A School of Note : Musician’s Birthday a Low-Key Affair at Duke Ellington High

If it had been a pop quiz, everyone in the school would have answered the first question correctly.

The question? What famous musician’s birthday is April 29?

Duke Ellington is the answer, but the students to whom the question was posed Friday probably had an unfair advantage. After all, their school is named after him.

Ellington, the legendary pianist who died in May, 1974, is best remembered for such immortal compositions as “Sophisticated Lady” and “Take the ‘A’ Train.” Actually, those are the only things some of the 75 students who attend the South-Central Los Angeles continuation high school could remember him for.

“Duke Ellington . . . what did he sing?”

“My uncle knows. Want me to call him?”

“He did some song about a train, I think.”

Biographical Information

And don’t bother to ask where he was born or how old he would have been. The 20 students in Alan Tarver’s math and science class struggled to remember the biographical information they were given about The Duke when they enrolled, but the closest they could figure he was 78 or 79.

Ellington, born in Washington, D.C., in 1899 would have been 89 Friday. And even though the three-classroom school bears his name and sports a 2-story-tall mural of the man, (complete with black sunglasses painted on by local gang members, teachers say), Ellington’s birthday went uncelebrated. No party, no assembly, not even his music playing in the principal’s office.

“A couple of years ago we had a big celebration,” said Dorothy Hauser, who teaches social studies. “We had a band and people who played with him and a big party. I guess we just forgot this year.”

Should Be a Party

But the students didn’t forget. Anthony Blane, 18, said there should be a party every year and most of the pupils in Tarver’s class said April 29 should be declared a legal holiday.

The kids admit that they aren’t really fans of The Duke, but many of their parents have his records. It was actually a group of parents who years ago wanted to rename the school in honor of a respected black person so children would be spared the stigma often associated with going to a continuation school.

“I’ll tell you,” Hauser said, glancing up at Duke’s smiling face on the schoolhouse wall, “we won’t forget next year.”