Duke Ellington at the White House: The remarkable night President Nixon honored the jazz legend
In 1969, President Richard Nixon threw a 70th birthday bash for Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington, at the White House where he gave him a special present.
April 29, 2026, would have been the legendary jazz artist Edward Kennedy Ellington’s 127th birthday. Better known as the ‘Duke’, he was one of the most prolific and influential jazz composers, band leaders, and pianists in history.
The Duke is cited as the most recorded jazz artist in history. Over his fifty-plus-year career it is estimated that he produced anywhere from over 1,000 to over 3,000 compositions.
Nearly sixty years ago, then President Richard Nixon gave the talented musician, who pioneered “big-band” jazz, a 70th birthday bash at the White House. Nixon also presented the Duke with a special birthday present, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“When we think of freedom as many things. But Duke Ellington is one who has carried the message of freedom to all the nations of the world, through music, through understanding. Understanding that reaches over all national boundaries, and over all boundaries of prejudice, and over all boundaries of language,” Nixon said in a speech before handing the Duke the extraordinary honor.
“In the royalty of American music, no man swings more or stands higher than the Duke,” he added.
The remarkable night President Nixon honored Duke Ellington at the White House
Guests that evening in 1969 included a number of celebrities from the world of jazz like Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway, and Benny Goodman to name just a few along with many other prominent figures from the time. During the dinner, Nixon gave a toast in which he shared that the guest of honor’s father, many years before, had served state dinners at the White House.
Nixon said he had searched for words to appropriately honor his son the Duke. “It occurred to me that the most appropriate thing for me to say would be this: I, and many others here, have been guests at state dinners. I have been here when an emperor has been toasted. I have been here when we have raised our glasses to a king, to a queen, to presidents, and to prime ministers.”
“But in studying the history of all of the great dinners held in this room, never before has a Duke been toasted. So tonight I ask you all to rise and join me in raising our glasses to the greatest Duke of them all, Duke Ellington.”
It was also a first for a White House state dinner in that TV cameras were allowed according to reporting by The New York Times. A video of the coverage provided by the Richard Nixon Foundation can be seen below.
After dinner, guests were treated to a 100-minute music program in the East Room that “was all Ellington and all memories.” While the Nixons retired to bed shortly after midnight according to a friend of Ellington’s who shared the evenings events with The New Yorker, guests “rocked on until well after two.”
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