Duke Ellington
Though widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington himself embraced the phrase "beyond category" as a "liberating principle", and referred his music to the more general category of "American Music", rather than to a musical genre such as "jazz". Born in Washington, D.C., he was based in New York City from the mid-1920s, and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club.