Deep Blues (1991), Gypsy Caravan (2006), Latcho Drom (1994), Genghis Blues (1999), A Tuba to Cuba (2018), Down From the Mountain (2001), Djam (2017), Songcatcher (2001) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Traditional Music movies.
Storyline: While some successful blues acts sell out arenas and tour around the world, many of the best blues artists remain relatively unknown, playing in small clubs or, in some cases, just in their own yards. Filmmaker Robert Mugge and music scholar Robert Palmer take an enthusiastic look at these lesser-known blues artists, showcasing incredible music from talented players who have never been signed to major labels and generally have not received the recognition they have deserved.
Plot Keywords: music documentary, american south, oral history, social margins, music history, music interviews, music exploration ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Combining footage from 1999 and 2001 tours, this documentary follows five different gypsy bands as they perform across America. Their music is as diverse as their home countries, from Indian raga tunes to upbeat, fiddle-driven Romanian pieces. Despite their varied backgrounds, the musicians are united by their common identification with the "roma" gypsy culture. As the tour progresses, the musicians begin playing together, fusing their styles into new hybrids.
Plot Keywords: music documentary, travel, music festival, multicultural, performing arts, musicians, road movie ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The film takes the viewer on a journey west, from India to Spain, with stops along the way, to dramatize Romany's nomadic culture. This journey takes place over a year's time, from summer through fall and winter to spring. Gatlif holds his camera on the elemental essentials of this life: water, the wheel, fire, beasts of burden and of sustenance, colorful clothes, jewelry, musical instruments, song, and dance. Throughout, via song and dance, young and old celebrate, embody, and teach the cultural values of family, journey, love, separateness, and persecution.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: cultural heritage, no dialogue, visual poetry, dance, oral history, cross-cultural, musical journey ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The extraordinary odyssey of a U.S. musician of Cape Verdean ancestry to Tannu Tuva, in central Asia, where nomadic people throat sing more than one note simultaneously, using vocal harmonics. A bluesman, Paul Pena, blind and recently widowed, taught himself throat singing and was by chance invited to the 1995 throat-singing symposium in Kyzyl. Helped by the "Friends of Tuva," Pena makes the arduous journey. Singing in the deep, rumbling kargyraa style, Pena gives inspired performances at the festival, composes songs in Tuvan, washes his face in sacred rivers, expresses the disorientation of blindness in foreign surroundings, and makes a human connection with everyone he meets.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, adventure, travel, culture, competition, friendship ...
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: music documentary, jazz, new orleans, musical journey, musician biography, cross-cultural, music history ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This is a documentary about the musical artists who performed the songs in the Coen Brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Plot Keywords: concert, documentary, live performance, musicians, american music, country music, music festival ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Djam, a Greek girl, is sent to Istanbul on a mission to find a motor-boat part of her uncle, a former sailor and great fan of the Greek musical style rebetiko. In the city, she meets Avril, a French woman who works as a volunteer with refugees but who has run out of money and not known in Turkey. Generous, fearless and unpredictable, Djam leaves with Avril to Mytilene - a journey of music and encounters.—Rodrigo Gonçalves Winther
Plot Keywords: music, travel, greece, friendship, cultural clash, self-discovery, road movie ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: After being denied a promotion at the university where she teaches, Doctor Lily Penleric, a brilliant musicologist, impulsively visits her sister, who runs a struggling rural school in Appalachia. There she stumbles upon the discovery of her life - a treasure trove of ancient Scots-Irish ballads, songs that have been handed down from generation to generation, preserved intact by the seclusion of the mountains. With the goal of securing her promotion, Lily ventures into the most isolated areas of the mountains to collect the songs and finds herself increasingly enchanted - not only by the rugged purity of the music, but also by the raw courage and endurance of the local people as they carve out meaningful lives against the harshest conditions. It is not, however, until she meets Tom - a handsome, hardened war veteran and talented musician - that she's forced to examine her motivations. Is the "Songcatcher," as Tom insists, no better than the men who exploit the people and extort their land?—Sujit R. Varma
Plot Keywords: music, drama, history, america, country music, female lead, scholar ...
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: music documentary, jazz, live performance, music history, american music, music exploration, music scene ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the 1890s, Sgt. Major John Philip Sousa, leader of the Marine Corps Band, meets Private Willie Little, inventor of an instrument he calls the Sousaphone...and Little's girlfriend, shapely showgirl Lily. To support his growing family, Sousa leaves the Marines and forms his own band; Willie and Lily go along. Though he'd rather write ballads, Sousa's marches bring him increasing fame; from their debut in 1892 the band is a great success. But Sousa's 'no wives' rule threatens the romance of Willie and Lily...as does the Spanish-American War.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, biography, history, american, composer, patriotic, 20th century ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Mali's Music defines the country's cultural identity. Radical Islamists are threatening the musicians. Together with the stars of Malian Global Pop - Fatoumata Diawara, Bassekou Kouyaté Master Soumy and Ahmed Ag Kaedi - we embark on a musical journey to Mali's agitated heart. Can their music reconcile the country?
Plot Keywords: music, africa, documentary, culture, musicians, social change, politics ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This Gene Autry entry was sold to the exhibitors as a "Special" (a term used about once a production season when Republic wanted to charge the exhibitors a higher fee than usual for an Autry film) and finds "Rancho Grande foreman Gene Autry more than a little distressed when he learns that the heirs of the ranch, siblings Kay, Patsy and Tom Dodge, are on their way. The young Dodges have a nation-wide reputation as wild irresponsibles, and Gene already has his hands full trying to save the ranch from foreclosure. Before his death, the late John Dodge had mortgaged the ranch in order to secure funds for a vast irrigation system which must be completed by a certain date or face foreclosure from the Citrus Valley Association. Kay and Tom Dodge show up with intentions of turning the property into a pleasure resort for their eastern society friends, and they are encouraged in this by Dodge family attorney Emory Benson, who also happens to be a heavy stockholder in the Citrus Valley Association and will profit greatly if the Dodges are unable to meet their obligations. To ensure this will happen, Benson also hires some henchies to dynamite the irrigation project. But, hey, not to worry, this isn't the first time (nor the last) that Gene has faced the problem of impudent heirs taking bad advice.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, musical, comedy, romance, rural life, dance, love story ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Cavanaugh and McCauley are after the ranchers land. When the Government announces the land will be put up for auction, the ranchers pool their money only to have it stolen by Cavanaugh's men. They then plan to sell their cattle but Cavanaugh announces a fake gold strike and the cowhands all leave. But Gene's hobo friend the Judge says he will get the cattle to market and he sends out a signal to his hobo friends.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, musical, comedy, romance, country music, song and dance, light comedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Gene joins in the fight against Morgan and his men who are trying to run infected cattle to the railroad. When Morgan's man shoots the Sheriff, Gene runs in the election to replace him. Morgan accuses Gene of the murder but Gene wins anyway and it's not long before he gets the chance to nab Morgan and his gang.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, musical, comedy, romance, country music, song and dance, black and white ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In his will Langham leaves his ranch to his daughter Cody but makes Gene the executor. When Gene refuses to let her marry Cummings, Cummings tries to have Gene killed. Cummings now demands money and Cody stages a fake kidnaping to raise it. But the plan backfires when Cummings learns of the hoax and turns it into a real kidnaping.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, musical, romance, adventure, comedy, singing, dancing ...
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