"On The Road With Duke Ellington" Film at Moorestown Library

Duke Ellington is widely recognized as being the most influential jazz composer and arranger in history. His Orchestra relentlessly toured the world from major concert venues to high school auditoriums. The film takes you behind the scenes with the band and gives insights into the creativity and character of one of the greatest jazz masters along with members of the band.

This film was directed and produced by Robert Drew. It was made for TV and released in 1974. Drew was the pioneer of the Cinema Verite documentary style. This film was shot six years before the death of Duke Ellington at the peak of his career. "On the Road with Duke Ellington" serves as perhaps the most revealing and intimate portrait of the artist ever recorded....

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Duke Ellington is widely recognized as being the most influential jazz composer and arranger in history. His Orchestra relentlessly toured the world from major concert venues to high school auditoriums. The film takes you behind the scenes with the band and gives insights into the creativity and character of one of the greatest jazz masters along with members of the band.

This film was directed and produced by Robert Drew. It was made for TV and released in 1974. Drew was the pioneer of the Cinema Verite documentary style. This film was shot six years before the death of Duke Ellington at the peak of his career. "On the Road with Duke Ellington" serves as perhaps the most revealing and intimate portrait of the artist ever recorded.

Robert Drew offers audiences a unique and unobtrusive look inside the colorful and transient world of this American jazz legend, exposing key elements that characterize and define Duke Ellington as we discover the artist performing, composing, and ruminating about his life and career. Since then, no other film, book, interview or composition has been able to capture Ellington in quite the same way.

Drew finds Ellington at home, on the road, and at his piano in a world where where nightly concert performances, impromptu improvisations, all night composing sessions, and steak and potato breakfasts are all part of Duke's daily routine.

With a musical score that highlights an assortment of Ellington standards including "Satin Doll" and "Take the A Train", we are privy to rare moments with Duke as we encounter him late at night composing a new song that he will perform the following day. Even Louis Armstrong makes an appearance in this groundbreaking film that profiles one of the most prolific and influential composers of the 20th century.

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