Highest-Rated Movies about 'Jazz Musician', Sort by Popularity

Whiplash (2014), La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998), Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959), Song of the Thin Man (1947), A Great Day in Harlem (1994), A Tuba to Cuba (2018), American Pop (1981), Ragtime (1981) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Jazz Musician movies.

#1. Whiplash (2014)

Storyline: A young and talented drummer attending a prestigious music academy finds himself under the wing of the most respected professor at the school; one who does not hold back on abuse towards his students. The two form an odd relationship as the student wants to achieve greatness, and the professor pushes him.

Plot Keywords: jazz musician, drummer, teacher, friend, family member, band member, confident ...

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#2. La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998)

Storyline: 1900. Danny Boodmann, a stoker on an American passenger liner, Virginian, finds a baby abandoned on the ship. He names the child Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred '1900' and raises the child as his own until his death in an accident on the ship. The child never leaves the ship and turns out to be a musical genius, especially when it comes to playing the piano. As an adult he befriends a trumpet player in the ship's band, Max Tooney. After several years on the ship Max leaves, and tells the story of 1900 to the owner of a music store.

Plot Keywords: genius, mentor, religious person, businessman, mathematician, suspenseful, dense ...

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#3. Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959)

Storyline: Set at the Newport jazz festival in 1958, this documentary mixes images of water and the town with performers and audience. The film progresses from day to night and from improvisational music to Gospel. It's a concert film that suggests peace and leisure, jazz at a particular time and place.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: jazz musician, audience, uplifting, creative, playful, newport, r.i., stage ...

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#4. Song of the Thin Man (1947)

Storyline: Tommy Drake (Philip Reed), a musician aboard a gambling ship, is shot and killed while trying to break into a safe. Later, amateur sleuths Nick (William Powell) and Norah (Myrna Loy) receive a visit from Phil Brant, Drake's former boss and the the main suspect in his murder. After they give Brant up to the authorities, they start digging around for clues. The pair question Brant's wife and one of Drake's musician colleagues until they start to piece together the intricate puzzle.

Plot Keywords: jazz musician, singer, ship owner, socialite, private investigator, gangster, hilarious ...

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#5. A Great Day in Harlem (1994)

Storyline: Art Kane, now deceased, coordinated a group photograph of all the top jazz musicians in NYC in the year 1958, for a piece in Esquire magazine. Just about every jazz musician at the time showed up for the photo shoot which took place in front of a brownstone near the 125th street station. The documentary compiles interviews of many of the musicians in the photograph to talk about the day of the photograph, and it shows film footage taken that day by Milt Hinton and his wife.—Daren Gill

Plot Keywords: jazz musician, photographer, charming, engaging, new york city, harlem, n.y., daunting task ...

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#6. A Tuba to Cuba (2018)

Storyline: A TUBA TO CUBA follows New Orleans' famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band as they retrace their musical roots from the storied city of jazz to the shores of Cuba. Along the way, they discover a deep cultural connection that transcends language, politics, color and creed. Join the band as they traverse post-embargo Cuba in search of the indigenous beats and rhythms that gave birth to New Orleans jazz. Dark, shared histories of slavery reveal an indelible cultural connection rooted in the hearts and minds of ancestors past. Encounters with some of Cuba's most iconic musicians give rise to both spontaneous and soulful collaborations. Living rooms, back alleys and cobbled stone streets soon bear witness to the connective power of music. Geopolitical divisions melt even further as the band encounters the struggles and hardships of their own city reflected in the streets of Cuba. It is as if they are one place and one people, born to combat despair, oppression, and poverty with ingenuity, humor, and - of course - music. As the journey draws to an end, Pres Hall calls on their Cuban counterparts and take to the streets of Havana in one last raucous musical romp that brings the city to its knees. Inspired and reinvigorated; Preservation Hall Jazz Band returns home to record their new album inspired by their journey, the profound effect of reconnecting with their roots forever shaping their lives and music. A Tuba to Cuba captures the triumph of the human spirit expressed through the universal language of music and challenges us to dig deeper. To find the common ground we all have inside us, and there, firmly plant the flag of brotherhood.—2017 NLF Productions

Plot Keywords: jazz musician, friend, band member, confident, cool, endearing, engaging ...

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#7. American Pop (1981)

Storyline: "American Pop" is the animated story of a very talented and troubled family starting with 19th century Russia and moving through several generations of musicians. The film covers American popular music from the pre-jazz age through rhythm and blues, 1950s rock 'n' roll, drug-laden psychedelia, and punk rock, finally ending with the onset of New Wave in the early 1980s.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: immigrant, vaudevillian, jazz musician, songwriter, rock star, stripper, spectacular ...

