section_path: The Jazz Age/The influence of Duke Ellington
section_name: The influence of Duke Ellington
paragraph_text: The influence of Duke Ellington
  
  While swing was reaching the height of its popularity, Duke Ellington spent the late 1920s and 1930s in Washington, D.C.'s jazz scene, developing an innovative musical idiom for his orchestra. Abandoning the conventions of swing, he experimented with orchestral sounds, harmony, and musical form with complex compositions that still translated well for popular audiences; some of his tunes became hits, and his own popularity spanned from the United States to Europe.
  
  Ellington called his music American Music, rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category". These included many musicians from his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most popular jazz orchestras in the history of jazz. He often composed for the style and skills of these individuals, such as "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Concerto for Cootie" for Cootie Williams (which later became " Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me " with Bob Russell 's lyrics), and "The Mooche" for Tricky Sam Nanton and Bubber Miley. He also recorded compositions written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol 's " Caravan " and " Perdido ", which brought the "Spanish Tinge" to big-band jazz. Several members of the orchestra remained with him for several decades. The band reached a creative peak in the early 1940s, when Ellington and a small hand-picked group of his composers and arrangers wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices who displayed tremendous creativity.