Thursday, October 22, 2026

Question: The 1959 courtroom classic Anatomy of a Murder, filmed in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and based on a real U.P. killing, featured a celebrated jazz score composed by whom?

Answer: Duke Ellington. The jazz legend wrote the score with his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn. It was Ellington’s first film score and the first major Hollywood film scored by a black composer, and it won three Grammy Awards. Ellington even appears on screen as a roadhouse pianist named “Pie-Eye.”