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#8. Ragtime (1981)

Storyline: The story runs in the 1910's New York. Coalhouse Walker Jr. is a black piano player. He has won fame and fortune playing with a jazz band. Some white men do not like this situation, and one day they assault him and spoil his brand new car. Walker tries by all means to get justice, without an answer...—Michel Rudoy <mdrc@hp9000a1.uam.mx>

Plot Keywords: maid, jazz musician, father, mother, showgirl, fireman, charming ...

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#9. I Called Him Morgan (2016)

Storyline: On a snowy night in February 1972, celebrated jazz musician Lee Morgan was shot dead by his common-law wife Helen during a gig at a club in New York City. The murder sent shockwaves through the jazz community, and the memory of the event still haunts those who knew the Morgans. This feature documentary by Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin is a love letter to two unique personalities and the music that brought them together. A film about love, jazz and America.

Plot Keywords: jazz musician, husband, wife, confident, cool, fascinating, offbeat ...

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#10. Young Man With a Horn (1950)

Storyline: Aimless youth Rick Martin learns he has a gift for music and falls in love with the trumpet. Legendary trumpeter Art Hazzard takes Rick under his wing and teaches him all he knows about playing. To the exclusion of anything else in life, Rick becomes a star trumpeter, but his volatile personality and desire to play jazz rather than the restricted tunes of the bands he works for lands him in trouble.—Jerry Milani <jmilani@ix.netcom.com>

Plot Keywords: music teacher, jazz musician, musician, socialite, engaging, unrestrained, jazz club ...

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#11. The Five Pennies (1959)

Storyline: Loring "Red" Nichols is a cornet-playing country boy who goes to New York in the 1920s full of musical ambition and principles. He gets a job playing in Wil Paradise's band, but quits to pursue his dream of playing Dixieland jazz. He forms the "Five Pennies" which features his wife, Bobbie, as vocalist. At the peak of his fame, Red and Bobbie's daughter, Dorothy, develops polio. Red quits the music business to move to Los Angeles where the climate is better for Dorothy. As Dorothy becomes a young teen, she learns of her father's musical past, and he is persuaded to open a small nightclub which is failing until some noted names from his past come to help out.—Ray Hamel <hamel@primate.wisc.edu>

Plot Keywords: jazz musician, wife, daughter, coworker, bandleader, spirited, touching ...

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#12. Born to Be Blue (2015)

Storyline: Born to be Blue starring Ethan Hawke is a re-imagining of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker's life in the 60's. When Chet stars in a film about himself, a romance heats up with his costar, the enigmatic Jane (Carmen Ejogo). Production is shelved when Chet's past comes back to haunt him and it appears he may never play music again but Jane challenges him to mount a musical comeback against all the odds.—Leonard Farlinger

Plot Keywords: musician, jazz musician, trumpeter, love interest, moving, emotional, engaging ...

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#13. Highway 61 (1991)

Storyline: A naive Canadian barber who knows US popular culture inside and out meets a flamboyant roadie who needs someone to drive her and her "brother's" corpse to New Orleans. Chaos ensues after the barber agrees to drive her, the corpse, and the drugs stashed within all the way.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: barber, jazz musician, satan, roadie, drug smuggler, offbeat, quirky ...

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#14. Blues in the Night (1941)

Storyline: "Jigger' Lane forms a band that includes singer Ginger 'Character' Powell, wife of the trumpeter Leo Powell, and Nickie Haroyen and Peppi. All of them dedicate themselves to work as a unit and to play 'blues' music. The dedication isn't paying off in money and, while riding the rails in a boxcar, they meet and befriend a gangster named Del Davis. He offers them a job at a New Jersey roadhouse, where Powell falls in love with Kay Grant, a former 'real-good friend' of Davis. But when Powell learns that 'Character' is about to have a baby, he returns to her. "Jigger" tries to make Kay the band's singer and, when this fails, runs off with her. She leaves him with nothing to show for him except a nervous breakdown.Back at the roadhouse, after his recovery, Kay shows up, has a quarrel with Davis, shoots and kills him and plans to take back up with "Jigger", who knows better but just can't help himself. While she is waiting in a car for him, along comes cripple Brad Ames, who she put in that condition, and he gets in and drives the car over a cliff, leaving no survivors in the two-passenger crash. The band is back together at the end, still using boxcars as their transportation, but happy playing the blues.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: convict, jazz musician, jazz singer, femme fatale, pianist, dark, quirky ...

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