Our jazz video showcase continues in vacation mode for another week, with six more full-length documentaries vying for your late-summer attention.
First up is a concert film from the Jazz Icons DVD series, Duke Ellington Live In Holland 1958, It's an 80-minute concert performance from Ellington's big band, which at that time included luminaries such as St. Louis' own Clark Terry on trumpet; saxophonists Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney and Paul Gonsalves; trombonist Quentin “Butter" Jackson; and trumpeter, violinist and singer Ray Nance.
In the first embed window down below, you can enjoy Newport Jazz Festival 1962, a somewhat obscure documentary that includes performances by Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the Newport All Stars, Peewee Russell, Rusty Bryant, Johnny Hodges, Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie.
Below that, you'll find Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, a 1980 film from director Robert Mugge about bandleader, composer, keyboardist and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial emissary Sun Ra. In the fourth spot, Keeping The Groove Alive tells the story of the late piano virtuoso Oscar Peterson.
Batting fifth is Art Pepper: Notes From A Jazz Survivor, director Don McGlynn's 1982 film about the alto saxophonist's hard-knock life and late-career resurgence. Rounding out the six-pack is another film about a troubled jazzman—Internal Exile, a little seen French documentary about Bud Powell that includes some rare footage of the late bop pianist.
