Back in the day, when you and I were young, Maggie, and your local Essoldo offered not one, but two feature films, a newsreel, magazine – Pathe Pictorial, Look At Life – and a cartoon, they were wont to throw in, as an occasional bonus, short black and white films featuring the bands of the day. In several cases that band was the one led by Duke Ellington, and a tad over 10 years ago Ehsan Khoshbakht conceived an idea to combine several of these shorts into one feature-length film that, taken as a whole, would reflect the black experience in America. As a concept it was fine, but it actually took him 10 years to track them down, untangle copyright knots and then assemble 11 of them. The Barbican screened the result, introduced by Khoshbakht himself, on Tuesday, November 19, under the title Symphonies In Black, as part of the London Jazz Festival.
I was the first one into the screening room, and out of interest I monitored the audience coming here to watch a collection of vintage short films, the oldest of which, dating from 1929, is even now salivating in anticipation of a telegram from the monarch. I was, frankly, astonished at the number of generations present, ranging from teens to Zimmer frames. If I had to guess, I’d say the majority were in their 50s, with seven generations represented – testimony indeed to the pull of popular music.
I don’t know about you but whenever I think of Duke Ellington I think of the immaculate black tails, the patent-leather hair, the black shoes, polished to a fare-thee-well. He did indeed live up to that image but in only one out of 11 films. Elsewhere he was content to rely on sports jackets and open-necked shirts. Interestingly, these were not all films intended for cinema screening; several were produced for Panoram, a kind of visual juke-box wherein the customer deposited a coin, selected from a dozen or so titles, and watched his chosen short on a flatbed screen roughly 8” x 13”. It was, alas, a gimmick with a short shelf-life, and was defunct by 1947.
The music on offer in these 11 shorts was fascinating to say the least, ranging from Cottontail to Black And Tan Fantasy via Mood Indigo, Solitude, Caravan, and Sophisticated Lady, performed by a stellar crew featuring Billie Holiday, Harry Carney, Ivy Anderson, Rex Stewart, Louis Bellson, Sonny Greer, Johnny Hodges and Arthur Wetzel. Truly a banquet fit for a King, and that, of course, is what Ellington was, not just a mere Duke. I have no idea if this was just a one-off screening or whether it will resurface on a screen near you. If it does so you’d be foolish to miss it.
The shorts featured were: Black and Tan 19′ / USA, 1929; A Bundle of Blues 10′ / USA, 1933; Symphony in Black 10′ / USA, 1935; Jam Session 3′ / USA, 1942; Hot Chocolate (“Cottontail”) 3′ / USA, 1942; Caravan 4′ / USA, 1952; Mood Indigo 4′ / USA, 1952; Sophisticated Lady 4′ / USA, 1952; Solitude 4′ / USA, 1952; Salute to Duke Ellington 15′ / USA, 1950 ; Daybreak Express 5′ / USA, 1953.
