16 Jun 1980
The Blues Brothers
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.
Fire Music
A history of the free jazz revolution.
Although the free jazz movement of the 1960s and '70s was much maligned in some jazz circles, its pioneers - brilliant talents like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane - are today acknowledged as central to the evolution of jazz as America's most innovative art form. FIRE MUSIC showcases the architects of a movement whose radical brand of improvisation pushed harmonic and rhythmic boundaries, and produced landmark albums like Coleman's Free Jazz: A Collective Inspiration and Coltrane's Ascension. A rich trove of archival footage conjures the 1960s jazz scene along with incisive reflections by critic Gary Giddins and a number of the movement's key players.
Top Billed Cast
Similar movies
The Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers Daybreak Express 
Daybreak Express 01 Jan 1953
Daybreak Express
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.
Ray 
Ray 29 Oct 2004
Ray
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.
Assolo 
Assolo 07 Jun 2014
Assolo
Danny 'Sweet Touch' Caputo is a young sax player on the verge of crowning his life's dream, to play in the festival that will send him to the top amongst the jazz greats. With just 50 minutes standing between him and his consecration, as he runs over his last simple question more to pass time than anything else. Danny tries to answer, but instead finds himself projected into another world, one populated by the sensual and very real ghosts of his past...
Der Pastor mit der Jazztrompete 
Der Pastor mit der Jazztrompete 30 Nov 1962
Der Pastor mit der Jazztrompete
When the Lutheran pastor Roland retires, the young priest Roll shall replace him. He plays the trumpet, loves Jazz and his methods are unconventional: From the first day on he offends the village's notables, but he doesn't care so much since he especially targets the youths, wants them to get back to the church again. However the mayor agitates against him, manages to endanger Roll's success. The conflict leads to vandalism and open violence against Roll.
Sweet and Lowdown 
Sweet and Lowdown 03 Dec 1999
Sweet and Lowdown
In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.
John Scofield Uberjam Band Live At The Jazz Fest Sarajevo John Scofield Uberjam Band Live At The Jazz Fest Sarajevo 11 May 2013
John Scofield Uberjam Band Live At The Jazz Fest Sarajevo
In early July of 2012, Scofield released, after ten years of record pause of ensemble Uberjam, a new and long-awaited album called Uberjam Deux...
The Fabulous Baker Boys 
The Fabulous Baker Boys 13 Oct 1989
The Fabulous Baker Boys
The lives of two struggling musicians, who happen to be brothers, inevitably change when they team up with a beautiful, up-and-coming singer.
Music Inn 
Music Inn 03 May 2007
Music Inn
During a decade rife with paranoia, in the middle of the McCarthy era, Music Inn was a bold experiment. Halfway between the Second World War and The Civil Rights Movement, Phil and Stephanie Barber created an oasis in the Berkshire Hills in Western Massachusetts where aspiring musicians came to learn from the very best. Students and faculty, young and old, rich and poor, white, black, and brown convened together and learned from each other. Defying the surrounding environment, Music Inn harbored a racial and cultural harmony where music was all that mattered.
A World Without Beethoven? 
A World Without Beethoven? 15 Sep 2020
A World Without Beethoven?
"What would the world be like without Beethoven?" That’s the provocative question posed by this music documentary from Deutsche Welle. To answer it, the film explores how Ludwig van Beethoven's innovations continue to have an impact far beyond the boundaries of classical music, 250 years after his birth.
You, the Living 
You, the Living 21 Sep 2007
You, the Living
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 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.
Boléro 
Boléro 06 Mar 2024
Boléro
Boundary-pushing Russian dancer and actress Ida Rubinstein selects renowned French composer Maurice Ravel to compose the music for her next ballet. Ravel ends up creating his greatest success ever: Boléro.
Bill Evans Time Remembered 
Bill Evans Time Remembered 01 Nov 2015
Bill Evans Time Remembered
A biographical film featuring the music and times of Bill Evans with interviews from Tony Bennett, Jack Dejohnette, Billy Taylor, Paul Motian, Jon Hendricks, Orin Keepnews, Bobby Brookmeyer, Pat Evans and more, including family and friends who knew Bill Evans well.
Max Roach Double Quartet Stuttgart 1990 Max Roach Double Quartet Stuttgart 1990 Max Roach Double Quartet Stuttgart 1990
Max Roach and his double quartet live from Stuttgart, West Germany in 1990.
The Devil’s Blues 
The Devil’s Blues 26 Jun 2025
The Devil’s Blues
In 1932 Harlem, aspiring jazz trumpeter Ethel Franklin struggles to get her foot in the door. Dejected after another fruitless night, an opportunity arises to prove herself as the greatest. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Ethel goes against the most sinister being known to man: The Devil.
Streetlight Opus 
Streetlight Opus 06 Dec 2023
Streetlight Opus
When two buskers find themselves situated on the same busy street corner, a musical battle ensues when the musicians realise that the lively city isn't big enough for the both of them
Bird 
Bird 01 Jun 1988
Bird
Saxophone player Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker comes to New York in 1940 and is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.
Saxophone Colossus 
Saxophone Colossus 01 Jan 1998
Saxophone Colossus
Tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins has long been hailed as one of the most important artists in jazz history, and still, today, he is viewed as the greatest living jazz improviser. In 1986, filmmaker Robert Mugge produced Saxophone Colossus, a feature-length portrait of Rollins, named after one of his most celebrated albums.
Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz 
Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz 01 Oct 1997
Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz
"It must schwing!" was the motto of Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, two German Jewish immigrants who in 1939 set up Blue Note Records, the jazz label that was home to such greats as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. Blue Note, the most successful movie ever made about jazz, is a testimony to the passion and vision of these two men and certainly swings like the propulsive sounds that made their label so famous.
Louis Armstrong: 100th Anniversary 1901-2001 
Louis Armstrong: 100th Anniversary 1901-2001 04 Aug 2001
Louis Armstrong: 100th Anniversary 1901-2001
A documentary featuring archive footage to celebrate the 100th birth of jazz legend Louis Armstrong.