Product Details

• Actors: Johnny Hodges, Clark Terry, Duke Ellington, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves
• Format: Best of, Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English (PCM)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Jazz Icons
• DVD Release Date: September 4, 2007
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000TNJIHO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,117 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

JAZZ ICONS:DUKE ELLINGTON LIVE IN 58 - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Duke concert dvd ever!!, September 13, 2007

By 

BevRich (St. Louis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz Icons: Duke Ellington Live in '58 (DVD)

This is possibly the best Duke Ellington's Orchestra concert on DVD (and I buy every Duke dvd I see) Paul Gonsalve's performance on "Diminuendo In Blue & Crescendo In Blue" is worth the price of the DVD alone. Not only is he playing his heart out, the rest of the band is obviously enjoying it. Other great solo performances includes Johnny Hodges's "All of Me" and "Things Ain't What They Used To Be", Shorty Baker and Ray Nance on "Mr. Gentle & Mr. Cool" & Sam Woodyard's "Hi Fi Fo-Fum". I can go on and on just describing how wonderful this concert is.

I highly recommend this one!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nearly complete concert by an all-star band, February 23, 2008

By 

James A. Vedda (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jazz Icons: Duke Ellington Live in '58 (DVD)

The Jazz Icons series released 16 videos through 2007, each featuring a different jazz artist. This is the fifth one that I've acquired, and so far they've all been great. Somebody should give these people an award for their efforts to preserve American culture by searching international video archives.
Video quality is unavoidably limited by what's found in those archives, in this case a November 1958 concert in Amsterdam that was recorded for TV broadcast. The black & white video is very grainy and lacks adequate contrast in some scenes. The audio is mono, but the sound quality excellent - clear and well balanced.
The show starts out slow and mellow, but the energy level picks up when they get to "Rockin' in Rhythm." The program includes several well-known Ellington standards, such as "Black and Tan Fantasy," "Creole Love Call," "Sophisticated Lady" (featuring, of course, the baritone sax of Harry Carney), "Things Ain't What They Used To Be" (as a vehicle for alto sax star Johnny Hodges), "Diminuendo in Blue and Crescendo in Blue" (with tenor man Paul Gonsalves recreating the excitement of the classic Newport 1956 recording), and a 10-song Ellington medley. Noticeably absent is "Take the A Train."
A couple of my favorite moments: a young but already accomplished Clark Terry featured on trumpet in "Harlem Air Shaft" and a stoic but musically expressive Johnny Hodges working his magic on "All of Me." Also enjoyable are the finishing touches that Cat Anderson adds to some of the arrangements as he ventures into a frequency range that the trumpet was never intended to reach.
The package includes an informative 24-page booklet offering a detailed history of this concert tour and other interesting anecdotes about Ellington and his sidemen. One of the things we learn from these notes is that the concert video was done near the end of a grueling several weeks for the band, doing shows in different cities almost every night. That explains why many in the band look tired in this performance. But remarkably, they don't sound tired, and that's what is important.
Fans of Ellington, and classic big bands in general, should pick this up without hesitation, despite the inescapable limitations of half-century old video.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not 5 Stars only because of picture quality, February 4, 2008

By 

bluejim (Castro Valley, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz Icons: Duke Ellington Live in '58 (DVD)

As one of my friends says; "I love Ellington more than life itself". I never got to see the Ellington Orchestra in person so it's mighty thrilling to watch this. My only complaint is that the technological limits of the time meant that black folk's images didn't translate well to video. The members of the band with the darkest skin look like black blobs without facial expressions some of the time. Even so, I highly recommend this disc. Just to see Duke leading his men and exclaiming "Johnny Hodges!" in his inimitable way...spine tingling.