Ellington & Gerald

Ellington and Gerald (The True, Made-Up Story of a Piano-Playing Duck and an Elephant Who Liked to Sing) is the story of a young elephant who likes to make up silly songs and only learns to follow his muse when he meets up with a combo comprised of a duck, a blackbird and a cockroach. It is subtly set in jazz history (Duck Ellington, Elephant Gerald, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Max Roach) but more than that it is about believing in oneself – even when sometimes other kids (or elephants) make fun of you. I wrote this story (and two other children's stories about animals and jazz) about 15 years ago but was never able to find an agent or a publisher who was interested. Having recently learned that there is now another elephant on the market with the same name as mine, I decided to share this for free so at least the band could find an audience.