: Professor Colin Roust's research documents the life of 19th-century African American bandleader Francis Johnson, who performed for U.S. presidents and was the first to publish his own sheet music.

: Scholars use Ellington's leadership as an archetype for "complex adaptive leadership," analyzing how he balanced diverse musical personalities and aligned them toward a shared vision.

In tech-focused papers, the bandleader is a metaphor for human oversight in automation: