== Pulitzer Prize == 

 Ellington won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1999, his centennial year. Our own article Pulitzer Prize for Music [1943 to present] includes a lot of information about the scope of the award in prose sections 1 and 2, History and Criticism, generally with references. That includes much more than we say here about Ellington's 1965 experience and his reaction to it (History lead paragraph). Also lengthy quotation from the 2004 announcement of reform, "{...} While Special Awards and Citations continue to be an important option, the Pulitzer Board believes that the Music Prize ..." (end of same section).  

 Among other things, it's clear that Giddins 2004 (now ref#53 in this article) is a poor source WP:RELIABLE but not reliable as the author of that reference surmised.