艾靈頓學習音樂時，正值繁拍 (Ragtime) 年代。繁拍舞曲是一種由切分節奏構成的美國流行音樂，它是由密西西比河和密蘇里河畔小城鎮中低級酒吧裡的鋼琴師們發展形成。當艾靈頓20歲時，他跟他的朋友組成了一支樂團，而這支樂團後來成為他一生作品的起點。1923至1927年間，他跟他的樂團住在紐約市並錄製了約60張唱片。1927年12月4日，他們的絕佳機會來臨，他們的首場演出讓紐約市哈林區的棉花田俱樂部 (Cotton Club) 決定長期聘請他們。艾靈頓管絃樂隊時常在棉花田俱樂部進行現場電台轉播，因而全美各地的人們都熟悉他們獨特的爵士樂風格。
　

Ellington studied music during the ragtime era. Ragtime was a kind of popular American music consisting of off-beat dance rhythms that began with the honky-tonk pianists along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. By the time he was 20, he and his friends formed a band that would be the foundation for his life's work. From 1923 to 1927, he and his band lived in New York City and made about 60 recordings. Their first big break came on December 4, 1927, at the opening night of what would turn out to be a long engagement at the Cotton Club in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. The Ellington Orchestra often broadcast live on radio from the Cotton Club, so their unique style of jazz became familiar to people across the country.

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