Jazz Icons: Cannonball Adderley boasts two beautifully filmed concerts from one of the most celebrated sextets in jazz history, captured at the top of their game. Cannonball Adderley (alto sax), Nat Adderley (cornet) and the masterful Yusef Lateef (tenor sax, flute, oboe), provide a massive three-horn frontline attack, while the stellar rhythm section featuring a pre-Weather Report Joe Zawinul (piano), Sam Jones (bass) and Louis Hayes (drums) fuel the songs with a deep infectious swing. Quincy Jones’ “Jessica’s Day” leaps from the gate with a huge “big band” sound that is extraordinary for only six musicians. This DVD is a reminder that Cannonball Adderley was one of the most outstanding and highly respected alto saxophonists in the history of jazz, a blues-based jazzman who could play anything in superb fashion.
In this extraordinary short animation, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly onto their filmstrip. The result is a vivid interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio.
Chet Baker features two concerts by the foremost interpreter of the West Coast school of cool jazz. Filmed in Europe 15 years apart, these two shows seen together provide an overview of Baker’s illustrious career. The first show is a haunting 1964 performance in a Belgian TV studio with a quartet including long-time sidemen saxophonist Jacques Pelzer and French pianist Rene Urtreger. Songs include the Miles Davis classic, “So What,” and the jazz standard “Time After Time” (a very rare rendition featuring Chet’s “Cool” vocal style.) The soulful1979 set from Norway, with a trio featuring vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid, highlights the growth and maturity of this troubled but inspiring artist.
Chet Baker plows a uniquely individual furrow in the field of jazz. His trumpet playing is beautifully delicate and takes standard ballads into hitherto unexplored emotional territories. Here Chet is accompanied by Michel Grailler on piano and Riccardo del Fra on bass. Two of Chet's admirers also guest star here: Van Morrison and Elvis Costello.
In Opus One, Hao Jingban employs a dual-channel video to connect two historical moments through music. As a young Chinese couple in bustling 21st-century Beijing browse TikTok for swing dances, they find themselves caught up in the craze that swept through the African American community in Harlem in the 1930s and gave rise to the Lindy Hop, a development of the Charleston. Their process of studying the dancers’ movements while exploring the icons, legends and dance halls of the era takes them far beyond the simple aim of learning to dance, and they end up forging a dialogue between two different moments in history united by a shared need for bodily expression and popular creation and an avid passion for music.
A homage to Bruce Weber's Favourite things, these being mixing film, photography and classic movies. With portraits of a lesbian jazz singer and a 16-year-old wrestler.
Shipwrecked African-American slaves arrive in the midst of Bakumatsu-era Japan; they soon carve out a niche in the market with their musical talents.
Kirk Whalum curates this exciting collection of musicians, coming together to perform THE GOSPELACCORDING TO JAZZ. The artists include Kim Burrell, Jonathan Butler, Georke Duke, Paul Jackson Jr. and Tata Vega, all neatly complementing Whalum's forays into jazz, blues and gospel.
"Sax Maniac: The Life and Times of James Chance" delves into the groundbreaking career of James Siegfried, better known as James Chance or James White, a seminal figure in the late 1970s and early 1980s New York City "No Wave" music scene. Produced and directed by his brother, David Siegfried, the documentary chronicles James's journey from his early days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he first explored jazz and protopunk.
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.
Miroslav Vitouš – jazzová legenda
The Woodstock Jazz Festival, Woodstock NY, 1981 was a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Creative Music Studio. With performances by Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Anthony Braxton, Lee Konitz, Miroslav Vitous,
BBC archivists recently unearthed a veritable treasure trove of Ella Fitzgerald shows recorded by the BBC. Featuring two shows from 1965, and a performance live at Ronnie Scott’s from 1974; this is the timeless Ella Fitzgerald.
The history of American popular music runs parallel with the history of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, with each male descendant possessing different musical abilities.
Django Reinhardt, trois doigts de génie
Jazz in Marciac 2000 - Biréli Lagrène et Sylvain Luc
A short documentary on jazz trombonist, Ryan Porter.
Three basketball players step onto the court, each with a rhythm of their own. As their movements are studied and reimagined, their game is then recontextualized into jazz, revealing the artistry within sport and the music hidden in motion.
Nina Simone in concert at the International Jazz Festival City of Pompeii in 1983
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...