Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1935–1977) was a multi-instrumentalist who blended political activism with jazz.
(Photo: Courtesy of Monoduo Films)Rahsaan Roland Kirk, a groundbreaking reedist and social justice activist who built a reputation on his ability to play multiple horns at once, will be the subject of a new documentary due out on May 31.
Featuring archival footage of Kirk, as well as intimate interviews and animated sequences, Adam Kahan’s The Case of the Three Sided Dream, will present a look at a musician who persevered through partial paralysis to pursue his passion for jazz.
The Case of the Three Sided Dream premiered at the 2014 South by Southwest film festival, and was later screened at Full Frame, the Blue Note Jazz Festival, the IFC Center, IDFA, Sound Unseen, Big Sky, Noise Pop, PAFF LA, Atlanta, MIFF, Raindance and many other festivals over the past year.
The film was awarded Best Documentary at the 2015 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, as well as Best Documentary at the 2015 Soundtrack Cologne festival in Cologne, Germany. It was also named one of the Top 10 music documentaries of 2014 byNonfics.com.
The film will be released worldwide and will be a joint release by Monoduo Films, Vimeo on Demand, Syndicado and Arthaus. It was made available to stream and download on Vimeo On Demand on May 1, and will be available on iTunes May 31. A DVD release is scheduled for the fall. Further screenings are also planned for later this year in New York, L.A., Toronto and Europe.
Kahan, a filmmaker living in Brooklyn, has made several short documentaries on contemporary artists, including the photographer Andres Serrano, the painter Fred Tomaselli and the sculptor Urs Fischer. The Case of the Three Sided Dream is his first feature.
Kirk, who died in 1977 at the age of 42, was a frequent name in the DownBeat International Critics Poll, placing highly in the Saxophone, Flute and Miscellaneous Instrument categories throughout the ’70s.
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
Mar 30, 2026 10:30 PM
In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
Lettuce, from left: Eric Coomes, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Eric Bloom, Adam Smirnoff and Nigel Hall
Feb 17, 2026 11:05 AM
They were Berklee misfits. Neither jazzy enough for the straightahead crowd at Boston’s highly prestigious College of…
New Orleans Trad Jazz Camp
Feb 19, 2026 10:39 AM
Jazz camps have exploded around the globe as a summertime tradition for working on your chops and making new friends.…
Lovers of the big band experience, clockwise from top left, John Clayton, Leigh Pilzer, Ted Nash, David Pietro and Christine Jensen.
Feb 10, 2026 11:00 AM
The popularity of big band music might have peaked in the 1930s and ’40s, but despite the many changes on the jazz…
