Here is a time capsule into the world of a musical titan who, after four decades at the helm of jazz innovation, was still striding through new artistic terrain with ease. Picture Duke Ellington-sharp as ever in a tailored suit, leading his octet through the glittering New York night atop Rockefeller Center. It's August of '67, and in the Rainbow Room, with it's cocktail-clinking ambiance, Duke and his select ensemble of veterans are reinventing the jazz vocabulary with every note.
