David Schiff's "The Ellington Century"

David Alan Schiff is R.P. Wollenberg Professor of Music at Reed College. He is a composer, journalist whose articles have appeared in publications including the New York Times and the Atlantic, and the author of George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue and The Music of Elliot Carter.

His new book is The Ellington Century.

Here Schiff shares some thoughts on casting an adaptation of the book:

The Ellington Century is a celebration of Duke Ellington's music, not a biography. The star of a movie version could be Ellington himself since there is lots of film footage going back to 1930 and the short "Black and Tan Fantasy" where Ellington already cut quite an elegant figure playing himself as a young genius.

Ellington appeared in many other movies including Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder for which he composed his first film score.

Learn more about the book and author at David Schiff's website and the University of California Press.

--Marshal Zeringue