Ellington was talented painter and won a scholarship to study art at the Pratt Institute in New York. His interest in music was greater than his interest in art, though, so he pursued music as a career. At 17, he had a five-piece combo called the Washingtonians. He moved to New Yort in the early '20's and by 1926, he had an orchestra. The musicians in that orchestra stayed a long time. One player, Harry Carney, began in 1962 and stayed until he died in 1974. Because so many mysicians stayed with the orchestra, they worked very well together.

Later Ellington's orchestra started playing at the Cotton Club in Harlem, an African American neighborhood in New York City. Playing at the Cotton Club made the orchestra famous. The cotton club was the palce where wealthy whites went to hear what was called "jungle style" music. Ellington's orchestra played at the Cotton club from 1927 to 1932.