Documentary about St. Louis jazz history will debut November 2 on HEC-TV

Back in February, StLJN told you about filmmaker Christian Cudnik's efforts to make a documentary on the history of St. Louis jazz. Well, Cudnik has been hard at work over the intervening months, and the fruit of his labors, a film called Collective Improvisation: The Story of Jazz in Saint Louis, is now in post-production, with the debut airing set for 8 p.m., Thursday, November 2 on HEC-TV (sometimes known as the Higher Education Channel).

The documentary features new interviews with a number of musicians, DJs, journalists, presenters and others involved with the St. Louis jazz scene, including Dennis Owsley, Prince Wells, Don Wolff, Richard Henderson, Erin Bode, Jerome Harris, Jeremy Davenport, Bob Bennett, Terry Perkins, Roscoe Crenshaw, Martha Stitzel and Paul Demarinis, as well as archival footage of interviews with Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Eddie Randle, George Hudson and others.

If you can't catch the first showing, don't fret; Cudnik says the film also will be replayed on HEC at the same time every Thursday and Saturday in November. HEC is on cable channel 13 in the city of St. Louis and channel 26 in St. Louis County.