A feature-length documentary on the life and work of jazz musician and composer Krzysztof Komeda.
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.
In this rotoscope animation, Tom Waits sings about "The One That Got Away."
A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.
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.
Twenty years after Claude Nougaro's death, numerous artists came together to participate in a grand tribute concert in Toulouse, the city he sang about so beautifully. Under the direction of Yvan Cujious and Yvan Cassar, conducting the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, this event brought together Bénabar, Nolwenn Leroy, BigFlo et Oli, Cali, Ben l'oncle Soul, Jean-Pierre Mader, Anne Sila, Natalie Dessay, Cats on Trees, and others, in front of thousands of nostalgic spectators. Recorded on September 8, 2024, at the Place du Capitole in Toulouse, Occitanie.
Proyecto Jazz is a musical documentary that deals with jazz in Santa Fe based on an assignment given to the musician Pedro Casís, to compile material of the band from the last 30 years of jazz in the capital city for the shooting of a film. To do so, Pedro enlists the help of old colleagues from the Santa Fe Jazz Ensamble, a big band founded in the early 80s. Along the way, he interacts with friends, students and alumni, trying to assemble the different generations as important pieces of the film project. Life stories, memories, performances, anecdotes, clinics and of course the music, are addressed in the documentary around the making of the film.
Angelo Debarre meets his friends for a tribute to the culture of Travellers. Since Django Reinhardt, which is celebrated 100 years, until today, this rich music that thrilled several generations. His strength is always reinventing itself. This beautiful tribute takes place around the “fire” in a caravan decor (set created for the show). He is talking about the past and future by remembering the fabulous legacy of Django: spiritual father of gypsy jazz.
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.
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.
Brilliantly mixing animated sequences and archival footage, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre paints a touching portrait of virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson.
The documentary film on the life and legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk – a one of a kind musician, personality, activist and windmill slayer who despite being blind, becoming paralyzed, and facing America’s racial injustices - did not relent.
In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.
Tradewinds in an intimate portrait and examination of the life of CHamoru jazz pianist, Patrick Palomo, whose musical style has combined CHamoru lyrics with the sounds and melodies of contemporary and classic jazz music. Although his music career has spanned decades and continues to influence the Guam music scene, the film explores how his legacy has paved the way for younger artists to follow in his path. Together with rising local talents, Shannon McManus, John Glaser, and Andrew Gumataotao, they form the group, Tradewinds. Together the group produces music highly influenced in the jazz style with lyrics in the CHamoru language. Tradewinds is a film that highlights the importance of language preservation and explores the definition of indigenous art.
Toronto is regarded as the third largest jazz centre in North America. This film features a cross-section of jazz bands of that city: the Lenny Breau Trio, the Don Thompson Quintet and the Alf Jones Quartet. Their styles show creative self-expression, hard work, and improvisation.
A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscurity and poverty to fame and wealth in the early 1940s.
The Sonny Sharrock Band live in Prague as part of the Knitting Factory Festival Tour of Europe 1990.
Crazy is the story of a legendary guitar player who emerged from Nashville in the 1950s. Blessed with incomparable, natural talent, Hank Garland quickly established his reputation as the finest sessions player in Nashville.
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.
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.