Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (1986 Full Movie)

1986 documentary directed by Robert Mugge

Robert Mugge’s 1986 film Saxophone Colossus was widely hailed upon its release as essential viewing for fans of jazz. This documentary is capturing Rollins quintet during an outdoors concert filmed at the Opus 40 quarry garden in upstate New York. The quintet concert footage is effectively juxtaposed with an ambitious, large-scale production: the world premiere of Rollins’ “Concerto For Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra,” performed in Tokyo by Rollins and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. While it’s not as memorable as the small combo performances of “G-Man” and “Don’t Stop The Carnival,” the orchestral segment sheds light on Rollins’ diverse interests in composing and collaborating. Interspersed are vintage concert footage and chats with critics Gary Giddins, Ira Gitler and Francis Davis, who dutifully (and glowingly) opine, each providing insights and context, as does Rollins’ late wife and manager, Lucille.

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Warne Marsh - Logical Lines (1984 - Full Documentary)

"LOGICAL LINES"

A Film Directed by Jan Horne

This is a very rare documentary filmed in Norway during Warne Marsh's masterclass at Trondheim Academy of Music in 1984.

Warne Marsh talks about improvisation, harmony, ear training and rhythm.

Movie contains Warne Marsh's performances with masterclass students and with norvegian jazz players Jon Pål Inderberg, Torgrim Sollid, Terje Bjørklund, Bear Kjellemyr and Karl Håkon Waadeland.

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Eric Dolphy - Last Date (1991 - Full Documentary)

1991 Documentary directed by Hans Hylkema

Click Here For More Eric Dolphy's Videos

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Yusef Lateef: "Brother Yusef - A Chamber Film with Yusef Lateef" (2005 Full Movie)

A Film directed by Nicolas Humbert & Werner Penzel

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Benny Carter - Symphony in Riffs (1989 Full Documentary)

A 1989 documentary directed by Harrison Engle

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Dexter Gordon - More Than You Know (1996 Full Documentary)

A 1996 documentary produced edited and directed by Don McGlynn

This is a copy (less visible in youtube search results) without that annoying central watermark 
Know what I mean ???

The Denmark years are the fulcrum of this film biography, but the events before and after are all absorbing. Dexter's story is told in the main by Dexter himself, filmed in interview over many years. The editing is particularly skilful, as we hear reminiscences from Dexter filmed in his 30s, followed by a different take recorded 30 years later. This intercutting across the ages produces an almost surrealistic effect of splicing and intercutting a life - very bebop indeed.

But the highlights of this documentary are the generous musical takes, presenting Dexter in solo performance, in quartets and, much later in his life, accompanied by a full orchestra in a moving performance of great reflection.

This has been compiled from various sources - video from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and film from the 1940s and 1950s.

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Zoot Sims - In A Sentimental Mood (1985 - Complete Documentary)

In a film shot just few months before he died in 1985, Zoot Sims talks about his musical life and plays jazz classics with Red Mitchell on bass and Rune Gustafsson on guitar. 

1) In a Sentimental Mood 

2) Gone with the Wind 

3) Castle Blues 

4) Sweet Lorraine 

5) 'Tis Autumn

6) Autumn Leaves

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Melissa Aldana - Bridges A Film About Melissa Aldana (2011 - Full Movie)

BRIDGES

A FILM ABOUT MELISSA ALDANA

Directed By Ivan Cordoba

Filmed in New York City between August and October 2011 

(before Melissa won The Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition on October 2013)

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Art Pepper - Notes From A Jazz Survivor (1982 Full Movie)

Notes From A Jazz Surviver

A documentary directed in 1982 by Don McGlynn

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Sonny Rollins & Paul Jeffrey - "Who is Sonny Rollins" (1968 - Full Movie)

This piece of history is the 1968 30-minute BBC documentary that follows the legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins during his self-imposed hiatus from the music business and playing live clubs. At the time Sonny Rollins was frustrated and very vocal about club conditions for all jazz musicians. He felt (for good reason) that the lifestyle that clubs promoted allowing the use of alcohol, drugs and smoking were not healthy for musicians and loud, disruptive talking was not conducive to the over all jazz atmosphere. He wanted better for himself and his colleagues. The footage captures Rollins instead opting to play his horn on the Williamsburg Bridge and in wooded areas. He speaks very passionately about his disapproval of seedy club conditions which happen to still be valid today for a lot of musicians.

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Branford Marsalis The Music Tells You (Complete Documentary - 1992)

Branford Marsalis The Music Tells You

A Documentary Directed in 1992 by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker

Music, Branford Marsalis: The Music Tells You captures the jazz musician/composer in the recording studio, jamming with Sting and the Grateful Dead, teaching student workshops, hanging out backstage, and on tour performing with Jeff Tain Watts and Bob Hurst.

Selections include “Citizen Tain,” “Without a Pass,” “Roused About,” “We Work the Black Seam,” “Classroom Jam,” “The Star Spangled Banner” and “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.”

“An appreciative, hour-long documentary portrait of the jazz saxophonist, directed by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus in typically simple, penetrating style. Seen mostly while on the road, Mr. Marsalis is revealed as an uncommonly articulate musician with distinct ideas about his work in particular and jazz in general. ‘You don’t play what you feel,’ he says, during the discussion from which the film’s title is taken. ‘There’s only freedom in structure, my man. There’s no freedom in freedom.’” Janet Maslin, The New York Times

Wayne Shorter "Legend Du Jazz" 2013 Documentary (Complete - English and French Language)

Ornette Coleman - "Ornette: Made in America" (1984 Full Movie)

"ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA"
1984 Full Lenght Movie By Shirley Clarke

Ornette: Made in America is a 1984 American documentary film directed and edited by Shirley Clarke that studies acclaimed saxophonist and free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman. 

The film does not chronicle the life of Coleman but rather emulates his freeform style by mixing together excerpts from performances, interviews, experimental music videos and reenactments of Coleman's childhood. 

Included are interviews with and original footage of William S. Burroughs, Buckminster Fuller, Ed Blackwell, Robert Palmer, George Russell, John Rockwell, Don Cherry and Denardo Coleman.

The film intercuts interviews, archive footage and psychedelic sequences around Coleman's performance of Skies of America with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra at the city's Convention Center. 

The opening of the now-defunct Caravan of Dreams nightclub serves as a catalyst for the film's production, but Shirley Clarke had actually been working on the film for a span of over 20 years. 

The 1968 footage with Ornette, his young son, Denardo, and frequent collaborator Charlie Haden was filmed by Clarke for a separate film that never came to fruition.

Ornette was Shirley Clarke's last film and reintroduced her to the independent film and jazz music circuits that she had influenced during the 1960s. Clarke's intrusive, fast cutting editing style and Kit Fitzgerald's avant-garde music video work won the film praise.

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Jackie McLean On Mars (1979 Documentary)

The World According To John Coltrane (Complete Documentary)

The Charlie Parker Story (Complete 2005 "BBC Legends" Documentary)

Michael Brecker in Japan (Complete Documentary)

This is a 20 minutes documentary shot in 2004 by filmaker Peter Freed during Michael Brecker Quindectet tour in Japan.

Click here to watch  the video of the complete Quindectet concert in Tokyo

Ornette Coleman "The Ornette Coleman Trio" (Complete 1966 Movie)

This is a 1966 documentary filmed in Paris during the recording session of a soundtrack for a belgian movie called "Who's Crazy".

Rahsaan Roland Kirk & John Cage - Sound?? (Complete 1967 Movie)

Lee Konitz - All The Things You Are (2011 Documentary)