transcript must be official to be considered acceptable for matriculation/registration.

Transcripts are deemed official if submitted in a signed and sealed envelope distributed to either (1) the student, or (2) CUSP directly by the Office of the Registrar from whence the admitted student previously enrolled.

Scanned, photocopied, and/or uploaded copies of transcripts do not fulfill this requirement.

Send transcripts to:

Office of Admissions
NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress
370 Jay Street, 13th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Digital transcripts may be sent to

All admitted students must provide official test scores. Test scores are deemed official if sent to CUSP directly from ETS, Pearson Vue, or IELTS, or if the student has an official copy in possession and submits it via mail/ in-person to CUSP.

Scanned, photocopied, and/or uploaded copies of test scores do not fulfill this requirement.

Please use the following institution codes to electronically submit your official scores:

  • GRE: ETS Institution Code 0846
  • GMAT: Pearson Vue institution code 5TF-PN
  • TOEFL: ETS Institution Code 3345

If you are unsure whether CUSP has your official test scores, or for instructions on requesting official submission, contact

International Students:  Please note that admitted international students and/or those who have completed their secondary education outside of the US will be required to submit an official WES or ECE transcript evaluation.

Evaluations must show that your degree is equivalent to a U.S. Bachelor’s. We recommend a course-by-course transcript evaluation.

This evaluation is mandatory for admission to the program and must be submitted to NYU CUSP by July 15th.

If you submit an official WES or ECE transcript evaluation, you do not have to provide an additional copy of your official transcripts to CUSP. The evaluation takes the place of your official transcript.

Send WES or ECE evaluations to:

Office of Admissions
NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress
370 Jay Street, 13th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Step 5: Immunization & Health Requirements

New York State Public Health and New York University require that all students taking six or more credits must provide proof of immunity to measles, mumps, and rubella and acknowledge receipt of information regarding meningococcal disease or provide proof of meningococcal vaccine. If you are not in full compliance, New York State requires that the University exclude you from attending classes 30 days after the first day of class for New York State residents and 45 days after the first day of class for out-of-state and international students.

Complete your health requirements. All incoming students must complete some health-related forms. Learn more about the health requirement forms and deadlines here. For any questions regarding immunization and health requirements, please contact NYU Student Health directly at

Step 6: Domestic Students: File FAFSA

Domestics students should complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Please visit the FAFSA website for the online application and instructions.

You must include the NYU federal school code number 002785 in the school section of the FAFSA to ensure that your information is accurately transmitted to New York University from the federal processor.

If you have any questions about your financial aid award, please contact the Office of Financial Aid directly at (212) 998-4444 or by email at

You can check the status of your financial aid by visiting NYUHome.

Step 7: International Students: Request Student Visa

If you are an international student, you must complete an I-20/DS-2019 application. The Office of Global Services (OGS) needs approximately two weeks to create a new I-20 or DS-2019 upon receiving a completed I-20/DS-2019 application from you. Spring and summer is a busy time for OGS, so please submit your application as soon as you decide to attend NYU.

Visit OGS’ Pre-arrival webpage to find out what an I-20 and DS-2019 are and for detailed instructions on how to apply for an I-20 or DS-2019.

Step 8: Tell us when you will arrive on campus

Because a return to normality from COVID-19 can take some time, we are planning to offer several remote learning options for those who cannot join us on campus in September.

Review the options for starting your degree here.

Then, let us know when you intend to arrive on campus here. This form is mandatory for all incoming students and should be completed by July 6th.

Step 9: Get ready with pre-fall programs

If you are looking for a free online course to help augment your technical skills or prepare for the program, we suggest the following:

Tandon Summer Scholar Program: Take a free online class with CUSP this summer! This course will count towards one of your classes in the CUSP program (effectively a 10% discount on your total tuition) ONLY if you register for the Fall 2020 semester. The course, Urban Computing Skills Lab: Introduction to Programming for Solving City Challenges, is only available to admitted students. This online course encompasses our Urban Computing Skills Lab (UCSL), but includes a more vigorous learning experience to prepare you for CUSP.

