This week, let's take a look at some more jazz documentaries, this time focusing on films that tell the stories of individual musicians. (You can see part one, published last week and featuring movies with more of a broad historical focus, here).
The first video in the embed window up top is The Wonderful World Of Louis Armstrong, which tells the story of the famed trumpeter (and the first great jazz soloist) and was released by the BBC in 1999.
That's followed by Earl "Fatha" Hines, a 1975 film about another influential figure in the development of jazz piano. It was shot at the Blues Alley nightclub in Washington DC for Britain's ITV television channel.
Next up is Let's Get Lost, a critically acclaimed 1988 film by director Bruce Weber about "the turbulent life and career of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker."
Then it'sRonnie Scott and All That Jazz, a 1989 BBC film about the tenor saxophonist-turned-proprietor of London's most famous jazz club.
The penultimate video is Mal: A Portrait Of Mal Waldron, a 1997 film about the pianist who worked with some of the most important musicians and singers of his time, including Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Jackie McLean.
Last but not least, it's The Jazz Baroness, a 2009 biography of Pannonica de Koenigswarter, the British jazz fan and sometimes writer who famously befriended Thelonious Monk and was known as "the patron saint of bebop."
You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
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...
The film, which was written and directed by Bryan Dematteis, tells the story of the multi-disciplinary arts group that operated in St. Louis in the late 1960s and early 70s and helped launch the careers of musicians including Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett, Charles "Bobo" Shaw, Baikida Carroll, Floyd LeFlore, and others.
It was first made available to local audiences in November 2020 as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival, but this will be the first, and so far only, scheduled airing on free TV. (Unlike many other Nine Network programs, it will not be available for later viewing on the station's app or website.)
Nine Network has produced a promotional trailer for the broadcast, which you can see in the embedded video window below.
* As the centennial of Clark Terry’s birth approaches - the trumpeter was born here in St. Louis on December 14, 1920 - IMDb's online video channel is streaming Keep On Keepin’ On, the 2014 documentary about Terry and his protege Justin Kauflin. The film can be seen for free (with registration) on IMDb's website and via the IMDB channel on Amazon Prime video.
* The St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes the death a couple of weeks ago of pianist Herb Drury at age 92 with an unbylined obituary.
* Also from the Post, Dead Wax Records has moved to a new, larger location on the south side and is spinning off a sibling store called Weirdo Records, as reported by Kevin Johnson.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Keyboardist Michael Silverman has been nominated for the Smooth Jazz Network's "Best Breakout Artist" award for 2020. Silverman (pictured) is one of 12 musicians contending for the prize. Listener/reader voting for the award continues through Monday, November 30.
* The Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson reports that the Kranzberg Arts Foundation and Jazz St. Louis will extend their "Open Air" concert series into 2021. The Grand Center presenters are expected to announce 40 additional weeks of programming for the series, with January and February's shows to be revealed early next month.
* Pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio, which produces jazz instructional videos and educational materials, recently reached 50,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel, and to commemorate the occasion, they've compiled a video featuring the "Top 7 Highlights from 2020 with Peter Martin and Adam Maness."
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Drummer and St. Charles native Dave Wecklannounced this week on social media that he will present a free live online drum lesson at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow, Saturday, November 7.
Weckl (pictured) will "review hand technique, take your questions, and do some giveaways" via a livestream on his YouTube channel and Facebook page.
A long-awaited documentary about St. Louis' Black Artists Group (BAG) will make its local debut at the 2020 St. Louis International Film Festival, which will take place online from November 5-22.
"The Black Artists’ Group of St. Louis (BAG) formed in the late 1960s as an arts collective devoted to raising Black consciousness, battling social injustice, and exploring the far reaches of experimental performance. Beyond St. Louis, BAG’s musicians became influential in Europe and in New York, where members helped to found the Loft Jazz scene.
Locally, the group’s spirit lives on in the many St. Louis musicians who cut their chops learning to play in BAG’s community arts classes. Among those featured in the film are Lake, Hemphill, Charles “Bobo” Shaw, Malinke Elliott, Hamiet Bluiett, J.D. Parran, Portia Hunt, Shirley LeFlore, George Sams, Percy Green II, Patricia Cruz, Ben Looker, and Dennis Owsley."
Dematteis, Sams, and founding BAG members Malinke Elliott and Oliver Lake also have recorded a Q&A session, which will be available to watch online following screenings of the film.
For more information on how to purchase access and stream The Black Artists' Group of St. Louis: Creation Equals Movement, go here.
(Earlier this year, StLJN ran a series of six "Saturday Video Showcase" posts highlighting the work and musical legacy of various BAG members: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.)
