Product Details

• Actors: Duke Ellington & others
• Directors: Terry Carter
• Format: NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Council for Positive Images, Inc.
• DVD Release Date: May 15, 2007
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000NDJGYU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,727 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What took them so long???, December 12, 2007

By 

John Grabowski (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Duke Named Ellington (DVD)

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?!?

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally Available!, October 27, 2007

By 

Blue Coronet (east coast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Duke Named Ellington (DVD)

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.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Duke Named Ellington, September 15, 2008

By 

Kaye Berigan (Milwaukee WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Duke Named Ellington (DVD)

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!