Fire Music
Although the free jazz movement of the 1960s and '70s was much maligned in some jazz circles, its pioneers - brilliant talents like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane - are today acknowledged as central to the evolution of jazz as America's most innovative art form. FIRE MUSIC showcases the architects of a movement whose radical brand of improvisation pushed harmonic and rhythmic boundaries, and produced landmark albums like Coleman's Free Jazz: A Collective Inspiration and Coltrane's Ascension. A rich trove of archival footage conjures the 1960s jazz scene along with incisive reflections by critic Gary Giddins and a number of the movement's key players.
Black February: Music Is an Open Door
Vipal Monga's first feature-length documentary chronicles an unprecedented series of concerts performed in February 2005 by the legendary jazz composer Lawrence D. Butch Morris. The concerts were in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Conduction, Butch's revolutionary technique for live music-making. Butch put on 44 performances in 28 days with 85 musicians pulled from all across New York's musical community. Along with footage from these remarkable concerts that span a full range of musical styles from big band jazz to funk to electronic and symphonic works. The documentary features some of the leading lights of the New York creative-music community, including Henry Threadgill, JD Allen, Brandon Ross, Graham Haynes, Howard Mandel, and Greg Tate. Although the film provides unique insight into New York's vibrant avant-garde music scene,
John Zorn's Naked City
John Zorn's live performance of Naked City's self-titled album at The Marquee Club in New York City, 1992.
Ornette: Made in America
Shirley Clarke's frenetic documentary about multi-talented musician Ornette Coleman.
The Cry of Jazz
Filmed in Chicago & finished in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is filmmaker, composer and arranger Edward O. Bland's polemical essay on the politics of music and race - a forecast of what he called "the death of jazz." A landmark moment in black film, foreseeing the civil unrest of subsequent decades, it also features the only known footage of visionary pianist Sun Ra from his beloved Chicago period. Featured are ample images of tenor saxophonist John Gilmore and the rest of Ra's Arkestra in Windy City nightclubs, all shot in glorious black & white.
Milford Graves Full Mantis
Weaving blistering performance footage from Europe, Japan, and the U.S. with a sublimely restrained, intimate glimpse into a world-renowned jazz percussionist’s singular voice and complex cosmology.
John Zorn's Naked City: Montreux Jazz Festival 1990
John Zorn: alto sax, vocals Bill Frisell: guitar Wayne Horvitz: keyboards, piano Fred Frith: bass Joey Baron: drums
Sonny Sharrock Band - Lucerna Hall Prague 4.10.90
The Sonny Sharrock Band live in Prague as part of the Knitting Factory Festival Tour of Europe 1990.