Visit our Pre-Fall Programs page for more information!

Step 10: Get your NYU ID Card

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Dance Review Print

CPCC's "Winter's Dream" Includes Ill-Fated Visits to a Ghost Town & Tchaikovsky

Event  Information

Charlotte -- ( Fri., Dec. 12, 2014 - Sun., Dec. 14, 2014 )

Central Piedmont Community College: A Winter's Dream
Performed by CPCC Dance Theatre
$10. Tickets for children 10 and under are $5. (Plus applicable N.C. admission tax.) A $5 student/staff ticket is also available. -- Pease Auditorium, CPCC , (704)330-6534 , http://tix.cpcc.edu/

December 12, 2014 - Charlotte, NC:

Now that Charlotte Youth Ballet has become an annual Nutcracker presenter at Central Piedmont Community College's Halton Theater, CPCC Dance Theatre can no longer hope to contribute to the surplus population of Tchaikovsky ballet during the Christmas season. Instead, they've settled into a smaller CP venue, Pease Auditorium, where their annual potpourri is called "Winter's Dream." The 2014 edition featured a chamber-sized piece set to music by Tchaikovsky, but none of the pieces had the cachet necessary to draw large numbers of eager students to CP's dance program or large numbers of ticket buyers to Pease. As a result, "Winter's Dream" is notably lacking in flair, excitement, and audience enthusiasm.

Among the four dances on the program, the classical pieces are the least satisfying. The first, "Designs With Strings," was choreographed by John Taras in the 1940s to music by Tchaikovsky and restaged by CP's venerable Katharyn Horne; and the second, after intermission, was "Five Not So Easy Pieces," choreographed by Horne. Neither of the pieces featured high-flying leaps or breathtaking catches. In the Tchaikovsky setting, the premium was on balance and extended work on pointe as the six dancers presented a fascinating array of tableaux onstage. If the movements were as easy as they were simple, the result would have been far more pleasant. From a technical standpoint, execution was admirable, but the ensemble's precision came at the visible cost of considerable telltale student stiffness and – with the exception of the tallest of the four female dancers – a near-total absence of joy in the dancing. Nor did it help that Horne insisted on authenticity in the music, playing a recording that sounded older than the choreography, with enough high-frequency noise to add a museum mustiness to the spectacle.

With three women in "Five Not So Easy Pieces" – Nathalia Raigosa, Christina Thomas, Elizabeth Riddell – the emphasis shifted from decorous tableaux and partnering to synchronicity and solo work. Raigosa was the most appealing soloist, but there was also charm when Thomas soloed, and she was more precisely on-the-beat in the ensemble sequences. Karena Holm's costume designs, black and rather clichéd for the Tchaikovsky, were a cheery red and slightly more flattering here, and the Benjamin Britten music, still blasted at an uncomfortably high volume, came from a far less dusty audio source.

For their sheer range, Clay Daniel's pair of pieces was more startling than Horne's. The first of these was actually a short drama that he wrote and directed, "Ghost Town." Actors who appeared in this premiere turned out to be the same dancers who would appear at the end of the evening in another premiere, "The Giants Dance or Set in Stone." Thomas Grady starred as a young hiker who wanders into the ghost town, where he encounters an eccentric widow (Aolani Coban), a pair of sisters (Tashonda Wright and Alkeyla King), and the slightly-deranged Pickles (Levin Huesler), who may not drink muddy water but definitely sleeps in a hollow log. The master of this place, called Sir, appeared at the denouement, played by CPCC Dance's best dancer, Javier Gonzalez, who certainly gave Sir's cackling malignity a good old college try. Even with professional actors, "Ghost Town" would not set off a clamor for more dramatic work from Daniel, and his cautions to shield young children from its horrors could be safely ignored.

