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Duke Ellington: Jazz
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In the mid 1940s Duke Ellington began to compose Jazz songs using classical forms. He composed Black, Brown and Beige, a portrayal of African American history in 1943, Liberian Suite in 1947 and A Drum is a Woman in 1956. In 1960 he composed a reorchestrated version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. His Rhapsody of Negro Life became the basis for the film Symphony in Black which featured Billie Holiday.
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Duke Ellington was an American jazz bandleader, pianist and composer. He is considered by many to be America's greatest composer. By the time of his death, Ellington had appeared for more than 20,000 performances worldwide.
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Jazz fans have lamented the dearth of footage featuring Duke Ellington performing "Harlem Suite," the thrilling, innovative 10-minute-long tune he made his own. Thankfully, this DVD captures the jazz royal rendering it onstage, along with a handful of other iconic songs, in this performance from London in 1960, when he was at the height of his prowess. Extras include rare glimpses of Ellington on tour throughout Europe the previous year.
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Ellington composed about 2000 works, including musical comedies, music for ballet and motion pictures, an opera, and numerous short songs and instrumentals. He composed exclusively for his jazz big band (see Jazz: The Big-Band Era), seeking out players with distinct musical styles. Beginning in the 1930s and throughout the remainder of his career, Ellington toured incessantly with his group, logging an estimated 16 million km (10 million mi) of travel and playing an estimated 20,000 performances throughout the United States and in 65 other nations around the world.
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Though these pieces had been in the Ellington songbook for some time, they came in handy on the night of July 7, 1956, when tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves let loose for 27 rousing blues choruses at the Newport Jazz Festival. The performance — and the concert in which it happened — is commonly highlighted as the beginning of Duke's last great creative period.
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