The Society was founded in 1959 as the Duke Ellington Jazz Society, devoted to promoting the appreciation of all aspects of Ellingtonia. The idea first came when Doug Bray responded to an ad, placed by Bill Ross, in Downbeat in late 1958, announcing that a Duke Ellington Jazz Society had been formed in Hollywood and the article encouraged those in other cities to also set up chapters. Tom Harris also saw the ad. Bill Ross sent Doug information and also had Doug connect with Tom. Doug organized an "exploratory" meeting at Marshall Stearn's apartment in Washington Mews, New York City and invited prominent people, including Irving Townsend, Duke Ellington's "A and R" man at Columbia Records; Barry Ulanov, Duke's first biographer; John Wilson, the jazz critic at the NY Times and Tom Harris.

Doug remembers that for sure, Leonard Feather, musician, critic and Ellington enthusiast, his wife and Tom Harris were there. Leonard suggested involving Mercer Ellington and Ruth Ellington at Tempo Music. The group began meeting at the Tempo Music offices and the early meetings focused on developing by-laws, dues standards and communicating with Bill Ross who had set rigid standards for the chapters. After a few months the organization found another place to meet at 14th and Broadway. This became the site of the first meeting with a guest and music. The speaker was Ellington trombonist John Sanders, who, according to Doug Bray, "along with Harry Carney, had been named by Bill Ross to be contacts for the Society in the Ellington band. Who would have suspected at that time that he would become a priest and read an important biblical selection at Duke's funeral?" Doug hauled his turntable, amplifier and speaker from Long Island with records to this meeting and had to pick out the tunes ahead of time on which John Sanders wanted to comment.

Thereafter the group moved their meetings downtown to the Commuter's Café and Willy's where guests included Harry Carney, Louis Metcalf, John S. Wilson, Ben Webster and Cootie Williams. At this time the practice of recording guests began albeit primitive - on Doug Bray's Webster tape recorder. As Doug said "Eventually we must have recorded every musician who had ever played as long as one night with Duke Ellington (with the unbelievable exception of Johnny Hodges) and a great variety of non-musicians who were part of the world-wide Ellington entourage." Jerry Valburn owned a predigious collection of Ellington music and he began preparing special tapes containing the music of the featured guest musicians which had a positive effect on the quality of the meetings.

The idea for producing an annual concert began as Doug Bray explains it, " Clark Terry, who often attended our early meetings, was sitting next to me at one end of the table, and we were suddenly talking about the possibility of producing a concert. The first concert produced by the Duke Ellington Society took place at Carnegie Recital Hall and the musicians included: Sonny Greer, Hilton Jefferson, Jimmy Jones, Wendell Marshall and Clark Terry with vocalist Betty Roche. Vocalist Ozzie Bailey showed up unexpectedly at intermission and also performed during the second set. John S. Wilson wrote about the concert in "Ellington Music Heard at Concert" in The New York Times on May 8, 1961. Jazz writer, Whitney Balliett produced a tribute to Sonny Greer as part of his report on the first concert in The New Yorker.

Doug Bray recognized several members who played a key role in helping the organization in its early days: Tom Detienne, first vice-president, ticket chairman and eventually president; Lois Bray who handled early correspondence and publicity; Jerry Valburn who provided "music not available elsewhere and highly appropriate to the guests of honor", Tom Harris, who became the second President and whose support was invaluable in helping the organization get started and Clark Terry "whose enthusiasm and artistry enabled us to begin our remarkable series of annual concerts."

Producing concerts and having meetings with speakers and recorded music became the format for the Society and it has continued to this day, 46 years later.

In 1968, at Duke's request, the Society changed it name to the Duke Ellington Society and in 1992 the Society was incorporated in the state of New York as a tax-exempt nonprofit 501C3 organization as TDES, Inc.

Founding member Tom Harris remembers that Duke Ellington said to Ruth Ellington "I don't want this to be just a fan club. I want it to be a society for the perpetuation of my music and legacy."

In 1986, the Society sponsored the development of a US Postal stamp honoring Duke Ellington. The photo by K. Abe was used in the development of the stamp. The "First Day Issue" occurred at Saint Peter's church. More information is available in Archives - Special Projects.