Though its demands remained technically modest, the three-part "Giants Dance" was probably the most satisfying piece of the evening. Costumes and props by Daniel and the dancers had a unifying tie-dye motif as the ensemble played out a fanciful conceit – that mysterious Western European rock formations such as Stonehenge were the work of prehistoric giants. The student stiffness that marred Horne's more balletic stagings was not an eyesore here as these stony classical creatures not only rolled their rocks into various formations but also rolled over each other in the dance moves. There were also enough outbreaks of flair in Daniel's choreography (set to music by Filippo Azzaiolo, J.S. Bach, and Rachmaninoff) to show off the lateral curve and grace of Gonzalez's leaps and Coban's agility. Coban was also a redeeming feature earlier in the evening in "Latch," choreographed by Megan Payne to music by Disclosure featuring Sam Smith's vocal. This was the jazziest piece of the evening stylistically, and Coban clearly had the most fun among the four dancers performing it. Huesler, who meshed so well into the "Giants" concept as Gonzalez's chum, was a dampening presence in "Latch" with his caution and stiffness. On the basis of his stage debut as the twisted rustic Pickles, I'd say Huesler has more aptitude for acting. He definitely had more fun.

This program continues through Dec/ 14. For details, see the sidebar.


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Times chief investigative reporter and journalist of the year Andrew Norfolk says he owes his success to a "bullying bastard of a news editor" he worked with on the Scarborough Evening News.

Norfolk, who was named British Journalism Awards journalist of the year in 2014 for his investigation into gang sexual abuse, talks about his experience of  journalism training in How to be a Journalist - a print supplement published by Press Gazette today.

Norfolk's career in journalism began as a trainee on the Scarborough Evening News, which sent him to Harlow College to study for his National Council for the Training of Journalists qualification.

He said: “I draw, daily, on what I learnt back then. Legal issues, in both criminal and civil proceedings, take up far too much of my professional life and have featured heavily in the past four years.

“And how could you begin to grasp the labyrinthine layers of power and accountability with a story like Rotherham’s, where you’re trying to assess who knew what, and when, without first understanding the structure of local authorities, departmental responsibilities, multi-agency working, safeguarding boards, etc?

“Slow and often indecipherable as it is, I’d be adrift without my shorthand. And as for interviews… well, this entire story was built on slowly winning damaged people’s confidence and trust to the point where they became willing to sit down and talk to you. To tell the darkest of stories.

“Those were just about the most important, sensitive, challenging interviews I’ve ever done. If there was one quality more important than any that was required for this story, I think it was probably empathy."

Talking about his time working on what was then one of the smallest evening newspapers in the country, he said: "It sometimes felt as though if you farted in Scarborough we’d stick it in the newspaper.

"To fill the pages for each edition was a daily challenge.

“There was, of course, the daily routine of police calls, magistrates court, council meetings, vox pops, press releases. Pretty soon I thought I was getting quite good at all that. I also fancied myself as a bit of a writer.

"I started doing features, theatre reviews. I started, almost, to feel quite pleased with myself. At least maybe I would have done, had I not been landed with a bullying bastard of a news editor who wouldn’t leave me alone.

“He was always on my back, pushing me to do more, telling me to go out there and start to find my own bloody stories instead of being handed them on a plate. It took a while, but eventually I realised he was right.

“He looked at me and saw a soft, privileged prima donna. He saw a kid who’d had it easy all his life, and who needed to get his hands not just dirty but filthy. And who was never going to make a decent journalist until he did. I sulked; he bullied. And in the end I did what I was told.

“He’s now one of my best friends."

While Norfolk has won numerous awards in recent years for his Times work, he said nothing compares to the feeling of getting his first exclusive front-page story in Scarborough Evening News based on a chat he'd had in the pub.

"I was told something that sounded outrageous, did a bit of digging and it turned out to be true. And it was my story, my first little investigation. And they gave me three days to work on it. Undreamt-of luxury. It was dodgy dealing in a further education college.

“The principal, to boost a funding stream that was based on the number of students you had and the number of courses you taught, had invented an entirely bogus course for adults with learning difficulties.

