Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Blindfold Test: Buster Williams
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Charlie Parker (1920–’55)
(Photo: William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress)
Chet Baker (1929–’88)
(Photo: DownBeat Archives)
Clark Terry (1920–2015)
(Photo: DownBeat Archives)The people have spoken, and they want more movie recommendations.
If you’ve managed to watch the 20 previous film recommendations we’ve made (you can find them here and here), start on the selections below, which include an imagined history of Buddy Bolden and Kirk Douglas portraying the doomed Bix Beiderbecke. DB
Bird (Amazon)
None other than Clint Eastwood directed this film about Charlie Parker, who’s portrayed by the inimitable Forest Whitaker.
Bolden (Amazon)
Dan Pritzker, a musician and filmmaker, enlisted Wynton Marsalis as composer, performer and executive producer for this feature film that imagines Buddy Bolden’s life and times.
The Girls in the Band (Google Play)
This 2011 documentary explores the contributions made to jazz by performers who were members of all-women bands during the 1930s and 1940s, and follows the music forward as performers pushed back against marginalization and discrimination.
Jazz On A Summer’s Day (iTunes)
Everyone from Mahalia Jackson to Jimmy Giuffre, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stitt, Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan and Chuck Berry make an appearance in this 1958 Newport Jazz Festival concert film.
Kansas City (Amazon)
The Robert Altman film recreates the jazz scene of the 1930s, and does so with stellar musical performances by James Carter, Joshua Redman, David Murray, Russell Malone, Craig Handy and Kevin Mahogany. Star turns by Harry Belafonte, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Steve Buscemi.
Keep On Keepin’ On (Google Play)
Clark Terry serves as a mentor to a young Justin Kauflin in this truly beautiful 2014 documentary.
Let’s Get Lost (Amazon)
Photographer and director Bruce Weber turns in a documentary that traces the stormy life of Chet Baker. Tune in for an appearance by a young Flea.
Straight No Chaser (iTunes)
Produced by Clint Eastwood’s company, this Thelonious Monk documentary includes vintage footage, as well as interviews with saxophonist Charlie Rouse and drummer T.S. Monk.
Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise (Snag Films)
Travel the spaceways with a visionary composer and bandleader in this 1980 film that splices together performances from several gigs with candid interviews.
Whiplash (Amazon)
This 2014 feature depicts the tempestuous relationship between a drum student and his teacher.
Young Man With A Horn (Amazon)
Largely overlooked today, cornetist Bix Beiderbecke was fictionalized in a 1938 Dorothy Baker novel that later was turned into this film starring Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall.
Updated April 20.
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
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On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
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Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
This year’s Jazz em Agosto set by the Darius Jones Trio captured the titular alto saxophonist at his most ferocious.
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The organizers of Lisbon, Portugal’s Jazz em Agosto Festival assume its audience is thoughtful and independent. Over…
Trio aRT with its avalanche of instrumentation: from left, Pheeroan akLaff, Scott Robinson and Julian Thayer.
Sep 3, 2025 12:03 PM
Trio aRT, a working unit since 1988, shockingly released its very first studio recording this summer. Recorded in…
