DVD: On The Road With Duke Ellington
A Film By Robert Drew (Docurama)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Once a Life Magazine photo editor, in the 1960s Robert Drew moved into the world of film as a pioneering creator of the Cinema Verite documentary style. In that capacity, he recorded many important subjects and garnered many significant awards, but for jazz fans, or fans of American popular music in general, this may be the most important work of Drew's career.

Produced in 1967, just a few short years before Duke Ellington passed away, the film opens with footage of the jazz legend receiving one of the numerous honorary doctorates that were bestowed on him in recognition of his singular contribution to the world of music, this one from Yale University. It then follows Ellington through several days of his life on the road, which was life as usual for Ellington, who maintained a touring band for some five decades and paid the price for it in a lifestyle that centered around hotels and the guest rooms of friends across the country and around the world. There are intimate looks at Ellington at rest, at play and, most importantly, at the piano, whether composing in solitude or performing for adoring audiences.

The look and sound of the film is stylistically dated, as you would expect of a production of its vintage, but the content is superlative and absolutely irreplaceable. When it was re-released after Ellington's death in 1974, a few minutes of performance footage were added, and that's the version we have here, closing with a trio rendition of "Take The 'A' Train." Most of the other musical performances are excerpts rather than full versions, but the break from the music to the ideas and activities of the composer are more than acceptable, since the music is well documented in many other places and formats, but no better look at the daily life of Duke Ellington exists on film.

The DVD includes a still photo gallery and text biographies of both Ellington and Drew, but it's the film that's important, and, for jazz fans, essential viewing.

© 2003 - Shaun Dale