The Duke is a 1955 jazz composition by Dave Brubeck, dedicated to Duke Ellington. It first appeared on the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s album Jazz: Red, Hot and Cool (1955) and is well known in the Brubeck Plays Brubeck version (1956) for solo piano. Miles Davis heard that version and Gil Evans later orchestrated it for Miles Ahead (1957). The tune features a relaxed, lyrical piano line with an inventive bass figure and a melody that moves in block, parallel triads, giving a sense of harmonic blur. It has been described as a rare jazz piece that uses a 12-tone approach in the opening bass line, though the underlying harmony remains diatonic. The original title was The Duke Meets Darius Milhaud, reflecting Brubeck’s classical studies at Mills College. The piece helped boost Brubeck’s quartet to wider fame after their Columbia signing, following the Bay Area club scene at the Black Hawk, and it contributed to Brubeck’s Time Magazine cover in 1954.
