Duke Ellington Orchestra Tickets & 2026–2027 Tour Dates

The Duke Ellington Orchestra is an American jazz big band founded in New York in 1923 by composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington. Its repertoire includes “Mood Indigo,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” “Sophisticated Lady” and Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train.” After Duke Ellington’s death, the orchestra carried on under his son Mercer Ellington and later musical directors.

Beginning in 1927, the orchestra performed at the Cotton Club, where radio broadcasts carried its music across the country. Duke Ellington presented the extended work “Black, Brown and Beige” at Carnegie Hall in 1943, and the orchestra’s 1956 performance of “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” featuring Paul Gonsalves, became a central episode in the history of the Newport Jazz Festival.