Zappa: Directed by former St. Louisan Alex Winter (Bill in the Bill & Ted... movies), this documentary about the late guitarist and composer "had unfettered access to the Zappa family trust and its vast trove of archival footage." It includes interviews with Frank Zappa’s widow, the late Gail Zappa, plus former sidemen such as Mike Keneally, Ian Underwood, Steve Vai, Bunk Gardner, Scott Thunes, Ruth Underwood, Ray White, and more.
River City Drumbeat: A documentary about Louisville, KY music educator Edward “Nardie” White and the after-school community drum corps he has led for nearly 30 years.
The Oratorio: Co-Directed by former St. Louisan Mary Anne Rothberg and Martin Scorsese, this documentary tells "the story of an 1826 performance that forever changed America’s cultural landscape with the introduction of Italian opera to New York City."
The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts "The Tonight Show": A documentary that recounts how for one week in 1968, Belafonte "took a predominantly White institution and transformed it into a multicultural and political experience," featuring Black guests from entertainment, politics, and more.
The Ballad of John Henry: A documentary by St. Louis-based filmmaker Matthew Rice "provides a fresh perspective on the song and folk tale by exploring a myriad of related subjects."
This week, let's take a look at the legacy of another notable jazz musician from St. Louis, as seen in the documentary film The Grant Green Story.
Born in St. Louis in 1931, Grant Green was a popular jazz guitarist in the 1960s and '70s, recording for Blue Note and other labels and playing most of the major venues of the era. He was just 43 years old when he died of a heart attack in 1979, leaving behind six children and a discography that included more than 100 sessions just for Blue Note alone, plus numerous other recordings.
Though Green's musical legacy was underappreciated for some time after his death, he was rediscovered in the 1990s, thanks in part to the short-lived "acid jazz" phenomenon, and, more importantly, from his work being sampled by hip-hop artists and producers including A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, and most recently, Kendrick Lamar.
Directed by Charles F. Cirgenski and Sharony Green, who's the ex-wife of one of Green's sons, The Grant Green Story reveals details of Green's biography while it "follows the story of a son's search for his father," incorporating interviews with the likes of George Benson (who once called Green his favorite guitarist), Lou Donaldson, Blue Note recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, St. Louis drummer Kenny Rice, and others.
The film was an official selection for the 2016 Harlem Film Festival, and also was shown at a selection of film festivals that year. Now that it's been released to YouTube, you can see it right here, starting with part one up above and continuing after the jump with parts two and three.
After that, you can see what seems to be the only footage of Green performing that's available online, recorded in October 1969 in Paris, France. Specifically, the fourth video is a set of music featuring Green in a trio setting, backed by bassist Larry Ridley and drummer Don Lamond. In the fifth video, recorded as part of the same session, the trio is joined by guitarists Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel for another short set.
In a related event, Wilburn, Erin Davis, and Miles Davis' daughter Cheryl Davis will appear at "A HOME styled Meet & Greet" from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Thursday, September 5 at the House of Miles EStL (HOME), located in the trumpeter's restored childhood home at 1701 Kansas Ave in East St. Louis.
The East St. Louis High School Jazz Ensemble will provide music for the occasion.
Though this weekly feature typically previews concerts by bands and musicians coming to St. Louis in the near future, the next couple of weeks, alas, are pretty much devoid of touring acts of interest. So we're taking the opportunity to offer some programming for a lazy summer weekend in the form of a mini-festival of jazz documentaries available online.
The first selection, seen in the video window up above is 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz, a well-received BBC documentary that looks at the changes in jazz that started in 1959 as exemplified by four recordings released that pivotal year: 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.
After the jump, you can see A Great Day in Harlem, a 1994 documentary about one of the most famous photos of jazz musicians in history - a picture taken by photographer Art Kane in 1958 for Esquire magazine, in which he depicted 57 of the top musicians of the time in front of a building on 126th Street in New York City. The film was nominated in 1995 for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
That's followed by To Bop or Not To Be: A Jazz Life, a 1990 documentary about Dizzy Gillespie by Norwegian director Jan Horne; The Universal Mind of Bill Evans a 1966 documentary featuring the famed pianist talking about the creative process; Music In The Key Of Oscar, a 1992 Canadian biographical documentary about pianist Oscar Peterson; and Saint John Coltrane - A Love Supreme, a BBC film about the saxophonist from 2004.
You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
The grants range in size from $100,000 to $500,000, with JSL getting get $350,000 for demonstrating "outstanding artistic programs and visionary leadership."
