Film Reviews
Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.
Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon
This article was originally published at All About Jazz on June 5, 2008. Finding Validation Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon is a film that tells the story of trumpeter-vocalist-actor-comedian Jack Sheldon's remarkable life and career. Beginning with his impoverished childhood in segregated Florida and proceeding to his formative Hollywood teenage years with the legendary Chet Baker, the film follows Sheldon's career as he swings through the Stan Kenton and Benny Goodman bands, creating ...
read moreClarence Clemons: Who Do I Think I Am?
Clarence Clemons Who Do I Think I Am? MVD/Virgil Films 2019 Everyone probably has their favourite Clarence Clemons saxophone solo. Take that fiery blast at the close of Bruce Springsteen's “Thunder Road," for example, where Clemons blows a divine howl like some avenging angel. Clemons's life is documented in this film by director Nick Mead, who neatly uses black and white footage to highlight the musician's striking demeanour. Despite various hip and knee replacements ...
read moreBlue Note Records Beyond The Notes
Blue Note Records Beyond The Notes Director: Sophie Huber Run Time: 111 minutes Eagle Rock Entertainment 2019 Blue Note fans will love this film. It is an unblemished, 360-degree, feel-good feast for the eyes and the ears. Intended by director Sophie Huber to make sense to newcomers to jazz, Blue Note Records Beyond The Notes does not offer any arcane new perspectives on the label. It is instead a ...
read moreRolling Stones: Bridges To Buenos Aires
Rolling Stones Bridges To Buenos Aires Eagle Rock Entertainment 2019 Bridges to Buenos Aires is the second Rolling Stones concert release this year from the iconic band's world tour in support of Bridges to Babylon (Virgin America, 1997). And, while the decision may be questionable from a marketing point of view , the fact is this second title has every bit the production and perhaps even more passion and precision in the playing so evident ...
read moreHorn From The Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story
Paul Butterfield Horn From The Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story Abramorama 2019 It is absolutely riveting to watch Horn From The Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story. And, likely as not, any music-loving viewer who begins will not be able to stop til the ninety-five minutes is over. Co-producers/writers/directors John Anderson and Sandra Warren tell the colorful but ultimately tragic story of the late bluesman with a precision comparable to the instrumental arrangements for his ...
read moreClarence Clemons: Who Do I think I am?
Clarence Clemons Who Do I Think I Am? MVD/Virgil Films 2019 It's difficult if not impossible to become enraptured watching the late Clarence Clemons' biopic/documentary Who Do I Think I Am? . But as with an autobiography Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales (Grand Central Publishing, 2009), that delivered mere flashes of self-awareness, the rhapsodic sensation is unfortunately fleeting. It takes roughly half the ninety-minute running time of Who Do I ...
read moreMiles Davis: Birth of the Cool
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Firelight Films Director: Stanley Nelson Run Time: 115 minutes 2019 In addition to his place as a legendary jazz musician, Miles Davis has long been a cultural hero for the African American community and for so many others of varied backgrounds and ethnicity around the world. We all continue to marvel at his creativity, personal independence, and passionate willingness to go to the wall ...
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Contest Giveaway
ELIGIBLE WINNERS: 10 | DAYS REMAINING: 26
Prize: 10 copies of Rhythm Abstraction: Azure by Frank Macchia
Rhythm Abstraction: Azure is the first volume of new compositions created as a follow up to 2018’s release Rhythm Kaleidoscope. As with that release, Brock Avery improvised drum and percussion solos. Frank Macchia then composed music for woodwinds and orchestra to Brock’s creations. Azure is the first of three extended play albums of 6-7 compositions which will be released starting in January and followed up in April and July. In Azure we have a created a group of pieces that continue our quest for honoring the art of improvisation with a “stream-of-consciousness” sense of composition,...
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