Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool
A musical documentary accompaniment to the 1994 benefit compilation album concerning AIDS in the African-American community.
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, foreseeing the civil unrest of subsequent decades, it also features the only known footage of visionary pianist Sun Ra from his beloved Chicago period. Featured are ample images of tenor saxophonist John Gilmore and the rest of Ra's Arkestra in Windy City nightclubs, all shot in glorious black & white.
A musical documentary accompaniment to the 1994 benefit compilation album concerning AIDS in the African-American community.
Set in 1980s Melbourne, a disgraced jazz pianist attempts to get back into his former band by sabotaging his replacement.
In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman (Jessica Lundberg) remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.
Short musical based upon a choreography by Pierre Lacotte.
"I swear, I wanted to make a “visual album” but this is literally the way the wind blew me this time."
A trumpet-playing cat and his jazz band invade Ye Olde Squaresville, a kingdom that has outlawed all but the squarest music.
In a wordless story with semi-surreal stage sets, a poor black man ventures from his ramshackle rural home to the big city, where a dancing girl in a dive two-times him. He returns to his home and wife's arms.
Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.
Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.
Show Girls celebrates Montreal's swinging Black jazz scene from the 1920s to the 1960s, when the city was wide open. Three women who danced in the legendary Black clubs of the day - Rockhead's Paradise, The Terminal, Café St. Michel - share their unforgettable memories of life at the centre of one of the world's hottest jazz spots. From the Roaring Twenties, through the Second World War and on into the golden era of clubs in the fifties and sixities, Show Girls chronicles the lives of Bernice, Tina and Olga - mixing their memories with rarely seen footage of the era.
A documentary about the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915-1959). There exist many myths and legends about the Jazz Singer Billie Holiday — one of the greatest voices of the last century. Most of them tell the story of the tragic victim of drugs, alcohol, men, color, or the circumstances of her upbringing. To some extent she contributed herself to these legends, especially in her autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues". In recent years, more and more records and reports have shown a different picture of her. These statements of confidants, colleagues and friends clean up with many of the legends and show a strong personality who has been anything but a pitiable victim. Billie Holiday was a strong-willed and determined person and a very complex personality who did not correspond to the classic victim type.
Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts his old band back together to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised.
A portrait of Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund.
Early experimental film from Zbigniew Rybczynski that broke new ground in the use of pixelation, optical printing, animation and other compositional film devices. Beautiful jazz score and color usage.
Jazz vocalist Dave Lambert auditions a new group of singers at RCA Studios in 1964.
ZAZ, in August 2014, completed a major tour spanning 5 continents, performing sold out each time. “On the Road” takes us behind the scenes of this triumphant world tour of 93 concerts.
In this intimate portrait—produced for a segment of National Education Television's "Black Journal" television program—legendary jazz musician Alice Coltrane plays the harp and discusses her thoughts on music, spirituality, family, and the legacy of her late husband, John Coltrane.
Pop and jazz fusion vocal quartet The Manhattan Transfer is one of the most celebrated a cappella groups in history, with ten Grammys to their name. They have performed with a cornucopia of the biggest names in music - now including the innovative R&B and gospel a cappella group Take 6. Soundstage brings together these two wildly talented ensembles for the very first time - an unforgettable cross-cultural exchange that will test the limits of the unaccompanied voice!
Jazz Icons: Sonny Rollins features two intimate concerts filmed in the '60s for Danish television at the pinnacle of one of his most creative periods. Cast: Sonny Rollins ... Self / Saxophone Alan Dawson ... Self / Drums Kenny Drew ... Self / Piano Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen ... Self / Bass
After a divorce with her childhood friend, arrogant socialite Tracy Lord is remarrying but her ex-husband in still in love with her. Meanwhile, a gossip magazine blackmails Tracy's family into covering her new wedding. A musical remake of the 1940 romcom The Philadelphia Story.