04 Aug 2001
Louis Armstrong: 100th Anniversary 1901-2001
A documentary featuring archive footage to celebrate the 100th birth of jazz legend Louis Armstrong.
The Last of the First
The Harlem Blues & Jazz Band during its sunset years: 87-year-old Al Casey, who had worked closely with Fats Waller throughout the 1930s; guitarist Lawrence Lucie, 95 years young, from the bands of Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter and Duke Ellington; saxophonist Bubba Brooks, 79, who was with Bill Doggett; Edwin Swanston, 80, pianist with Louis Armstrong's Orchestra; 91-year-old drummer Johnny Blowers, ex-Bunny Berigan, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra; Ivan Rolle, 85, bassist with Jonah Jones; and 88-year-old Laurel Watson, one-time vocalist with Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Baron's cameras record the musicians through their tours and concerts, capturing their joy in performing together. A celebration of the jazz spirit.
Top Billed Cast
Albert Vollmer himself
Joey Morant himself
Bobby Pring himself
Bubba Brooks himself
Edwin Swanston himself
Al Casey himself
Lawrence Lucie himself
Alex Layne himself
John G. Blowers, Jr. himself
Ivan 'Loco' Rolle himself
Calvin Lynch himself
Laurel Watson herself
Similar movies
Louis Armstrong: 100th Anniversary 1901-2001 Louis Armstrong: 100th Anniversary 1901-2001 Cool Cool Cool
Documentary exploring the meaning and history of cool through the American music that started in the 1940s in the bars of New York and LA, and became known as cool jazz.
Resilience: The Story of Ryan Porter Resilience: The Story of Ryan Porter 01 Feb 2025
Resilience: The Story of Ryan Porter
A short documentary on jazz trombonist, Ryan Porter.
Andrea Motis, The Silent Trumpet 
Andrea Motis, The Silent Trumpet 05 Apr 2019
Andrea Motis, The Silent Trumpet
This film by director Ramon Tort documents a unique moment in the life and career of Andrea Motis: the months preceding the recording of her first album in New York as well as what followed. A time filled with changes and emotions; from leaving her parents’ home for the first time and start living by herself to embarking in a world tour that would take her to places like Japan, United States, Asia and Europe. A crucial time in a young woman's life, who is about to make the big leap…, but is she interested in success or fame? Andrea is not a conventional artist. She lives in the moment, enjoying the small things in life, every day in the most simplest way possible… An entire magical process that can only be understood through her music.
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson 
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson 04 Sep 2004
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
The story of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight boxing champion.
Diana Krall | Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival 
Diana Krall | Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival 23 Nov 2004
Diana Krall | Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival
track list: 1.Sometimes I Just Freak Out 2.All Or Nothing At All 3.Stop This World 4.The Girl In The Other Room 5.Abandoned Masquerade 6.I'm Coming Through 7.Temptation 8.East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon) 9.Devil May Care 10.Black Crow 11.Narrow Daylight 12.Love Me Like A Man 13.Departure Bay 14.Narrow Daylight
Art Blakey: The Jazz Messenger 
Art Blakey: The Jazz Messenger 01 Jan 1988
Art Blakey: The Jazz Messenger
A portrait of inspirational jazz drummer and teacher Art Blakey with Dizzy Gillespie, many pupils including Wayne Shorter, the Marsalis brothers, and a surprising new generation of musicians and dancers.
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story 
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story 31 May 2000
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
Documents the race riot of 1921 and the destruction of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With testimony by eyewitnesses and background accounts by historians.
Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way 
Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way 06 Dec 2010
Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way
A chronological look at the life and career of jazz musician, composer, and performer Dave Brubeck (1920-2012 ), presented through contemporary interviews, archival footage of interviews and performances, and commentary by family, fellow musicians, and aficionados. Emphases include his mother's influence, his wife's invention of college tours, his skill as an accompanist, the great quartet (with Desmond, Morello, and Wright), his ability to find musical ideas everywhere, his orchestral compositions, his religious conversion, and his unflagging sweet nature.
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.
Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast 
Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast 27 Feb 2019
Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast
In the late 1990s, iconic photographer Bruce Weber barely managed to convince legendary actor Robert Mitchum (1917-97) to let himself be filmed simply hanging out with friends, telling anecdotes from his life and recording jazz standards.
Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime 
Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime 01 Oct 2018
Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime
Combining footage unseen since WWI with original scores from the era, this film tells the story of Noble Sissle's incredible journey that spans "The Harlem Hellfighters" of World War I, Broadway Theatre, the Civil Rights movement, and decades of Black cultural development.
Charlie Parker: Bird Songs 
Charlie Parker: Bird Songs 09 Jan 2022
Charlie Parker: Bird Songs
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 wildest improvisations will open the door to future jazzmen. Between shadow and light this film will pay tribute to one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.
The Sound of Seeing 
The Sound of Seeing 01 Jan 1963
The Sound of Seeing
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 inspiration from their surroundings.
Stop for Bud 
Stop for Bud 17 Dec 1963
Stop for Bud
Stop for Bud is Jørgen Leth's first film and the first in his long collaboration with Ole John. […] they wanted to "blow up cinematic conventions and invent cinematic language from scratch". The jazz pianist Bud Powell moves around Copenhagen -- through King's Garden, along the quay at Kalkbrænderihavnen, across a waste dump. […] Bud is alone, accompanied only by his music. […] Image and sound are two different things -- that's Leth's and John's principle. Dexter Gordon, the narrator, tells stories about Powell's famous left hand. In an obituary for Powell, dated 3 August 1966, Leth wrote: "He quite willingly, or better still, unresistingly, mechanically, let himself be directed. The film attempts to depict his strange duality about his surroundings. His touch on the keys was like he was burning his fingers -- that's what it looked like, and that's how it sounded. But outside his playing, and often right in the middle of it, too, he was simply gone, not there."
Jazzeventyret 
Jazzeventyret 13 Apr 2024
Jazzeventyret
From the sound of mountains and endless expanses, to the heavy pulse of the big city. Norwegian jazz is loved by fans all over the world. How did small Norway become a big jazz country?
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.
Don't Fall in Love with Yourself 
Don't Fall in Love with Yourself 13 Nov 2022
Don't Fall in Love with Yourself
A documentary about the life and music of Justin Pearson. An enigmatic underground musician and owner of Three One G records.
Paris Is Burning 
Paris Is Burning 13 Mar 1991
Paris Is Burning
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
Harlem of the West: Then and Now 
Harlem of the West: Then and Now Harlem of the West: Then and Now
The Fillmore was once a thriving, vibrant, and multicultural community with one of the most prominent jazz scenes on the West Coast and hundreds of black-owned businesses. The neighborhood’s prosperity quickly came to an end as urban redevelopment tore through neighborhoods, pushing thousands of families and businesses out of the area. Despite this, hundreds of community activists today worked tirelessly to help reclaim the “Harlem of the West.”