Documentaries

“Various documentaries have been made about jazz over the years with mixed results. While the 1993 DVD Masters of American Music: The Story of Jazz is only 98 minutes long, it ends up being far more wide-ranging, less repetitious and better written than the much longer ... Read More

The 80s were the Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker rediscovery decade. In 1988 Clint Eastwood made Bird – a celebrated and Oscar-crowned biography of Parker with Forest Whitaker in the main role. It was actually one year after Gary Giddins brought to the TV screen the ...... Read More

“What’s the problem here?” The voice, querulous and groggy, emerges from the darkness, aborting a smoky run-through of Elvis Costello’s ‘Almost Blue’. Bruce Weber’s Oscar-nominated documentary concerns itself with the same question: ...... Read More

The Last of the Blue Devils, subtitled The Kansas City Jazz Story, is a 1979 film documentary with notable figures from the history of Kansas City jazz starring Count Basie and Big Joe Turner. The film was produced and directed by Bruce Ricker. The film was made at a two ...... Read More

Weather Report documentary made by the South Bank Show that was aired on the 11th March 1984.... Read More

While he can often engender all manner of contention and argument, it’s unquestionable that Keith Jarrett is one of the most significant pianists to emerge in the second half of the 20th Century. An artist who has done it all — performed his own sometimes lyrical, ...... Read More

Renowned Pianist-Composer Chick Corea A prolific explorer of jazz and classical music; 2010 DownBeat Artist of the Year A DownBeat Hall of Famer and NEA Jazz Master, 20-time Grammy winner, and undisputed keyboard virtuoso, Chick Corea has attained living legend status after ...... Read More

The one-hour program aired on Sunday, December 8, 1957, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, live from CBS Studio 58, the Town Theater at 851 Ninth Avenue in New York City. The show was hosted by New York Herald-Tribune media critic John Crosby, directed by Jack Smight, and produced by ...... Read More

A documentary on the origins of Jazz in New Orleans.... Read More

This video, which was shot and edited by Carlos Valladares & Patrice Fisher, shows New Orleans musicians participating at the Ascona Jazz Festival, in Switzerland. It includes interviews with different musicians, a Gospel priest and some of the producers, like Nicolas ...... Read More

Documentary tracing the tenor saxophonist’s career from his beginnings in the bands of Billy Eckstine and Lionel Hampton in the 1940s, through his self-imposed exile in Copenhagen in the 1960s, to his triumphant return to the US in the 1970s and the making of the film ...... Read More

Produced with the cooperation of his widow Alice Coltrane, the documentary focuses on the later period of Coltrane’s work where he explored themes of Eastern spirituality. This is a retrospective documentary on the life and music of saxophonist John Coltrane, featuring ... Read More

Trumpeter-bandleader Miles Davis (1926-91) was a catalyst for the major innovations in post-bop, cool jazz, hard-bop, and jazz-fusion, and his wispy and emotional trumpet tones were some of the most evocative sounds ever heard. He was also one of the most identifiable and ...... Read More

Filmmaker Gary Keys crafts a compelling tribute to late jazz icon Duke Ellington with stunning sound and rare footage. – Filmmaker Gary Keys crafts a compelling tribute to late jazz icon Duke Ellington in this companion piece to Keys’ 1980 documentary Memories of ... Read More

Blue Note was not the only jazz label recording America’s indigenous music from the ’30s through the 1960s, but it may be the only one that mattered. The title Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz is not an idle boast. In the 1950s and ’60s, Blue Note provided ... Read More

The Official Uprising Reggae Festival Website Uprising Reggae Festival is an inseparable part of summer not just for Slovaks, but for the neighbouring nationalities as well. Since its beginning in 2008, Uprising has grown to be the biggest central European festival of reggae ... Read More

The Official Strawberry Music Festival Website Ever wonder what goes on at the Strawberry Music Festivals? Sacramento Sportscaster, Pat Walsh, is a 16-year Strawberry veteran who created a “behind the scenes” documentary of the Spring 2012 Strawberry Music ...... Read More

1959 was the seismic year jazz broke away from complex bebop music to new forms, allowing soloists unprecedented freedom to explore and express. It was also a pivotal year for America: the nation was finding its groove, enjoying undreamt-of freedom and wealth social, racial ...... Read More

The Official Impericon Festival Website The Impericon Festival is a small festival originally held in Leipzig, Germany but has since expanded internationally. The concert is geared towards hardcore punk and metalcore fans. Impericon.com is an online clothing manufacturer ...... Read More

The Official Download Festival Website The Download Festival was conceived as a follow up to the Monsters of Rock festivals which had been held at the Donington Park circuit between 1980 and 1996. The first Download Festival was created by Stuart Galbraith and Andy Copping ...... Read More