“The paperwork looked good but the students supposedly enrolled on the course were actually babies and young toddlers - the offspring of the teaching staff - whose time at the college was spent in its creche.

“That was a story, albeit a little story, that someone in a position of local power didn’t want us to tell.”

Asked what advice he would give to an aspiring journalist, he said: “If you feel it’s in your blood and you’ve got the curiosity and sense of wanting to tell stories that people don’t want you to tell I’d say go for it.

“And if you start on a regional newspaper and get your initial training with the NCTJ I think you will be getting a great grounding for the future."

Source: PressGazette RSS Feed


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Home > Afternoon Wrap > “Imminent” Cyber Attacks, Legislation and Lobbying

“Imminent” Cyber Attacks, Legislation and Lobbying

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 | 3:41 PM Leave a comment Go to comments

“The US is not in a cyber war and cyber war likely will never occur independently of a physical armed conflict,” James Lewis, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ technology and public policy program, told Fierce Government.  Famous last words?  ManTech president Bill Varner might think so.  In an interview with The New New Internet, Varner advised, “Cybersecurity is the number one threat facing our nation.”

Over on the Hill, Wired notes that Senator Lieberman, in a co-sponsored bill with Senator Collins, is pushing for legislation to allow the government to take over civilian networks in the event of “an imminent cyber attack.”

And in an update — Yesterday’s Afternoon Wrap mentioned MasterCard’s increased cybersecurity lobby-spending.  Today an article in Canada’s CBC might prove why.  According to the report, newly-issued credit cards from MasterCard and Visa “pose major fraud and privacy concerns.”  Other cybersecurity news from the day follows…

GSA, DHS approve first government-wide cyber provider (Federal News Radio)

Iran — Enhancing Cyber Defense Capabilities (Defense Tech)

Top leaders are realizing that, when it comes to IT security, ignorance is costly (Federal Computer Week)

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It's producing garbage that doesn't make sense, but it feels better :)

Now to figure out how video input works

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Cybrespace is an instance of Mastodon, a social network based on open web protocols and free, open-source software. It is decentralized like e-mail.


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Youth Get It investment program: Coast Capital Savings celebrates B.C.'s outstanding youth

Dec 19 2017, 9:37 pm

All too often we hear someone sighing and mumbling under their breath, “I wish I had done that when I was younger.”

Coast Capital Savings and Vancity Buzz are celebrating Youth Week BC by highlighting the stories of outstanding young people in our communities. These leaders have built a richer future for themselves, their peers, and their communities as a whole.

Coast Capital’s Youth Get It investment program empowers young people to get involved in their communities.

This innovative community investment program – which sees 7% of the credit union’s pre-tax profits reinvested in their communities – is focused on programs that help youth with financial empowerment, healthy minds, and educational success.

Vancity Buzz had a chance to sit down with five inspiring young people who have benefited from Coast Capital’s Youth Get It investment program to talk about how it’s changed their lives.

Enter Amanda Welschlau, the Manager of Sponsorships and Events at Coast Capital Savings. Her work for the company began at Coast Capital as a member, then leader, of the Coast Capital Youth Team, one of the credit union’s signature Youth Get It programs. This initiative offers grade 11 and 12 students the opportunity to serve as youth ambassadors at events throughout their communities and gives them real-world, in-branch experience.

Why are you passionate about community leadership?

I’m so lucky to have a career that allows me to be my authentic self. I have always been very connected to my own community and have first-hand experience of the positive influence a strong school community, positive role-models, and team sports can have on someone’s life. I’ve always felt that I needed to give a little bit of myself back to the community that served me so well – how fitting that I now work for a cooperative which gives back to our local communities too! Working for Coast Capital Savings aligns so well with my own personal values.

What’s one thing you most want to change in the world that would help youth?

Making financial literacy education mandatory. I think the minute a young person begins making any money (even just from a paper route) they need to learn the power money holds. Having an income is the very basis for money management. In my experience, the more money stress you have, the less you want to talk about it, but this is when you need to have this talk most.

