The Duke Ellington Collection

The Duke Ellington Collection was assembled by Rhodes Baker, a Houston attorney whose lifelong hobby was collecting Ellington recordings. It consists of over 1,000 Ellington recordings. Among these are 88 reel-to-reel tapes of rare performances by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, including radio, television, and live appearances in the U.S. and abroad. Many of these tapes are the only existing recordings of these performances. More than 800 commercially-released recordings of the Ellington orchestra or sidemen associated with him are also included in the collection.