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Filmed in 1967 and first shown in 1974, filmmaker Robert Drew's hour-long documentary is less a biography of Duke Ellington, the man now widely regarded as the 20th century's most important composer, than a brief slice of his remarkable life. "Every night I give a house party," Ellington says of his days on the road, "and I'm the guest of honor." Yet while there's plenty of performance footage of the maestro and his musicians (most of it, unfortunately, a bit on the grainy side, with audio that's less than stellar), we also see him in the studio, at work at his piano, doing business, eating his daily breakfast of steak, potatoes, and hot water, attending the funeral of musical partner Billy Strayhorn, and considerably more. What emerges is a reasonably intimate portrait of a smart, debonair (but oh-so-hip) man whose life was simply consumed with music--much to the benefit of us all. --Sam Graham
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