When did money talks become taboo? We see the dentist, doctor, and even aestheticians for preventative care. It should be no different when it comes to financial health. This is something I was given from working at Coast Capital Savings so young. I learned the importance of saving before I even got my first pay cheque – this was an invaluable lesson that has undoubtedly shaped a lot of the success in my life.

Why do you think it’s important for youth to be supported with programs like these?

Young people are underestimated. I often hear the youth of today being stereotyped as lacking work ethic and loyalty, and perceived as attached to their smartphones. Sure, this may apply at times, but I also think that young people have so much to contribute to the conversation. This is a generation that doesn’t remember not having the internet; of course they are programmed completely differently than previous generations.

Today’s youth can offer incredible insight when it comes to problem solving and innovative thinking. Plus, they care about sustainability, giving back to their communities, and know how to live a balanced lifestyle. They are socially and environmentally conscious citizens who can make remarkable change, if given the opportunity.

What’s the most important life lesson you have learned?

The first is that you don’t know what you don’t know. And when you know better, you do better. You cannot expect to make the right decision, always. But, once you’re equipped with the right tools – either through education or lived experience – you will make better choices.

Looking five or 10 years ahead, what’s the dream?

I didn’t know I would be where I am now 10 years ago, so who knows! But, I will be successful, if I can say that I am proud of the balance in my life between family, friends, work, and taking care of myself (mentally and physically). In 10 years, the dream would be having kids, growing in my career, and exploring the world!

What book are you reading right now?

I have so many half-read books sitting on my bedside table. I am also one of those people who reads the first and last page before starting a book – so strange, I know. Right now I’m most actively reading (and almost done) Thrive by Ariana Huffington.

Tell us about your experiences with the Coast Capital Youth Team, and then as a staff member.

I started working for Coast Capital Savings as a member of the Surrey Youth Team. I can still recall the very day I got the call that the job was mine! I worked full-time the summer before grade 12 and continued the program throughout my graduation year. Once finishing high school, I began my post-secondary studies in SFU’s business administration program. I was so lucky to continue working part-time with Coast Capital Savings while attending school.

Once I graduated, a full-time opportunity became available, and I’m in my third role since then. I have had seven different roles in the past 10 years. Without doubt, the youth team at Coast Capital was a life-changing opportunity. I didn’t know that one phone call would have the power to shape the trajectory of my life.

If you’re interested in learning more about Coast Capital’s Youth Get It investment program, click here. Coast Capital’s Youth Get It investment program supports a variety of youth-focused initiatives. This includes the credit union’s signature programs like its Youth Team, and Young Leaders Community Councils. In addition, initiatives such as SFU Venture Connection Program, Youth Futures Education Fund and Tradeworks for Women in the Trades benefit from the Youth Get It investment program.

Tomorrow, Vancity Buzz will chat with Bal Khatra, a member of the Coast Capital’s Young Leaders Community Council.


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Future Of Drupal

The latest market share data posted on various websites indicate that Drupal is currently one of the top 10 content management systems of 2017. At present, WordPress and Joomla have a larger market share than Drupal. But Drupal still has a larger market share than other content management systems including Magento, Blogger, Bitrix, TYPO3, Squarespace and Shopify. Also, Drupal is currently being used by several large and high-traffic websites including the FedEx’s news site, AT&T’s app beta website, Sun Microsystems Java.net, Reuter’s Lab Website, CNN’s CNNgo website, Grammy, and ConsumerSearch.

Like other open source content management systems, Drupal also helps users to create, publish, store, and manage digital content without spending more money. At the same time, Drupal accelerates custom website development by providing a simple admin interface and various modules. In addition to making Drupal user-friendly, the admin interface also helps users to manage websites with a lot of pages efficiently. At the same time, the modules developed and maintained by professional developers help users to enhance the website’s functionality without writing additional code. Its core features and extensions affect the future of Drupal directly. Also, they contribute towards making Drupal a widely used content management systems.

