Stanley Dance's funeral eulogy in 1974 declared that Ellington's nickname from youth, "Duke," suited this "natural aristocrat." But it was democracy that was the foundation of Ellington's creativity: Ellington worked with the talents of his sidemen, making use of their improvisation on the bandstand, so that the music of his bands reached beyond the limitations of other bands of the era. As the band leader, he strived to meet the audience on its level- and to transport it to his own in the course of a performance. The author's main idea is that