A Duke Named Ellington
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List Price: $29.95
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Manufacturer: Council for Positive Images, Inc.
Starring: Duke Ellington & others
Directed By: Terry Carter
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: DVD
EAN: 0883629050263
Format: NTSC
Label: Council for Positive Images, Inc.
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Council for Positive Images, Inc.
Region Code: 0
Release Date: 2007-05-15
Running Time: 110
Studio: Council for Positive Images, Inc.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Duke Named Ellington
Comment: A tribute to America's most prolific composer. Even for those of us that know a lot about the Duke, this is an artistic
and well done piece.you'll like it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: What took them so long???
Comment: As the reviewer before me states, it has taken 20 years for this to come to home video, even while so much other Great Performances material has been long available. This superb documentary highlights the life and times of one of the most remarkable musical outfits in American history, the Duke Ellington band. While this is not a "revelatory" documentary--it does not delve into Duke's private life, a subject he apparently was not fond of discussing anyway--it is a marvelous chronicle of a great musical organization, with generous clips that show many of the greatest jazz players of the era at the peak of their powers. Ben Webster, Russell Procope, Barney Bigard, Cat Anderson, "Tricky Sam," Jimmy Blanton, Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, they're all here.
The most remarkable thing about the Duke Ellington Orchestra is simply that it existed--exited for almost half a century, through a depression, a world war, shifts towards other forms of music, and changes in the music business and recording technology. Duke rode all of it out with a professionalism, resourcefulness and intelligence rarely seen in popular music before or since. The musicians surely knew it, for this band had a remarkably stable personnel. Compositions were written for the sounds and technique of specific players, and Ellington was able to perform these compositions for many decades because those players stayed in the organization. At the same time, there were plenty of squabbles and even outright fights, as some of the men recount on camera. Duke managed to hold his outfit together through a very low-key management style, some examples of which are humorously demonstrated by those who knew him. How one man managed to run a band, write so much astonishing and original music, make his way through all the difficult personalities in the music business, and stay fresh for 40 years, all the while making it look easy as he stood there faultlessly dressed and urbanely sophisticated, is one of music's great mysteries. In a world filled with so many talents that had the potential to be great but never quite realized that potential, Ellington stands out as someone who achieved more than anyone could have expected of him, in an environment that was often downright hostile to his intentions.
This film traces all that, with interviews from sidemen, arrangers, composers, bookers, managers, record producers and even Duke's hair dresser! There are wonderful segments of the band playing such classics as Cotton Tail, Mood Indigo, and Rockin' In Rhythm, as well as extended compositions such as Ad Lib on Nippon, the Second Sacred Concert Suite, and Timon of Athens. Just watching this performance of Ad Lib on Nippon, one of my favorite of Ellington's later works, is worth the price of the DVD alone. And if the band's hair-raising performance of Perdido doesn't floor you, nothing will. I wish someone would release on DVD the entire broadcasts from which these excerpts come!
A Duke Named Ellington is a great portrait of a colossal talent, highly highly recommended. I'll just say again: what took them so long?!?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally Available!
Comment: I've wanted A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON to be released since it was broadcast (in two parts) on PBS in the 1980s. It contains wonderful tv and film footage from six decades of Duke's career. An exquisite film.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Duke Named Ellington
Comment: A tribute to America's most prolific composer. Even for those of us that know a lot about the Duke, this is an artistic
and well done piece.you'll like it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: What took them so long???
Comment: As the reviewer before me states, it has taken 20 years for this to come to home video, even while so much other Great Performances material has been long available. This superb documentary highlights the life and times of one of the most remarkable musical outfits in American history, the Duke Ellington band. While this is not a "revelatory" documentary--it does not delve into Duke's private life, a subject he apparently was not fond of discussing anyway--it is a marvelous chronicle of a great musical organization, with generous clips that show many of the greatest jazz players of the era at the peak of their powers. Ben Webster, Russell Procope, Barney Bigard, Cat Anderson, "Tricky Sam," Jimmy Blanton, Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, they're all here.
The most remarkable thing about the Duke Ellington Orchestra is simply that it existed--exited for almost half a century, through a depression, a world war, shifts towards other forms of music, and changes in the music business and recording technology. Duke rode all of it out with a professionalism, resourcefulness and intelligence rarely seen in popular music before or since. The musicians surely knew it, for this band had a remarkably stable personnel. Compositions were written for the sounds and technique of specific players, and Ellington was able to perform these compositions for many decades because those players stayed in the organization. At the same time, there were plenty of squabbles and even outright fights, as some of the men recount on camera. Duke managed to hold his outfit together through a very low-key management style, some examples of which are humorously demonstrated by those who knew him. How one man managed to run a band, write so much astonishing and original music, make his way through all the difficult personalities in the music business, and stay fresh for 40 years, all the while making it look easy as he stood there faultlessly dressed and urbanely sophisticated, is one of music's great mysteries. In a world filled with so many talents that had the potential to be great but never quite realized that potential, Ellington stands out as someone who achieved more than anyone could have expected of him, in an environment that was often downright hostile to his intentions.
This film traces all that, with interviews from sidemen, arrangers, composers, bookers, managers, record producers and even Duke's hair dresser! There are wonderful segments of the band playing such classics as Cotton Tail, Mood Indigo, and Rockin' In Rhythm, as well as extended compositions such as Ad Lib on Nippon, the Second Sacred Concert Suite, and Timon of Athens. Just watching this performance of Ad Lib on Nippon, one of my favorite of Ellington's later works, is worth the price of the DVD alone. And if the band's hair-raising performance of Perdido doesn't floor you, nothing will. I wish someone would release on DVD the entire broadcasts from which these excerpts come!
A Duke Named Ellington is a great portrait of a colossal talent, highly highly recommended. I'll just say again: what took them so long?!?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally Available!
Comment: I've wanted A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON to be released since it was broadcast (in two parts) on PBS in the 1980s. It contains wonderful tv and film footage from six decades of Duke's career. An exquisite film.
Council for Positive Images, Inc. presents the award-winning, universally acclaimed musical biography of one of the world s most influential composers and musicians, Duke Ellington. A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON had its world premiere on network television in the United States, on the PBS American Masters series (1988). It has since traveled the world, garnering praise. A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON was selected for screening in international festivals at Cannes, France; Gijon, Spain; Spoleto, Italy; Banff, Ontario, Canada; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Warsaw, Poland; and Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON has been awarded the C.I.N.E. Golden Eagle, the Golden Antenna, First Prize at the Bulgarian International TV Festival, and was nominated for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Informational Special. A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON was acclaimed by the critics as A masterly portrait of a master. (Politiken, Denmark) In a class by itself... a triumph of film and tape research... what can you say but that it is achingly good... (Los Angeles Times) Can't be beat... a superb two-parter... the perfect example of just how an in-depth profile of an artist should be done... (New York Daily News) A Duke Named Ellington accomplishes something that very few documentaries of this sort ever accomplish. It leaves the viewer and listener with a deep sense of Duke Ellington s genius. No small achievement. (New York Post) Much more than a documentary about the Duke... an essential testimony about the music of our century. (Jazz Magazine, France). For the first time, the full panorama of the life and artistic accomplishments of that musical giant, Duke Ellington, has been brought to the television screen. A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON is a unique study of Ellington s life and works, capturing the genius and charisma of a cultural phenomenon that transcended time, space and musical form. A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON , an extraordinary two-hour program, is a bl
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