StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jazz documentary film festival, part 3

As we head into the dog days of summer, things still are relatively quiet on the touring-acts-coming-to-St. Louis-soon front, and so this week, StLJN offers a third installment of this year's online mini-festival of documentary films of interest to jazz fans. 

First up via the video embed above is Earl "Fatha" Hines, a documentary about the pianist made in 1975 for Britain's ITV television channel. Filmed mostly after hours at the Blues Alley nightclub in Washington DC, it was described at the time by the International Herald Tribune as "the greatest jazz film ever made."

After the jump, you can see Inside Out In The Open, subtitled "An Expressionist Journey Into The World Known As Free Jazz." Made in 2008 by producer/director Alan Roth, it features performance footage and interviews with creative musicians including the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Joseph Jarman, pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, trumpeter and former St. Louisan Baikida Carroll, and many more.

That's followed by three films offering biographies of individual musicians: Mal: A Portrait Of Mal Waldron, a 1997 documentary about the New York pianist; Jim Hall: A Life In Progress, the story of one of the most highly esteemed guitarists in jazz; and The Allen Toussaint Touch, a 2006 BBC documentary about the New Orleans pianist, songwriter and producer.

The final film today is The Land Where the Blues Began, a 1979 documentary by historian, musicologist, and folklorist Alan Lomax that traces the origins of the blues and helps explain how it is foundational for jazz, rock, country, soul, and American music in general.

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