Twenty-five years ago in his hit song, "Sir Duke," Stevie Wonder sings: "Music knows it is and always will be one of the things that life just won't quit. / Here are some of music's basic pioneers that time will not allow us to forget: / There's Basie, Miller, Satchmo, and the King of All, Sir Duke / And with a voice like Ella's ringing out, there's no way the band can lose / You can feel it all over " To say that Ellington was a prominent jazz-band leader of the twentieth century would be like saying William Shakespeare was simply a prominent English playwright of the time. This book...