prize17-4, Exercise 1: Ellington and the Cotton Club

Model answer (check the details):

The Cotton Club engagement, which began on 4 December 1927, gave Ellington a steady job, a band whose members he could choose and write for, and weekly radio broadcasts that reached a national audience. It helped launch his career as a composer and bandleader.

It also shows the conditions under which the music was made. The club's audience was mainly or only white, while the performers were Black, and the shows leaned on stereotypes. Great music came out of a segregated setting, and both facts belong in the history.

Care: sources differ on when the engagement ended (mid-1930 in one account). Give the start date, and say "about" for the end.