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.
A loose fictitious of Charlie Parker's last years and a portrait of the jazz scene in 1960's New York. A black jazz musician bent on self destruction forms an odd friendship with a white college professor full of feeling sorry for himself.
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.
A jazzy riff on 'Fantasia' from the creator of Gumby.
During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.
JAZZ HOT is a major discovery, a unique sync sound film recorded of Django Reinhardt, greatest of jazz guitarists, here with violinist Stephane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France.
Weather Report was founded in 1970 by musicians who had met while playing with Miles Davis. This Montreux Festival show from 1976 follows on from the release of their album "Black Market" but features the line-up that would release their most famous and successful album "Heavy Weather" in 1977. This line-up features Joe Zawinul (keyboards), Wayne Shorter (saxophones), Jaco Pastorius (bass), Alex Acuna (drums) and Manolo Badrena (percussion). Previously only available as a bootleg of a TV broadcast, this new DVD release is fully authorized and has been restored to its full length.
A web documentary that explores Montreal’s incredible contribution to jazz music history through the legendary black musicians of Little Burgundy – the neighbourhood that was a hub of musical creativity, private clubs and speakeasies from the Jazz Age 1920s to the Golden Era of Jazz in the 1940s and 50s. Oscar Peterson, Oliver Jones, Norman Marshall Villeneuve, the Sealey Brothers, Nelson Symonds, and Louis Metcalf are among the greats who lived or played in "Burgundy".
Duke Ellington and Orchestra perform 'C Jam Blues'.
An evil spider kidnaps a housefly from a cabaret and takes her to his secret lab.
Documentary about legendary Swedish jazz club "Nalen" featuring interviews with old musicians and singers, and old clips from the place in its glory days
A Broadway musical comedy star tires of the same old grind and flees the city. She runs into the skipper of a showboat who befriends her, and they make plans to put together a musical revue. But a competing carnival owner hatches a scheme to put an end to the show before it begins.
Jazz vocalist Dave Lambert auditions a new group of singers at RCA Studios in 1964.
In this short film, prominent jazz musicians of the 1940s gather for a rare filming of a jam session. This highly stylized chronicle features tenor sax legend Lester Young.
It's 1959 in a seedy bar in Philadelphia, and Billie Holiday is giving one of her last performances interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music 4 months before her death.
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.
The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organize the greatest solo concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.
Herbie is a short 16mm black and white film by George Lucas and Paul Golding made in 1966 as part of their USC film school course. It is an abstract film with no story and no actors, that graphically depicts the reflections of moving light streaks and light flashes from traffic at night. It is set to a piece of jazz music by Herbie Hancock, whose first name was used for the title.
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.
The daughter of a preacher becomes the centerpiece for a conservative political campaign but finds herself falling in love with a woman.