He maintained an orchestra for 50 years, longer than any of other composers ever had. The flow of his attractive songs involving fresh melodies and chords deriving from jazz bring us great insight into this world. Therefore, Ellington was an influence to others with his unique melodic gifts, his harmonic innovations, and his daring use of odd interval (Shaw 35). He created over 1500 compositions and composed not only songs the world had sung, but also suits and sacred work (Ellington 510). Besides, he wrote over 1,000 short pieces, plus many music for films, the theater and television and more. He was one of the first jazz writers to work in longer forms, which could not be accommodated on one side of a 10-inch, 78-rpm recording (Chase 513). Hence, he must be ranked one of the century's foremost musicians, regardless of labels (Cook 129). Through the years, he was recognized in honor degrees bestowed on him by major American University. Moreover, he received some of the recognition such as: President’s Gold Medal and Medal of Freedom (Ellington 510).

For over 30 years Ellington had succeeded in translating patterns of society around him into hundreds of compositions, which showed a mixture and range of moods not seen before in American music (Chase 514). For instance, the song "Praise God" shows the importance of religions in daily life. Ellington encouraged people to believe in God, to love everyone and to do the right things in order to lead a meaningful life. Ellington’s songs reveal that society in the 1920s was very materialistic. That is, our morals went down, and thus one tended to be toward materialism (Ellington 510). Our culture was being modified with highly cultivated tastes, creative geniuses in all fields of endeavor, exquisite women of fashion and great women of all ages, which all are essential parts of the melody lines (Ellington 212). Furthermore, his band traveled to many countries of the world,

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