An account of the public and private lives of the eminent jazz artist covers his slave heritage, the musical talent that inspired some 1,700 compositions, and his relationships with numerous lovers.

This video compiles various short- and medium-length films starring the great Duke Ellington and his orchestra, including Black and Tan from 1929; Symphony in Black from 1935 - featuring the famous sequence with Billie Holiday; and three scenes starring Mae West in Belle of the Nineties from 1934, among many other musical sequences from major motion pictures.

During the early 20th century, Washington, D.C., was the cultural capital of black America. Prefiguring Harlem in the 1920s, D.C.'s Uptown area nurtured dynamic figures such as Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Mary Church Terrell, Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Dr. Charles Drew. In this program, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith tells the often-overlooked story of the heyday, decline, and renewal of Uptown. Combined with rare photographs...

Traces the life of the internationally-acclaimed musician and composer, Duke Ellington who helped popularize jazz music.

"A pivotal fixture of the Harlem Renaissance, Duke Ellington was the bandleader of the historic Cotton Club and a master composer -- writing close to 3,000 songs in his lifetime and capturing the spirit of the Black experience in the Unites States. Over a 50-year career, Ellington became one of the biggest names in jazz as we know it"--