The most exciting women in my world; legendary composer and orchestra leader defines the music of beauty - The Best of Ebony - 45th Anniversary Edition

Ebony, Nov, 1990 by Duke Ellington

The Most Exciting Women In My World

Legendary composer and orchestra leader defines the music of beauty

AN EXCITING woman is a lot of things.

She is like that lost chord which is a favorite device of mine in creating music. Actually there really is such a thing as a lost chord and it reminds me of an exciting woman because this chord has an intriguing sound--and a holding value. It arrests your attention. It is dominant wherever it turns up. It seems about to conclude, yet it never does.

An exciting woman is also like a train. A train always looks as though it is going somewhere--even when it is standing still. A plane on the ground is a plane on the ground and that is all. It doesn't give you the feeling of velocity, but a train always does. That feeling of velocity is the same feeling an exciting woman arouses with her chic and dash and every other attribute of her feminine appeal. She sways seductively through your consciousness with the same subtle power with which a train moves through the night. And when she leaves you, you have that same desolate, abandoned sensation which you get watching the twin red lights of a train disappearing over the horizon.

An exciting woman has no race. She has no age. There is no formula for her creation, no pattern for her mannerisms or her conduct.

Physically, she appeals to all the senses.

The contours of her legs, hips and ankles, the lines of her face are pleasant to the sight. Her words are believable to the sound. She is a fuzzy piece of fluff gratifying to the touch. The delicate, delightful, flower-like fragrance of her is enchanting. The taste of her lips is the nectar which can make every man a god.

Spiritually, she is even prettier inside than the glitter and veneer of her attractive face and form. The greatest thing that makes her exciting is a nameless, internal thing. It is the quality with which she has affected history from the dawn of the ages down to six o'clock this evening.

But all that is the history of yesterday. Who are the most exciting women of our own day and what makes them exciting? Of course, every man has--in his arms, his heart, or his memory--his own choice of the ultimate woman. But there are women today who have the mystic qualities which give them that peculiar power to touch us all. I have selected several of them and I will tell you why they are at the top of my list.

Marian Anderson is on my list. Think of her, straight and tall and groomed. Think of the ease with which she tilts her magnificent head, arches her priceless throat and sends forth richness and warmth which has all the color and richness of a rainbow or a sunset. Think of her commanding manner which has all the essence of real aristocracy--it expects and deserves tribute without demanding it. Think of the Anderson excitement which made a whole nation bow its head in shame when those who called themselves real Americans denied the world the right to see her in the nation's capital.... Yes, Marian Anderson is an exciting woman, so exciting that the very range of that perfect voice is a range impossible to measure, running the gamut from sweet and low to full-timbered profundity--she sounds as pretty as she looks and nobody could carry beauty with more authority.

One of the most exciting woman of today is the mate of one of the most exciting men. Poppy Cannon--Mrs. Walter White--is a rare woman who has the mystic quality with which I am dealing here. She is more than just a woman. She is an influence. She has the genius of dealing with situations without seeming to exert a great deal of effort.

CAN YOU SPEAK of exciting women without mention of Josephine Baker, who came along to give us the inevitable definition of the term "fabulous?" I spoke of the train and how it gives the impression always of going somewhere. You always know Josephine is going somewhere. You never know where. But wherever it turns out to be, you will love it. You will find it intriguing and wonderfully exhausting. She is the performer's performer whom we all love so madly.

If you could see her offstage, it would be the same. You would see her primp one minute and pout the next. You would feel the warmth of her sunny personality now and in a flash she would be storming about something which has displeased her. She is so completely the star--Josephine. She is mathematically calculated as one bolt of lightning wrapped in many sensuous contours, exploding her comedy, tragedy, ballet and jitterbug in five languages--or is it seven? She is an inestimable quantity of quality.

Now, I think of Katherine Dunham, who is as famous for her skill as an artist as she is for the attraction she weaves for men who are accustomed to feminine luxury. Oh, yes, Katherine is exciting as a dancer, as a mistress of the dance, as a molder of fine, new young talent. She is exciting because she has spread the warm ray of her charm across continents and raced the imagination, fired the blood and tingled the pulses of folk all around the world. To see her when she is performing, look over her shoulders at her regal derriere is to become immediately aware of which of her attributes ought to be flashing from the marquee.