Movies: Dizzy Gillespie

Jazz and decolonization are intertwined in a powerful narrative that recounts one of the tensest episodes of the Cold War. In 1960, the UN became the stage for a political earthquake as the struggle for independence in the Congo put the world on hig...

An immersive look at the eventful life and brilliant artistic career of visionary American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991)....

Take a stroll down Sesame Street and witness the birth of the most influential children's show in television history. From the iconic furry characters to the classic songs you know by heart, learn how a gang of visionary creators changed the world....

Jim is the drummer for the great black musician Billy Swann. With him, he plays in a club called San Sebastián, owned by his friend Floro, every summer....

In 1955, on his report, a medical examiner wrote in the box: age, “about 53 years”. Charlie Parker nicknamed Bird just died, at 34. His death will be the ransom of a life that was not denied to the excesses or the consuming flame of genius. His wilde...

Carved to the beat verses of Allen Ginsberg and his eponymous poem, A Supermarket in California paints the most surreal contours of an America watched, dreamed, filtered through the eyes of a poet who meets Walt Whitman in a supermarket and pines for...

Willie Ruff, musician, composer, educator, filmmaker, and Yale School of Music alumnus was on the faculty of the Yale School of Music from 1971 until his retirement in 2017. He directed and produced this short film which follows Dizzy Gillespie and R...

A visit to the outdoor festival at Cleethorpes which hosts twelve top jazz bands....

Earth is visited by a race of aliens, who issue an ultimatum: either peace or complete destruction....

Improvisational jazz performance filmed in 1950 by Gjon Mili plus Duke Ellington Trio filmed in July 1966, Count Basie at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1977, Joe Pass 1979, Ella Fitzgerald 1979, and Oscar Peterson at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1977....

A Hubley stand-in instructs iconic trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie on scoring a short commercial for an instant rope ladder....

This Easter, Billy has plans to help PJ find his first Easter egg. Dolly helps but Jeffy wants to catch the Easter Bunny. When he does, the entire family is surprised, even Sam. In the end, PJ is happy and the day is another wonderful Family Circus E...

The Cold War and Civil Rights collide in this remarkable story of music, diplomacy and race. Beginning in 1955, when America asked its greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington...

This is Les Blank’s earliest music film, focusing on the renown trumpet player, Dizzy Gillespie, who along with Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Sonny Rollins and others sparked the change from traditional Jazz to “Bebop” in mid-1940s America. The fil...

A compilation reel of television commercials produced by Story Board Inc....

Art Kane, now deceased, coordinated a group photograph of all the top jazz musicians in NYC in the year 1958, for a piece in Esquire magazine. Just about every jazz musician at the time showed up for the photo shoot which took place in front of a bro...

A documentary on the music of Miles Davis which contains concert footage from the 1986 New Orleans Jazz Festival and interviews with Miles Davis, Bill Cosby, Keith Jarrett, Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, George Benson, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and R...

This riveting music documentary traces the history of Jazz piano legend Oscar Peterson, from his early days as Montreal's teenage Boogie-Woogie sensation through his meteoric rise to international celebrity with Norman Granz and the ground-breaking J...

Dizzy Gillespie is one of the major figures of the 20th Century's music scene. Everything was once said or written about this genius musician, founder of the Bebop. Whereas his public life is known from most, many ignore about the modest side of his ...

This rockumentary-style presidential portrait shows how Jimmy Carter reinvigorated a post-Watergate America—with the music of the counterculture, including the Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Jimmy Buffett....