Jazz Movies

In the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France.

A pair of kidnappings expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City.

The documentary compiles interviews of all the top jazz musicians in NYC in the year 1958, for a piece in Esquire magazine.

Follows Holiday during her career as she is targeted by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she has a tumultuous affair.

A young trumpet player is torn between an honest singer and a manipulative heiress.

A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.

The highlights of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.

During Prohibition, Kansas City was wide open, and jazz was its music. Late in the 1970s, musicians of the Pendergast era gather at the union hall to play, sing, and talk. Some were part of Walter Page's Blue Devils, joined Bennie Moten's band, and stayed with Count Basie's Orchestra. Basie is on hand, as are Big Joe Turner, Jay McShann, and some of his big band. Highlights include Turner's vocals, McShann's sly piano playing, a drum clinic from Jo Jones and Baby Lovett, Jimmy Forrest solos, and remembrances of Lester Young and of how Charlie Parker got his nickname. Throughout is the Kansas City sound: cool and relaxed, blues meeting swing, an afterbeat that calls for dancing.

Meet the jazz musicians, dancers, owner, and guests (like gangster Dutch Schultz) of The Cotton Club in 1928-1930s Harlem.

A group of concerned adults try to ban rock and roll music in their town because they think that the music promotes juvenile delinquency. It's now up to a disc jockey and a hipster to defend the music in a televised trial. The movie also features several rock and roll performances, most notably from Fats Domino.

Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment.

Biography of bandleader Glenn Miller from his beginnings to his death over the English Channel in December 1944.

An exploration of the relationship between jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, who was implicated in his murder in 1972.

A revelatory, thrilling and emotional journey behind the scenes of Blue Note Records, the pioneering label that gave voice to some of the finest jazz artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Men sent their own way await heroin in Leach's apartment.

Sweden 1958. In a small provincial town there is a band who plays dance music twice every week. All decisions are made by Sven Klang, the undisputed leader of the band. A new member joins them, saxophone player Lasse. He starts to criticize Sven's decisions, questions the way they divide the money and he also wants them to be more of a jazz band.

A young man wanders New York City searching for some meaning in life and encounters many idiosyncratic characters.

A troubled, but talented musician flees the US to escape his problems, finding refuge and support in Paris.

Jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam makes questionable decisions in his professional and romantic lives.

Tensions rise when trailblazing blues singer Ma Rainey and her band gather at a recording studio in Chicago in 1927.

Documentary on the life of jazz trumpeter and drug addict Chet Baker. Fascinating series of interviews with friends, family, associates and lovers, interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life and some modern-day performances.

A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Sphere Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.

Considered one of the greatest nights in Jazz history, this film documents the reunion of 30 jazz greats from the Blue Note label filmed at Town Hall in New York City on February 22nd, 1985.

A tribute to jazz diva Anita O'Day, completed just weeks before her death in November 2006.

In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.