* Also putting out new music this month is drummer/keyboardist and U City native Ronnie Burrage. Recording under the group name Holographic Principle, Burrage, keyboardist Michal Wierba, and bassist Nimrod Speaks will release Dance of the Great Spirit on Friday, February 15 via Truth Revolution Records. They'll promote the album (pictured) with a performance on Saturday, February 16 at the Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
* The St. Louis Banjo Club has elected a slate of officers for 2019 including John Williams as the organization's new president and Tina Miller as the new treasurer, with Don Dempsey continuing as secretary and Joe Feager as music director. The group meets on the fourth Thursday of each month at Affton Elks Club, and will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year with an event in November at the National Blues Museum, date and details TBA.
This week, we take a brief respite from previewing upcoming performances for a look at the recent documentary film The Grant Green Story.
Born in St. Louis in 1931, Green was a popular jazz guitarist in the 1960s and '70s, recording for Blue Note and other labels and playing most of the major venues of the era. He was just 43 years old when he died of a heart attack in 1979, leaving behind six children and a discography that included more than 100 sessions for Blue Note alone plus numerous other recordings.
Though Green's musical legacy was underappreciated for some time after his death, he was "rediscovered" in the 1990s, thanks in part to the short-lived "acid jazz" phenomenon, and, more importantly, from his work being sampled by hip-hop artists and producers including A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, and most recently, Kendrick Lamar.
Directed by Charles F. Cirgenski and Sharony Green, who's the ex-wife of one of Green's sons, The Grant Green Story reveals details of Green's biography while it "follows the story of a son's search for his father," incorporating interviews with the likes of George Benson (who once called Green his favorite guitarist), Lou Donaldson, Blue Note recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, St. Louis drummer Kenny Rice, and others.
The film was an official selection for the 2016 Harlem Film Festival, and also was shown at a selection of film festivals that year. Now that it's been released to YouTube, you can see it right here, starting with part one up above and continuing after the jump with parts two and three.
After that, you can see what seems to be the only footage of Green performing that's available online, recorded in October 1969 in Paris, France. Specifically, the fourth video is a set of music featuring Green in a trio setting, backed by bassist Larry Ridley and Don Lamond. In the fifth video, recorded as part of the same session, the trio is joined by guitarists Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel for another short set.
These two clips document some of the music released for the first time earlier this year by Resonance Records on Funk In France: From Paris to Antibes (1969-1970), a 2 CD/3 LP set that also includes concert recordings Green at the 1970 Antibes Jazz Festival with a different band. At the same time, the label also released Slick! - Live at Oil Can Harry’s, another live recording of Green performing in 1975 at a popular club in Vancouver, BC Canada.
The final video is a promotional film put together by Resonance Records, which tells the story of how the masters were acquired and includes samples from the albums, plus some brief audio excerpts from an interview with Green.
* Trumpeter Kelan Phil Cohran, an influential player, bandleader and educator in Chicago for more than six decades, has died at age 90. Though Cohran is best known for his work in the Chicago avant-garde scene and for playing with Sun Ra, he also had a St. Louis connection.
According to his obituary in the Chicago Tribune (linked above), Cohran moved to St. Louis with his family from Oxford, MS "when he was about 10, immersing himself in the city's robust jazz scene and playing alongside trumpeter Clark Terry in the late 1940s" and lived here until he was drafted into the military in 1950.
* Multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris has posted a recording of "Harvest For The World," as performed last week during his Isley Brothers-themed shows at Jazz at the Bistro, to his SoundCloud page
I Called Him Morgan, the well-reviewed new documentary about the life and death of trumpeter Lee Morgan, is getting a St. Louis engagement, opening on Friday, April 28 at the Tivoli Theatre.
Morgan, a major trumpet star of the 1960s, first gained fame as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and later had a big pop hit with "The Sidewinder." He was shot dead when he was just 34 years old by his common-law wife, Helen, in February 1972 during a gig at Slugs', a club in New York City.
Described as "part true-crime tale, part love story, and an all-out musical treat," I Called Him Morgan recounts the story of their volatile relationship and the killing, using an audio interview conducted with Helen more than 20 years later as the basis for the tale.
The film, which was directed by Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin and shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young, who worked on the recent hits Arrival and Selma, also includes archival photographs and footage, interviews with Morgan's friends and fellow musicians, and recordings of his music.
You can watch the trailer for I Called Him Morgan in the embedded window below, and see a Q&A with the director, recorded at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, here.
As sometimes happens in mid-summer, the next couple of weeks in St. Louis are looking relatively uneventful with regard to touring jazz performers visiting our town. So this week, StLJN is going to take a break from our regular, locally focused sort of Saturday post to share some some favorite jazz films that can be viewed for free online.
Today's first movie, embedded up above, is The Last of the Blue Devils, a 1979 documentary about the history of Kansas City jazz directed by Bruce Ricker and starring Jay McShann, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, and various other notable KC musicians.
After the jump, you can see Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz, a 1997 documentary about the famed record label that helped establish the careers of many jazz greats, followed by 1959: The Year that Changed Jazz, a film produced in 2009 by BBC Four that looks at how four key albums released in the titular year affected the course of music for the next half-century.
