StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jazz documentaries, part 1

This week, let's revisit what has become something of a tradition for this feature in summertime, when previewable shows usually slow down dramatically in St. Louis: the "screening" of some jazz-related documentary films available for free viewing online.

Today's first film A Great Day in Harlem is a 1994 American documentary that tells the story behind the famed photograph of the same name. The picture, shot on August 12, 1958 by freelance photographer Art Kane for Esquire magazine, depicts 57 jazz musicians, including many of the biggest names then active in the music, gathered in from of a building on East 126th St. in Harlem.

After the jump, you can see the 1975 BBC documentary Born To Swing, which looks at changes in the post-WWII jazz scene through the eyes of several alumni of the Count Basie band of 1943, including Buddy Tate, Earle Warren, Joe Newman, Dickie Wells, Buck Clayton, and more.

Next up, it's 1959: The Year that Changed Jazz, another BBC documentary from 2009 that looks at how the music was affected by the release that year of four landmark albums - Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um, and Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come.

That's followed by Inside Out In The Open, a 2001 American film subtitled "An Expressionist Journey Into The World Known As Free Jazz." As the name suggests, the movie looks at free and experimental jazz via performances by and interviews with practitioners such as Marion Brown, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, Alan Silva, Burton Greene, Joseph Jarman, William Parker, Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, Susie Ibarra, and St. Louis' own Baikida Carroll.

The fifth film, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool is from 1994, and it both explores the consequences of AIDS for the African American community and also spotlights collaborations between jazz performers and hip-hop and "acid jazz" artists, including Donald Byrd, Guru and Ronny Jordan; MC Solaar and Ron Carter; Me’Shell NdegéOcello and Herbie Hancock; The Roots and Roy Ayers; Digable Planets and St. Louis native Lester Bowie; and more.

The last two films aren't jazz documentaries per se, but instead look at a couple of genres closely associated with jazz. Our Latin Thing is a 1972 documentary about the explosion of salsa music in 1970s New York, featuring performances, interviews and in-studio footage, while Blues Story from 2003, looks at modern electric blues and includes interviews and performance footage from a variety of musicians, including B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Little Milton, Ruth Brown, Bobby "Blue" Bland, St. Louis mainstay Henry Townsend, and many more.

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