Ellington's music "evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy
through the
medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and
culture," said
Seymour Topping, administrator of the Pulitzer prizes, which were
awarded at
Columbia University in New York.
Last year the qualifications for the music category were broadened to
include jazz
and Topping said under the new guidelines Ellington, who died in 1974,
could have
won the 1965 Pulitzer for "Far Eastern Suite."
"The board was especially pleased to make this award, not only in
recognition of
Duke Ellington's achievements, but as a further step in the evolution of
the accepted
criteria for the Pulitzer award in music," Topping said.
In 1965 three newspaper critics suggested there should be a citation for
Ellington,
but the Pulitzer Board declined, saying criteria governing the prize
called for an
original work that did not include jazz.
Other musicians to win awards after their deaths were Scott Joplin in
1976 and
George Gershwin last year, also marking the centennial of his birth.