The remaining three films offer more in-depth looks at individual musicians, starting with Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser, a 1988 documentary about the pianist and composer that was directed by Charlotte Zwerin.
Next up, you can see Ornette: Made In America, director Shirley Clarke's 1985 film about saxophonist Ornette Coleman and the opening of the Caravan of Dreams performance center in Fort Worth, TX.
Last but not least, it's Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, director Robert Mugge's look at the pianist, bandleader, and cosmic philosopher that was released in 1980.
You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
Today for Music Education Monday, you can take in a workshop with saxophonist Dewey Redman, the late Texas tenor man known for his big, bluesy tone, his associations with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett, and these days, for being the father of saxophonist Joshua Redman.
The elder Redman, who died in 2006, was born in 1931 in Fort Worth and went to high school with Ornette Coleman, forming a friendship that would last a lifetime. He played in Coleman's band from 1968 to 1972, and later started the group Old And New Dreams with fellow Coleman alumni Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell, releasing four albums of music influenced by their former employer.
Redman was much more than just a Coleman disciple, though, putting out a dozen albums under his own name, and a dozen more with Jarrett, recorded during the 1970s when he was a member of the pianist's "American Quartet." He also also performed and recorded with Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian, Pat Metheny, and numerous other jazz musicians active during the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1993, Redman went back to Texas to conduct a workshop with students at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and fortunately, someone had the presence of mind to record the event on video. You can see that video of Redman's workshop, presented in three parts, after the jump.
And if you're curious to know more about Dewey Redman, he was the subject of an award-winning documentary film, Dewey Time: The Sound of A Giant, released in 2001. You can see that film in its entirety in the fourth video embed below...
The movie, produced by the Dutch public broadcasting system Boeddhistische Omroep, offers an intimate look at the Defunkt founder's life both on and off-stage, and includes some footage shot here in St. Louis as well as interviews with St. Louis musicians including Ronnie Burrage, Oliver Lake, Kelvyn Bell, and more.
* Trumpeter, St. Louis native, and former Jazz St. Louis student All-Star Joshua Williams and his band Shades of Jade are prepping a new album, Fingerprinted Memories Part 2, for release in the fall. The Kansas City based ensemble will drop an advance track, a jazz-infused R&B slow jam called "That One" featuring guest singer Derick Cunigan, on Thursday, August 20.
* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis, Calvin Wilson's program “Somethin’ Else,” will focus on jazz versions of soul and R&B songs such as "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" as performed by musicians including Joshua Redman, John Scofield and Marcus Miller. The program can be heard over the air on 107.3 FM, on HD radio at 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.
Then on Sunday night, Dennis Owsley's "Jazz Unlimited" program on KWMU/St. Louis Public Radio will be the second part of a special featuring music from the labels run by the late jazz impresario Norman Granz. You can listen in from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Sundays over the air at 90.7 FM and online at http://www.stlpublicradio.org/listen.php.
This week, celebrate the nation's birthday with a screening of Jazz, the ten-part history of the music directed by famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and originally aired on PBS back in 2001.
Although the series was acclaimed by some as the most comprehensive filmed treatment of jazz history to date, many fans and critics also found plenty to criticize. Many of the negative comments focused on the series' heavy emphasis on older styles, the short shrift given to developments after 1960 - essentially all crammed into the final episode - and the overuse of certain interview subjects as experts, particularly Wynton Marsalis, whose disdain for free jazz, fusion, and other nontraditional styles already was well-known by the time the series was made.
The Wikipedia page for Jazz summarizes a few of the opinions, both pro and con, and you can read a more detailed critique of the series in the article "How Ken Burns Murdered Jazz," by Jeffrey St. Clair, excerpted from his book Serpents in the Garden and published in the magazine Counterpunch.
Though it certainly has a considerable number of flaws and omissions, yr. humble editor believes Jazz the series still is worth watching, as there's a lot of interesting material about the first 50 years of jazz and many of the most important musicians who made that history. Just keep in mind that, hyperbole and authoritative trappings notwithstanding, this is just one person's view of the subject. Perhaps another filmmaker eventually will take up the challenge to do a better job of telling the story of jazz in the 1960s and beyond.
In the meantime, the first episode, "Gumbo," is embedded up above, and after the jump, you can see the other nine, which are titled (in order) "The Gift," "Our Language," "The True Welcome," "Swing: Pure Pleasure," "Swing: The Velocity of Pleasure" (in three parts), "Dedicated to Chaos" (in two parts, and unfortunately missing its middle section), "Risk" (in three parts), "The Adventure" (in two parts), and "A Masterpiece By Midnight."
