I’m interested in finding documentaries (or possibly biopics) about jazz musicians. Ones I’ve seen so far:
Bird (Charlie Parker)
Let’s Get Lost (Chet Baker)
Charles Mingus, Triumph of the Underdog
Thelonious Monk
Dave Brubeck (TV doc)
I’ve also seen romanticized films such as The Benny Goodman Story and the like, but those are not of interest. Any recommendations appreciated.
Round Midnight?
Straight No Chaser?
Les Paul: Chasing Sound?
That sort of thing worth pursuing?
ETA: check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_music_and_musicians
This was especially hard to watch a few minutes of: All Night Long (1962).
That in spite of having
– Dave Brubeck … Himself - Piano
– John Dankworth … Himself - Alto Sax (as Johnny Dankworth)
– Charles Mingus … Himself - Bass
– Bert Courtley … Himself - Trumpet
– Keith Christie … Himself - Trombone
– Ray Dempsey … Himself - Guitar
and Patrick McGoohan in the cast. Music was cheesy at best.
And The Subterraneans (1960) has some jazz folks in a sappy period piece.
If you have even the slightest interest in that sort of movie, there are others. For a while in the 50’s and early 60’s jazz was “in” enough to be background music in any number of movies and TV shows.
Straight, No Chaser is the Monk film I’ve seen.
I’ve also seen Round Midnight, which is fiction, but based on a real musician.
The Les Paul film is a possibility, though.
Appreciate the link to Wiki, but most of those films are not jazz documentaries. In fact, some of them are animated films, and one (Play Misty For Me) is a psychokillerbitch film.
There is no end to films with musicians in them, or even films that just contain musicians’ gigs. That’s really not what I’m looking for.
Have you seen Ken Burns’ documentary, Jazz?
It tries to be definitive and doesn’t succeed (too many folks not given enough air time), but is otherwise fascinating and informative.
How about that documentary A Great Day in Harlem, about the famous photo with all of the jazz players in it?
oh, and while **Tom Dowd: The Language of Music **touches on a variety of music styles including jazz, it is so damn good and Dowd’s contributions to music so important that you need to see it anyway. There will be a quiz.
Amen to both! Dowd is amazing in all he did for good music.
I would also suggest that there are any number of good YouTube videos on all aspects of jazz. Bill Evans especially.
How about *Buena Vista Social Club *from 1999? About Cuban jazz musicians.
Dang! Yeah, I saw that one, too. Sorry about my incomplete list.
I’ve reserved the Les Paul film and The Miles Davis Story at the library. My wife thinks Paul is a poseur as far as jazz goes, but without him we wouldn’t have had the electric guitar or rock and roll as soon as we did. I tend to agree with her as far as genre, but even with true jazz guitar, a little goes a long way with me.
Those sound good. The Lenny Breau film is not available at Amazon, however.
If you can stand to watch it 10 minutes at a time, it’s on YouTube. My friend Pierre Brault (no relation) did a fantastic one man play called ‘Five O’Clock Bells’, where he simultaneously played the seven people who were closest to Lenny - his mother, his father, his first wife, a Winnipeg jazz musician who got him out of country and into jazz, Don Francks, Chet Atkins and his last wife. Link goes to a CBC piece from when the play first came out…
I found thiscool, cool link while I was looking. I don’t think I’ve seen a tenth of what’s on it, and it looks like the person who compiled it gets your notion of documentary rather than feature film.
Nancy Wilson had a great series on NPR called Jazz Profiles that was available as a podcast last year. It’s still there on iTunes - npr: jazz profiles podcast. (Audio only, natch.)
Hmm, I haven’t seen either of these…may have to check them out.
**Chefguy **- Les Paul played commercial pop with a heavy jazz influence, but it is not like he was Joe Pass or anything. But that documentary is great for making the case for Les Paul’s influence in all of the music that came after him…
Wow. Breau was a major talent and I never heard of him. What a sorry ending for a great musician.
We just watched the Tom Dowd film. The most famous man you never heard of, I guess. Very well done film.
Another vote for Bird – I’ve seen it three times and I don’t even like jazz! Forrest Whitaker is one hell of an actor!
I see where they have Lady Day (1993) at the library. Anybody seen it? The combination documentary and concert scene DVD on Ben Webster arrived today from Amazon.
My work here is done ;). Quiz: what song / artist were you most amazed by the story about? For me it was his suggesting the Tom Tom beat for Sunshine of Your Love. My realizing the drums mattered more than the famous riff was part of my listenng education. To hear it was the key that brought the music ttogether was really cool.
“Exactly Like You” is a biopic about Billy Tipton. I also found reference to a short film on his/her life and career titled “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.” However, I don’t find either of these on IMDB, so they may be a challenge to find.