Komeda, Komeda...

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 label Blue Note Records.

A look at the life and work of composer Nino Rota.

Passing the Torch documents a ninety year old Jazz master, Jimmy Heath, mentoring teenage musicians with a thirst for knowledge and an appreciation of America's homegrown art form, Jazz. Director Bret Primack captures Heath's gentle, humorous sharing of life lessons and the non-threatening way he guides aspiring artists to musical excellence. An esteemed mentor, Mr. Heath reaches a much younger generation by understanding his role, to be dependable, engaged, authentic, and finely tuned to their needs.

The life and times of Joe Albany, a little-known jazz pianist, is the subject of this specialized documentary that not only brings out the pianist himself, but the mood and feeling of the era in which he reached the top. Albany talks about the great musicians and singers he worked with - Billie Holliday and Charlie Parker among them - and how so many succumbed to drugs and died young. He is followed around at home, work, on the bus, and in other settings as he is interviewed by director Carole Langer. His sharp observations and dry sense of humor enliven the stories.

The picture brings interviews with the participants of the 1st São Paulo Jazz Festival that occurred in Anhembi Conventions Palace in September 1978 and reunited musicians, composers and singers from all around the world.

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

In the late sixties, the American saxophone player and living jazz legend Ben Webster lived in Amsterdam for a year. Webster, who was born in Kansas City in 1909, was a unique personality in the world of jazz and blues. In the thirties, he played with all the great names. During his Amsterdam period, he stayed with an elderly landlady, Mrs Hardloper, with whom he appeared on a national talk show. In conversations with Van der Keuken, he muses on the past; on the fantastic experience of playing in the renowned Duke Ellington band; or on one of his best friends, who was so deft at eating with a knife and fork. Short, fragmented remarks, which Van der Keuken has edited in a loose, improvised editing style.

Renowned journalist and jazz critic Nat Hentoff tells the story of his longtime colleague, pioneering TV writer/director/producer, Robert Herridge. Herridge, working closely with Hentoff, was the key force behind the making of some of the most important music productions in American television history, from "The Sound of Jazz" (1957), featuring Billie Holiday, Thelonius Monk, Lester Young, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge, to "The Sound of Miles Davis" (1959), with Davis, John Coltrane and Gil Evans ... to a pair of folk and blues shows, featuring Joan Baez's first national TV appearances (1960), which Bob Dylan says enticed the then 19-year-old Minnesotan to move to New York City and begin his extraordinary career. "The Jazz Television of Robert Herridge" offers Nat Hentoff's video-rich celebration of one of the great musical collaborations of the 20th century.

A tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland, with Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Etta James, Marvin Gaye, David Bowie, and many more geniuses on tape; a cool Quincy Jones and a laughing Herbie Hancock; sweaty musicians, crazy audiences, and some very rare files.

A 1975 documentary on the great Blues pianist Earl Hines, one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano.

In this sober and moody documentary, director Anders Østergaard explores the life - and death - of Swedish wonder kid jazz pianist Jan Johansson through a rain-soaked windshield.

A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.

Portrait of the jazz great during his self-enforced exile from his audience as protest against the war in Vietnam. Filmed playing with students in Harlem, in the countryside, and on the Williamsburg Bridge, Rollins' melodic sense throughout the film is as probing as soulful as ever.

A documentary about the life and career of American jazz guitarist Tal Farlow

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.

Archive performances and interviews explore the influence of the four major jazz albums made in 1959 by Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman.

This episode focuses on Zappa's early 70s albums, Overnight Sensation (1973) and Apostrophy (') (1974). Together they encapsulate Zappa's extraordinary musical diversity and were also the 2 most commercially successful albums that he released in his prolific career. Included are interviews, musical demonstrations, rare archive & home movie footage, plus live performances to tell the story behind the conception and recording of these groundbreaking albums. Extras include additional interviews and demonstrations not included in the broadcast version, 2 full performances from the Roxy in 1973 and Saturday Night Live in 1976, and new full live performance done specially for these Classic Albums.

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.

Director — and piano player — Clint Eastwood explores his life-long passion for piano blues, using a treasure trove of rare historical footage in addition to interviews and performances by such living legends as Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann, as well as Dave Brubeck and Marcia Ball.

Shirley Clarke's frenetic documentary about multi-talented musician Ornette Coleman.