"I’m a piano player, a rehearsal piano player, a jive-time conductor, bandleader, and sometimes I just do nothing but take bows....and I have fun. My, my, my. My thing is having fun." .....Duke Ellington "Ellington was a man who was an orchestra. Duke was the most gifted composer in jazz. and his orchestra, not the piano, was his instrument. He staffed it with virtuosos; wonderful musicians for whom he could tailor music, and who collectively provided him with the ultimate in instantaneous feed-back of his creations." ......Nat Hentoff