Movies: Jazz

A young songwriter struggles to make good in New York....

Filmed with an intimate three camera shoot by Antonio Ferrera, a close friend of John Zorn and a long time cameraman for the documentary masters the Maysles Brothers, this concert film captures the band performing a set of Zorn's Masada compositions ...

Documentary about jazz great Chet Baker that intercuts footage from the 1950s, when he was part of West Coast Cool, and from his last years. We see the young Baker, he of the beautiful face, in California and in Italy, where he appeared in at least o...

Made on a wind-up Bolex camera, The Sound of Seeing announced the arrival of 21-year-old filmmaker Tony Williams. Based around a painter and a composer wandering the city (and beyond), the film meshes music and imagery to show the duo taking inspirat...

Filmed in Chicago & finished in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is filmmaker, composer and arranger Edward O. Bland's polemical essay on the politics of music and race - a forecast of what he called "the death of jazz." A landmark moment in black film, for...

Crazy is the story of a legendary guitar player who emerged from Nashville in the 1950s. Blessed with incomparable, natural talent, Hank Garland quickly established his reputation as the finest sessions player in Nashville....

Ozzy, beset on all sides by the eccentricities of the artists around her, meets Jack, a city-dwelling forest sprite jazz singer. Together, they escape Dante's, the jazz club Ozzy manages, and losing herself, Ozzy finds something else....

The daughter of jazz pianist Joe Albany witnesses her beloved father's struggle -- and failure -- to kick his heroin habit....

A documentary about the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records and its German founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff. As jews they had to flee Germany and the Hitler regime in the late 1930s. In New York they wrote music history with their record lab...

A musical documentary accompaniment to the 1994 benefit compilation album concerning AIDS in the African-American community....

At the Katnip Kollege, we see a roomful of cats taking a course in Swingology. Everyone swings except Johnny, who can't cut it and has to sit in the dunce chair. Miss Kitty Bright tells him to look her up when he learns how to swing. Finally, listeni...

A disillusioned writer explores the subterranean depths of San Francisco's North Beach district....

Eric Clapton: Live at Budokan...

A bittersweet musical drama set in London centers around a dejected jazz musician who is on the edge. He perceives a cold, black and white existence. In his heart there remains a ray of hope that will transport him to a warm and colorful world. Throu...

New York City's various bridges transform into an urban jungle (jazz version) or an alien landscape (electro-acoustic version)....

Primo and Secondo, two immigrant brothers, pin their hopes on a banquet honoring Louis Prima to save their struggling restaurant....

Sayonara, Goto-san. is a recording of Midori's final show at Tokyo LIQUIDROOM on December 30, 2010, released on DVD on April 6, 2011....

I Love to Singa depicts the story of a young owl who wants to sing jazz, instead of the classical music that his German parents wish him to perform. The plot is a lighthearted tribute to Al Jolson's film The Jazz Singer....

Explore the vision behind the iconic American jazz record label. Since 1939, Blue Note artists have been encouraged to push creative boundaries in search of uncompromising expressions. Through current recording sessions, rare archive and conversation...

Frankie walks into a bar, where she catches her boyfriend Johnny with the sensuous Nellie Bly and kills him in a fit of jealousy....