Customer Reviews

Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts [VHS]

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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.

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.

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!

This DVD has the whole package going for it. The music was very well recorded. (I won't get into the technical aspects of it.) The picture looked great as well...but, and I hate to admit this being a music lover and an Ellington music lover, the Duke's music was good but the film was really boring to me. It wasn't just the religious aspect of the film either-I think I might have been bored to tears anyway. (Apologies to all those religious folks out there.) I found myself listening to the instrumentals and the introductions and moving on.
My suggestion is stay with his records or CDs or tapes