Duke Ellington didn’t just compose music — he built an entire universe of tone, color, and swing. Bandleader, pianist, visionary, Ellington elevated jazz into an art form worthy of the concert hall without ever losing its pulse. In this episode, we trace his journey from the Cotton Club to Carnegie Hall, unpacking the elegance, ambition, and quiet rebellion of a man who always insisted on doing it his way — with class, and with a cigarette in hand.

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Charlie Parker didn’t just play the alto sax — he detonated it. With a mind moving faster than the beat and a soul caught between genius and destruction, “Bird” carved a new path through the chaos of jazz, birthing bebop in the smoke and fury of postwar America. In this episode, we trace his meteoric rise, the pain beneath the virtuosity, and how his broken wings still cast a towering shadow over modern music.

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