Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)

(Roulette) Released 1961. Producer – Bob Thiele. “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)“ is a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington, whose lyrics were written by Irving Mills. It is now accepted as a jazz standard, and jazz historian Gunther Schuller characterized it as “now legendary“ and “a prophetic piece and a prophetic title. Edward Kennedy “Duke“ Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death over a career spanning more than six decades. Ellington died on May 24, 1974, of complications from lung cancer and pneumonia, a few weeks after his 75th birthday. At his funeral, attended by over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion: “It’s a very sad day. A genius has passed.“ He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx, New York City. Louis Daniel Armstrong (Augu