Ellington carefully chose the musical palette from which he painted. He selected musicians for their individual sounds, then worked to highlight those voices singly and in combination with other instrumental voices. The resulting colors, combined with Ellington's gift for creating unusual voice-leading and harmonies, produced an orchestral sound unlike any other. One of Ellington's greatest strengths was his ability to grow artistically: he shaped his music to fit the times, changes in personnel and venues, and the direction of his muse. Because he kept evolving his sound, his work of the 1960s is different in many ways from that of the 1920s.