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Brownie Speaks! (Glanden Productions)
Nearly 60 years after his death, Clifford Brown is still regarded as one of the greatest trumpeters in jazz history. For the past two decades, Don Glanden has researched Brown’s life and music, and interviewed many of Brown’s friends and colleagues. The results have been gathered into a new documentary, Brownie Speaks, and as reviewer…
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Bill Evans: Time Remembered (Reel House download/DVD)
At the beginning of Bruce Spiegel’s documentary, “Time Remembered”, Chuck Israels says that he is constantly asked “What was Bill Evans really like?” Israels, who spent five years as Evans’ bassist, shakes his head and replies “Damned if I know”. Thomas Cunniffe reviews the DVD, which attempts to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding this…
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Ella Fitzgerald: “Best of the BBC Vaults” (Voyage/Universal)
Ella Fitzgerald was a regular presence on television during the 1950s and 1960s. Best of the BBC Vaults, a CD/DVD set just issued in the US, but released three years ago in the UK, collects four classic Fitzgerald TV appearances from 1965-1977. Thomas Cunniffe reviews the collection.
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Erroll Garner: “No One Can Hear You Read” (First Run Features)
In the 1950s, Erroll Garner was ubiquitous: his recordings (on several different labels) were everywhere, and he frequently appeared in concerts and on television. But Garner’s style didn’t fit easily into accepted jazz genres and hardly any pianists played exclusively in his style. Atticus Brady’s new documentary No One Can Hear You Read attempts to…
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Fred Hersch: “My Coma Dreams” (Palmetto)
Like most people, Fred Hersch doesn’t remember his dreams. But the dreams he envisioned while in a medically-induced coma were so vivid, he described them in detail after he regained consciousness. Those dreams, and the story of his illness, are part a of a hybrid jazz/theatre work called My Coma Dreams. Thomas Cunniffe reviews the…
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The Girls in the Band (Artist Tribe/One Step)
With her new film, The Girls in the Band, director Judy Chaikin achieves the near-impossible: a comprehensive history of women jazz instrumentalists in under 90 minutes. Thomas Cunniffe reports that the film contains more information about the multi-racial International Sweethearts of Rhythm than many earlier sources, and it offers an admirable survey of current female…
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I Called Him Morgan (Filmrise DVD; Netflix/Amazon stream)
On a winter night in 1972, Lee Morgan’s estranged common-law wife, Helen, shot and killed the trumpeter in the middle of a packed nightclub. The details of the murder have been elusive for decades, but a new film by Kasper Collin, I Called Him Morgan uses an audio interview of Helen and the memories of…
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Icons Among Us: Jazz In The Present Tense (Indiepix)
It’s the quietest revolution I’ve ever seen states Terence Blanchard in this award-winning documentary about the current jazz scene. Thomas Cunniffe examines both its feature film version and the original 4-hour broadcast edition.
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Jaco (Iron Horse/MVD Visual)
The flamboyant electric bassist Jaco Pastorius was an anomaly in jazz history. Since his instrument has generally gone out of favor in jazz circles, Pastorius’ main influence has been within rock bands. A new documentary, authorized by the Pastorius family, was produced by Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, and features an equal number of rock and jazz…
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Jazz and the Philharmonic (Okeh CD/DVD)
With contemporary music styles cross-fertilizing before our very ears, the training of young musicians requires instruction in an ever-widening range of genres. A gala concert featuring the talented students, alumni and mentors from three pioneering music education programs has just been released as the CD/DVD set (and PBS special), Jazz and the Philharmonic. Thomas Cunniffe…