Browsing through a recent acquisition, a copy of the pamphlet Duke Ellington on Film by Dr. Klaus Stratemann which was issued at the International Duke Ellington Conference in Oldham in 1985 and which became the basis for Dr Stratemann's tome Duke Ellington: Day by Day and Film by Film, I noticed a reference to a short film made in 1972 called The Good Old Days Are Tomorrow.
For Ellington, who was a fugitive from thoughts of ill health and mortality, who recognised he was always in competition with his artistic endeavours of the past and for whom his favourite composition was always "the next one", I understood the significance of the title immediately. I would love to see the film. It was made as a result of Ellington's residency at the University of Wisconsin in the summer of 1972. From Ken Vail's Duke's Diary...
I have contacted UWIS in the past re: their recordings of this event but have turned up little so far. Courtesy of Youtube, however, and Jazz Video Guy, we do get to see what I'm sure is part of the film, a sublime, transcendent performance of Happy Reunion, Duke at the piano and on tenor, Paul Gonsalves.
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