Jazz history has a new home in Phoenix. The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) now displays the personal piano of Duke Ellington, one of the most celebrated composers and bandleaders of the 20th century — and the instrument carries some of America’s greatest songs inside it.
The elegant white baby grand, branded Kramer and built around 1918, was purchased by Ellington in the late 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance, when his orchestra lit up New York ballrooms like the Cotton Club. He kept the piano in his home, and it was on these keys that he composed timeless classics such as “Mood Indigo,” “Sophisticated Lady,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”
“We are ecstatic that MIM is now the home for Duke Ellington’s piano,” says Rich Walter, the museum’s curator for the United States and Canada. He calls the instrument “hugely significant” — the very piano Ellington played while building an international legacy as a composer, bandleader, and musical pioneer.
The piano anchors MIM’s redesigned Jazz exhibit, refreshed in March. Beside it, visitors can see the Levin De Luxe archtop guitar played by Fred Guy, who performed with Ellington’s orchestra from 1925 to 1949, along with a muted trumpet, baritone saxophone, and valve trombone that bring Ellington’s sound to life.
See this jazz treasure in the United States / Canada Gallery at the Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard, Phoenix. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Details at mim.org.
Photo: MIM
