Mick Hartley

A short (9 mins) 1935 film featuring Duke Ellington’s early piece, "A Rhapsody of Negro Life". 

The film aims to depict black life in America, and the composition itself ("A Rhapsody of Negro Life") is divided into four parts: “The Laborers,” “A Triangle”, “A Hymn of Sorrow” and “Harlem Rhythm”. Part Two, A Triangle, features the 20-year-old Billie Holiday in her screen debut, as a jilted lover – first glimpse at 3:10, then singing at 4:40.

As the Wiki article states, "The piece has been largely overshadowed by its successor, perhaps Ellington’s most best known extended composition, Black, Brown, and Beige". It's true that this hasn't dated particularly well compared with much of the Duke's later work. It's perhaps something of a historical curiosity now, lifted mainly by Holiday's appearance. But still worth viewing.

I looked it up after seeing it in the Barbican exhibition Into the Night – "A journey into the world’s most iconic cabarets, cafés and clubs in modern art through the lens of pioneering artists." Upstairs they feature the artists and artworks, and downstairs they've attempted to recreate a number of the nightclubs – the Chat Noir, Cabaret Voltaire etc… I say "attempted": walking into a cold empty space with a few colourful tiles and a counter, with music you can barely hear, doesn't really cut it as far as ambience goes. And what's a nightclub without ambience? Still, the Harlem club scene is one of the better recreations, and "Harlem Rhythm", the last section of the film here, is effective in its use of superimposed dancers' legs in capturing the vibe and energy of a Harlem nightclub in the 1930s.