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Composer: Ellington, Duke

Duke Ellington in Hollywood - Swing Era

Anderson, Ivie

Ellington, Duke

West, Mae

Duke Ellington Orchestra

Television Director: McCarey, Leo

Television Director: Murphy, Dudley

Television Director: Brown, Melville

Television Director: Waller, Fred

Television Director: Meins, Gus

Television Director: Bonafield, Jay

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Playing Time: 01:03:10

Catalogue Number: IDVD1029

UPC: 022891902997

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Duke Ellington was more than just the masterful bandleader of a legendary orchestra who at one time or another featured jazz greats such as Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Paul Gonsalves, Sidnet Bechet, Cootie Williams, Harry Edison, Clark Terry, Barney Bigard, Jimmy Blanton, and a host of first-rate sidemen too numerous to mention. Ellington was also a superb and prolific composer who wrote literally thousands of songs (including numbers such as Flamingo, Take the A Train, Caravan, Mood Indigo, Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me, C-Jam Blues, Perdido and countless other classics). Besides being a top-notch arranger, the Duke was also a restless, experimental artist by nature and a musician who never stopped recording from 1926 on. It is safe to say that the incomparable Duke Ellington (1899-1947) stands in a class of his own and will be remembered as one of the men who defined the shape of jazz and American music throughout most of the Twentieth Century.

This film compiles different short and medium-length films starring the great Duke Ellington and his orchestra, Black and Tan (1929), Symphony In Black (1935 - featuring the famous sequence with Billie Holiday), plus assorted different musical sequences from other motion pictures, including the three scenes starring Mae West in the 1934 movie Belle of the Nineties.