With the schedule of touring jazz and creative musicians visiting St. Louis looking sparse for the next couple of weeks, this feature once again is back in “lazy summer" mode, setting aside the usual custom of previewing an upcoming concert to offer a mini-festival of jazz-related documentary films.
First up is Love You Madly, a documentary about Duke Ellington produced in 1965 for San Francisco public TV station KQED by famed jazz journalist, critic and author Ralph J. Gleason.
You can see The Swing Thing, a BBC documentary from 2008 about the Swing Era.
That's followed by three films about three very different saxophonists, starting with Art Pepper: Notes from a Jazz Survivor, a critically acclaimed documentary from 1982 that offers an unflinching view of its subject.
That's followed by Jazz Goes To College, a BBC film from 1966 focusing on a performance by Stan Getz, and My First Name Is Maceo, the 1996 biographical film about jazz/funk saxophonist and former James Brown sideman Maceo Parker.
The final film is The Cry of Jazz, a 1959 documentary film by composer Ed Bland that “uses footage of Chicago's black neighborhoods and performances by Sun Ra and others to connect jazz to African American history."
First up is Love You Madly, a documentary about Duke Ellington produced in 1965 for San Francisco public TV station KQED by famed jazz journalist, critic and author Ralph J. Gleason.
You can see The Swing Thing, a BBC documentary from 2008 about the Swing Era.
That's followed by three films about three very different saxophonists, starting with Art Pepper: Notes from a Jazz Survivor, a critically acclaimed documentary from 1982 that offers an unflinching view of its subject.
That's followed by Jazz Goes To College, a BBC film from 1966 focusing on a performance by Stan Getz, and My First Name Is Maceo, the 1996 biographical film about jazz/funk saxophonist and former James Brown sideman Maceo Parker.
The final film is The Cry of Jazz, a 1959 documentary film by composer Ed Bland that “uses footage of Chicago's black neighborhoods and performances by Sun Ra and others to connect jazz to African American history."
