Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959), Let's Get Lost (1989), Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got (1985), Ray (2004), Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988), A Great Day in Harlem (1994), A Tuba to Cuba (2018), I Called Him Morgan (2016) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Jazz movies.
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 ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Documentary on the life of jazz trumpeter and drug addict Chet Baker. Fascinating series of interviews with friends, family, associates and lovers, interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life and some modern-day performances.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: musician, drug addict, former lover, friend, daughter, associate, engaging ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Biography of clarinetist and bandleader Artie Shaw, one of the principal figures of the big band/jazz era of the late 1930s and 1940s. He discusses his constant need to seek new challenges, which led to numerous retirements and career changes including his foray into writing, which had long been his primary intention. He speaks about his difficulty in reconciling his fans' popular expectations with his personal, more esoteric musical ambitions. His many years of retreat from public life are also discussed, as well as his notorious series of unsuccessful marriages.—scgary66
Plot Keywords: ex-wife, band leader, actress, singer, musician, fascinating, uplifting ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The story of Ray Charles, music legend. Told in his adult live with flashbacks to his youth we see his humble origins in Florida, his turbulent childhood which included losing his brother and then his sight, his rise as pianist in a touring band, his writing his own songs and running his own band and then stardom. Also includes his addiction to drugs and its affect on his working life and family life.
Plot Keywords: mother, wife, mistress, manager, blues singer, emotional, inspiring ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Sphere Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.
Plot Keywords: pianist, drummer, friend, son, manager, mistress, cool ...
Movie Details Click Here!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 ...
Movie Details Click Here!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 ...
Movie Details Click Here!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 ...
Movie Details Click Here!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 ...
Movie Details Click Here!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 ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A stunning exploration of fading juke joint traditions at the heart of Mississippi blues culture, with Morgan Freeman.
Plot Keywords: club owner, singer, musician, music lover, fascinating, endearing, mississippi ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: MAKE IT FUNKY! tells the story of New Orleans through words, sound and picture in this extraordinary documentary featuring the best of New Orleans' musicians, plus special guests Ahmet Ertegun, Bonnie Raitt, and Keith Richards.
Plot Keywords: singer, musician, performer, cool, engaging, creative, spirited ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In 1950s London racial hostility to Commonweath immigrants is openly paraded. A pregnant girl, initially assumed to be white, is murdered. As two detectives start to investigate, and discover her racial origins were much more mixed, public prejudices and those of the officers themselves are exposed.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Plot Keywords: pregnant woman, fiancé, brother, police detective, police officer, cool, engaging ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple directs this documentary portrait of Academy Award and Golden Globe-winner Woody Allen, seen traveling with friends and fellow musicians during their New Orleans jazz band's 1996 European tour. Allen's relationship with his wife Soon-Yi Previn is captured on film here for the first time, and others on the European jaunt include Allen's sister Letty Aronson. Followed by press, paparazzi, and gushing admirers, Allen returns home to face a more realistic critical assessment during "the lunch from hell" with his aged parents.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: filmmaker, musician, wife, manager, sister, lighthearted, endearing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Having flunked graduation for a second time and needing cash to support his crabby (and thus unemployed) father, Danny Fisher takes a job as a singer in the King Creole nightclub - about the only joint around not run by smarmy crook Maxie Fields who wants him for his own place. He gets on pretty well with Fields' floozy though, and all this plus his involvement with Fields' hoods and with innocent five-and-dime store assistant Nellie means Danny finds his world closing in on him all ways round.—J-26
Plot Keywords: singer, juvenile delinquent, pharmacist, club owner, kept woman, dark, tense ...
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