Features That Will Directly Affect the Future of Drupal

Over 38000 Modules

While developing custom web applications, developers have to make many changes to the content management system (CMS) to meet business needs precisely. In addition to being open source, Drupal is also designed as a customizable and extensible CMS. The developers can easily extend and customize Drupal’s core functionality by using specific modules. At present, a developer has option to choose from over 38000 contributed modules for Drupal. At the same time, he also has option to write and share custom modules according to specific requirements.

Over 2500 Themes

Like other content management systems, Drupal also enables developers to customize the look and feel of a website by using themes. At present, a web developer has option to choose from over 2500 contributed themes according precise needs of each project. In addition to using the themes shared by other Drupal developers, he also has option to create and share new themes. At the same time, Drupal allows web developers to create sub-themes of an existing theme. Hence, a developer can easily optimize the source code or core functionality of an existing theme by creating sub-themes that inherit all resources of the parent theme.

Easy to Use Features and Simple Installation Process

Many developers even find it easier to install and configure Drupal than other content management systems. Unlike other content management systems, Drupal can be installed without dealing with complex configuration options. At the same time, a user can take advantage of a feature called distributions to add features or functionality to a website according to precise business requirements.

Simplifies Digital Content Management

Nowadays, developers have to combine a variety of digital content to keep website visitors engaged. Drupal accelerates content-driven website development by supporting various types of digital content – text, blogs, podcasts, statistics and polls. At the same time, the CMS allows developers to categorize the website content based on a number of parameters including path and URL address. The developers even have option to organize and reuse digital content by creating custom lists.

Features to Facilitate Multilingual Website Development

Along with supporting different types of digital content, Drupal also accelerates multilingual website development through contributed modules. A web application developer can use the contributed module to choose, apply, and configure multiple languages. Also, he can speed up website content translation by using specific modules and tools. Drupal 8.x enables developers to accelerate website content translation using a robust translation tool like Entity Translation.

Facilitates Rapid Prototyping

Most enterprises nowadays require developers to create website and web applications according to their precise business needs. But the needs and objectives of individual enterprises differ. Hence, web developers have to create prototype models to check if the website meets predefined business requirements precisely. Drupal comes with features to simplify and accelerate web application prototyping. The developers can use Drupal create prototype of the complex website rapidly according to varying business needs.

Advanced User Management

In addition to combining a variety of website content, enterprises also manage the website content through multiple employees. Drupal makes it easier for enterprises to manage digital content quickly and efficiently by defining custom user roles. The website administrator has option to create multiple users and create custom user roles. The custom role of a specific user defines his access level and controls. The administrator can further add or remove users and modify user roles without any hassle.

Mobile First Approach

Most users nowadays access websites and web application on their mobile devices. While developing a website, developers have to explore ways to improve its mobile user experience. Drupal allows developers to adopt a mobile first approach. Hence, it becomes easier for users to create responsive and mobile friendly websites accessible on both computers and mobile devices with a single code base. Drupal further enhances the website’s friendliness by using HTML5 as the standard web markup language, and providing mobile-optimized admin themes and toolbar.

Enterprise Grade Security

Many enterprises prefer Drupal due to its advanced and enterprise grade security features. The built-in security features provided by the CMS enable web developers keep the website secure without using additional plug-ins or modules. The Drupal developers can enhance the website’s security simply through security configuration. The developers can further keep track of new vulnerabilities by visiting the Drupal website and reading the vulnerabilities posted by members of the Drupal community.

Despite being an open source content management system, Drupal has been evolving consistently. The latest version (8.4.0) of Drupal comes with several new modules and under-the-hood improvements. But Drupal, like other content management systems, has its own shortcomings. A developer has to put extra time and effort to learn Drupal. Also, they have to use third-party Drupal modules to accelerate enterprise web application development. These shortcomings will have a direct impact on the future of Drupal in the longer run.

Source by Arun Kumar Biswal

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