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January 19, 2021 5:19 AM   Subscribe

What's your favorite Jazz / Blues documentary? ++ if narrated with gravelly quotes with lots of jazz slang!!

In my long jazz education as a child, I remember many teachers, professors, and movies documenting either one STYLE of Jazz, or one specific Jazz great.

And they did it with style. Usually rusty voices of experts, recounting what it was like to be in the audience or the personalities of the musicians, thick with Jazz slang. When they would speak at length about the talents being shown, or the musical details, the audio tracks would play behind their voices, making the experience almost spiritual, in how you could appreciate specific parts of the style of blues.

I (vaguely) remember VERY gravelly quotes like: "When Louie went into the club that night, he'd change his life as he heard the most beautiful singer. This girl had pipes. That was the night Louie met Elle Fitzgerald, and history was made" (overlaid with tracks of them playing together)

What's your favorite Jazz / Blues documentary? ++ if gravelly quotes with lots of jazz slang!!
posted by bbqturtle to Media & Arts (3 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
"Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool" has lots of gravelly quotes, because basically everyone they interview does an impression of Miles Davis.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:58 AM on January 19, 2021 [3 favorites]


it's been a long time since I watched it but your question is making me want to go back and watch Last of the Blue Devils. From the late 70's it weaves together a hang/jam at the musician union building in Kansas City with a performance of Count Basie band in nearby Lawrence, KS. What I remember most about it is the casualness/intimacy of the conversations and music in the union hall. Looks like there are copies of it up on YouTube.
posted by snowymorninblues at 11:24 AM on January 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


Two recent movies in this genre I plan on watching again are What happened, Miss Simone? and Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Story. Not sure about the gravelly quotes, but plenty of musicology and fan service in both.

The Miles Davis documentary was OK, except they drooled all over Bitches Brew and overlooked In a Silent Way completely. What were they thinking?
posted by Elizabeth the Thirteenth at 4:12 AM on January 21, 2021


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