StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Summer 2014 jazz film festival

It's summertime, when the livin' is allegedly easy, and yr. humble editor needs a brief respite from the usual blogging routine. So today, in keeping with a venerable tradition that we just made up a couple of years ago, we're bringing back StLJN's online summer festival of jazz-related films, featuring a whole day's worth of documentaries about some all-time greats of jazz. .

First up is On The Road with Duke Ellington, filmed in 1967 by documentarian Robert Drew and updated in 1974 after Ellington's death, which offers an inside look at the Duke traveling and working with his orchestra.

After the jump, you'll find Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way, a 2010 BBC documentary about Brubeck's life and work.

The life of another famous jazz pianist, Oscar Peterson, is the subject of the next film, Music in the Key of Oscar, which was made in 2004.

The fourth movie, The World According to John Coltrane, is a 1990 documentary about the groundbreaking saxophonist, bandleader and composer, directed by Robert Palmer and Toby Byron.

In the fifth slot, it's Triumph of the Underdog, a 1998 documentary about bassist Charles Mingus, produced in cooperation with his widow Sue Mingus and bearing the same name as Mingus' well-known autobiographical book.

The festivities conclude with Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas, produced in 2013 by the BBC as "a celebration of some of the greatest female jazz singers of the 20th century," including Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and more.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...