Duke Ellington’s Musician Son, 76, Dies

Mercer Ellington, a trumpet player, arranger, composer and conductor who had led the Duke Ellington Orchestra since his father’s death in 1974, died Thursday in Denmark. He was 76.

Ellington’s daughter, Mercedes, said her father died of heart failure in a Copenhagen hospital.

The only child of Edward Kennedy “Duke” and Edna Ellington, Mercer Ellington studied at Columbia University and the Juilliard School.