Duke Ellington

Hollywood's first all-black film since The Green Pastures tells the vibrant fable of rascally Little Joe, torn between the love of his good wife Petunia and the wiles of good-time bad girl Georgia Brown...and caught in a tug-of-war between emissaries from the Lord and Satan. How can virtue triumph over evil? Well, as Petunia says, 'Sometimes when you fight the devil, you gotta jab him with his own pitchfork.' Debuting movie director Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris, Gigi) and stars Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are more than a match for the devil in this musical treasure. With a soundtrack of dazzling standards including Taking a Chance on Love and Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe, Cabin in the Sky is a joyous classic.

Jazz: Season 1: Episode 6 -- As the 1930's come to a close, Swing-mania is still going strong, but some fans are saying success has made the music too predictable. Count Basie and the Kansas City sound reignite the spirit of swing. By the decade's end, Duke Ellington has been hailed as a hero in Europe, amid anxious preparations for war. And weeks after that war begins, Coleman Hawkins startles the world with a glimpse of what jazz will become, improvising a new music on the old standard, 'Body and Soul.'

Jazz: Season 1: Episode 4 -- In 1929 as the Great Depression begins, New York is now America's jazz capital. On Broadway, Louis Armstrong revolutionizes the art of American popular song. In Harlem, Chick Webb pioneers his own big-band sound and in the city's clubs, pianists Fats Waller and Art Tatum dazzle audiences. But it is Duke Ellington who takes jazz 'beyond category,' composing hit tunes that has critics comparing him to Stravinsky.

Jazz: Season 1: Episode 3 -- In the 1920s, jazz is everywhere, and for the first time soloists and singers take center stage. We meet Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues; Bix Beiderbecke, the first great white jazz star; and Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, for whom jazz offers a chance to escape the ghetto and achieve their dreams. Duke Ellington appears at the Cotton Club and Louis Armstrong performs his masterpiece, 'West End Blues.'

Jazz: Season 1: Episode 10 -- During the Sixties, jazz is in trouble. Though Louis Armstrong briefly outsells the Beatles with 'Hello Dolly,' most jazz musicians are desperate for work and many head for Europe. In the 1970s, jazz loses the exuberant genius of Louis Armstrong and the transcendent artistry of Duke Ellington, Their passing seems to mark the end of the music itself. But in 1976, when Dexter Gordon returns from Europe for a triumphant comeback, jazz has a homecoming, too. A new generation emerges, led by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis - schooled in the music's traditions, skilled in the art of improvisation, and aflame with ideas. The musical journey that began in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century continues. As it enters its second century, jazz is still brand new every night, still vibrant, still evolving, and still swinging.

Jazz: Season 1: Episode 2 -- Speakeasies, flappers, and easy money - it's the Jazz Age, when the story of jazz becomes a tale of two great cities, Chicago and New York, and of two extraordinary artists whose lives and music will span almost three-quarters of a century - Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Armstrong grew up on the mean streets of New Orleans and moved to Chicago in 1922, inspiring a new generation of musicians. Meanwhile, Ellington outgrows the society music he learned to play in Washington D.C., and heads to Harlem.

The story, sound and soul of a nation come together in the most American of art forms: Jazz. Ken Burns celebrates the music's soaring achievements, from its origins in blues and ragtime through swing, bebop, and fusion. Six years in the making, this "soundbreaking" series blends 75 interviews with major artists, such as Wynton Marsalis and Dave Brubeck, and critics; more than 500 pieces of music; 2,400 still photographs; and 2,000 rare and archival film clips including performances by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and many more.

The story, sound and soul of a nation come together in the most American of art forms: Jazz. Ken Burns celebrates the music's soaring achievements, from its origins in blues and ragtime through swing, bebop, and fusion. Six years in the making, this "soundbreaking" series blends 75 interviews with major artists, such as Wynton Marsalis and Dave Brubeck, and critics; more than 500 pieces of music; 2,400 still photographs; and 2,000 rare and archival film clips including performances by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and many more.

King Kong admires the sunset.

Marquette, Michigan - In the marble halls of one of Michigan's most famous courthouses, an Independent candidate for Marquette County prosecutor filed a recount petition in her race against a longtime democratic incumbent. Former assistant prosecutor Cathy Church cited uncounted absentee ballots and suspected problems with Diebold optical scanners used to tabulate ballots as the reason for the recount. She lost to the incumbent by 1,784 votes or about six percent. 'We decided there were some anomalies we wanted to look at,' Church said. ''You took your ballot and put it into a machine that may or may not have sucked your ballot in on the first attempt.' Church served for 14 years as an assistant prosecutor of domestic violence cases. She said the $400 filing fee was worth 'the peace of mind.' The Nov. 12, 2008 press conference scheduled for the front steps of the historic courthouse was moved inside the main doors due to a cold rain. The Marquette County Courthouse was the site of the director Otto Preminger's famous 1959 movie trial 'Anatomy of a Murder' based on a book penned by prosecuter and future Michigan Supreme Court Judge John D. Voelker, under the name 'Robert Traver,' and starring Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, and a score by Duke Ellington. At the same courthouse in 1913, former President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded six cents after winning a libel suit against a local newspaper publisher who wrote that Roosevelt was addicted to alcohol. Church said the optical scanners used to tabulate the vote are sometimes being unreliable. Diebold optical scanning machines don't always read people's marks on the ballots correctly,' she said. 'The scanning machines (in Marquette County) have had problems around the county,' Church said. 'Any mark within the circle counts as a valid vote in Michigan.' 'However, the scanners are like anything, what they are doing is t