Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305774560
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #540,535 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Between 1965 and 1973, a year before his death, Duke Ellington created three concerts of sacred music, large-scale works that incorporated dancers, choruses, and gospel singers in addition to his own band. Describing these efforts as "the most important thing I have ever done," he said they allowed him to "say openly what I have been saying on my knees." As far as this 1998 version is concerned, well, since the subject is sacred music, perhaps some sacred language (i.e., Latin) is appropriate: caveat emptor. Not because this is terrible--it is not--but because it isn't Duke Ellington. Oh, it's his music all right, but it's played by musicians who may be household names in their native Switzerland (the program was filmed in Lugano) but are unlikely to be mentioned in the same breath as Johnny Hodges, Ray Nance, Harry Carney, or any of the other celebrated members of Ellington's legendary big band (jazz fans may recognize the few Americans, like trumpeter Jon Faddis, drummer Adam Nussbaum, and featured singer Michele Hendricks, daughter of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross's Jon).

Perhaps it's unfair to expect these players and singers to measure up to Ellington's own, because Duke's band was the music; they were the tellers of the stories he wrote. Certainly all of the soloists here--especially Faddis, whose superb muted and open horn work on "The Shepherd" and elsewhere recalls the great Cat Anderson's--are more than capable. Hendricks and fellow singer Allan Harris are fine too. And the material? It's elegant, swinging, soulful, filled with humor and deep spirituality, both worldly and reverent, the voicings and orchestrations inimitably Ellingtonian. But there is something missing--these musicians seem to be visiting Duke's music rather than inhabiting it. --Sam Graham

Product Description

A musical event recorded in Lugano Cathedral in honor of the 100th anniversary of Duke Ellington's birth. Ellington's instrument was his orchestra, a unique tonal palette, thanks to the presence of soloists with strongly individual voices like the saxophonists Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney, the trombonist Lawrence Brown and trumpeters Cootie Williams and Cat Anderson. Apart from his popular reputation as a bon vivant, Ellington was a deeply religious man. Among his body of work, a special space is occupied by his religious music, including three Sacred Concerts he wrote between 1965 and 1973. Now some of Ellington's most powerful and contemplative music is performed by many of the world's finest musicians in this soaring musical celebration. 79 minutes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No Duke Here, May 22, 2001

By 

Ralph Jungheim - See all my reviews

This review is from: Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts (DVD)

This Image Entertainment DVD is a fraud. No Duke Ellington. No Duke Ellington Orchestra. Not one of his great sidemen. Just a mediocre European big band, an embarrassing European choir and four American soloists--none of whom had any association with Duke. Don't believe any of the hype that comes with it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-executed tribute to the one and only, October 15, 2010

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts (DVD)

It seems that some viewers of this concert, which was performed more than 20 years after Ellington's death, are down on the film for not providing us with the Maestro himself. The criticisms again raise questions about the inseparability, especially in Ellington's case, of the artist and his work. Anyone familiar with Ellington will immediately recognize the voice of the baritone saxophonist (the first featured instrument) as NOT being Harry Carney's, the tenor player's as NOT belonging to Paul Gonsalves, the smooth sounds of the alto as NOT coming close to the rare silken threads spun by Johnny Hodges' alto, the piano as NOT having the hard-biting, definitive touch that was Duke's. All of which merely serves to point up the utter uniqueness that was the Ellington collection of tonal personalities and his way of making them cohere as a musical family.

But forget all that for a moment, and this becomes a well-played concert by a group of well-prepared, thoroughly capable musicians, with creative camera set-ups and professional editing and audio. It may not satisfy the more fastidious Ellingtonians, and it may not serve to direct the uninitiated to the genius that was Ellington, but it could be a useful document to anyone considering a performance of the work of arguably America's greatest composer (an argument that necessarily includes reconstructions of some of the extended suites and programmatic works).

Frequently, the three Sacred Concerts are dismissed as "lightweight" Ellington fare. It may require closer attention to and greater familiarity with Ellington's entire oeuvre before the signature of the Maestro's genius can be heard in each of the three works. Even Ellington's musical representation of "Heaven," which is full of "high spirited" but light, nuanced humor (not the heavy-handed, parodic kind that we witness here), resonates with a fairly complex, almost Shakespearean, combination of depth and whimsy that can discourage others from attempting to represent it. Duke's performances of the Sacred Concerts (I saw two) could be very uneven, especially in terms of the vocals--soloists as well as quickly assembled choirs. But he could not have reached his ethereal goal were it not for help from an unexpected source--a Swedish soprano with the voice of an angel: Alice Babs. Not only was she the catalyst Duke needed after the loss of Strayhorn, but together, their spirits radiated warmth and love based on mutual respect and a shared vision. Experiencing their musical rapport was, for this listener, heaven on earth.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars music goes on a life of its own even after its creator(s)'s, December 2, 2001

By 

fCh "fCh" (GMT-5, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts (DVD)

people gripe about this release with(out) reason. and it's their right. however, it's unfair not only to the musicianship of all those associated with this performance but also to ellington himself to lower this work. indeed, isn't the dream of any music-maker to create music that lives forever, or at least beyond the confines of the creator's own life? no one has a problem with those cd's titled beethoven...

i do think this dvd is a fine piece of work, representative of a type of ellington who fuses jazz and classical for the betterment of the MUSIC!