J.D. Allen Live

Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.

Jazz legend Chet Baker finds love and redemption when he stars in a movie about his own troubled life to mount a comeback.

During the 1960s, two American jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls and must decide between music and love.

Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.

A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscurity and poverty to fame and wealth in the early 1940s.

Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.

A fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting and her tempestuous marriage to gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom.

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

A pair of star-crossed dancers in New York find themselves at the center of a bitter rivalry between their brothers' underground dance clubs.

Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment.

Martin Scorsese's documentary intertwines footage from The Band's incredible farewell tour with probing backstage interviews and featured performances by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, and other rock legends.

An eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favourite musicians to perform at his home.

A dancing bear escapes from the zoo and finds his way to Tom and Jerry's house. He dances with Tom, making it impossible for Tom to call the authorities; Jerry takes every opportunity to play music and keep Tom and the bear dancing

In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.

Film telling the untold story of John Lennon's 1971 album Imagine, exploring the creative collaboration between Lennon and Yoko Ono and featuring interviews and never-seen-before footage.

An opportunistic singer woos a wealthy widow to boost his career.

Young Cole Carter dreams of hitting the big time as a Hollywood disc jockey, spending his days and nights hanging with buddies and working on the one track that will set the world on fire. Opportunity comes knocking when he meets James Reed, a charismatic DJ who takes the 23-year-old under his wing. Soon, his seemingly clear path to success gets complicated when he starts falling for his mentor's girlfriend, jeopardizing his new friendship and the future he seems destined to fulfill.

With the help of more than 10,000 dedicated Zappa fans, this is the long-awaited definitive documentary project of Alex Winter documenting the life and career of enigmatic groundbreaking rock star Frank Zappa. Alex also utilizes in this picture thousands of hours of painstakingly digitized videos, photos, audio, writing, and everything in between from Zappa's private archives. These chronicles have never been brought to a public audience before, until now.

In a short musical film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Thom Yorke of Radiohead stars in a mind-bending visual piece. Best played loud.

The brothers Gibb perform their greatest hits from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's including many songs written for and made hits by other artists but never recorded by the Bee Gees themselves.

A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.

In Germany, jazz had a voice: Inge Brandenburg. This is the story of a woman in the 1950s and 1960s, when there was no place in Germany for self-assured women with international aspirations, a dramatic performance style and an emancipated attitude to love.

"It must schwing!" was the motto of Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, two German Jewish immigrants who in 1939 set up Blue Note Records, the jazz label that was home to such greats as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. Blue Note, the most successful movie ever made about jazz, is a testimony to the passion and vision of these two men and certainly swings like the propulsive sounds that made their label so famous.

A struggling young man secretly plays a magical trumpet that transports him from his desolate world into a colorful "bliss." When his younger brother discovers his secret, their relationship is put in jeopardy.

The hits come fast and furious in this 2001 performance by Antoine "Fats" Domino at the Jazz and Heritage Festival in his hometown of New Orleans. Well, maybe not that fast; Fats's style was never what you'd call exactly frenetic, and he was well into his seventies at the time of this show. But there are a whole lot of hits--"I'm Walkin'," "Blueberry Hill," "Walking to New Orleans," "My Blue Heaven," etc.--and they're just as irresistible as ever, with Domino and band (including a full horn section) in top form as they deliver their brew of R&B, rock & roll, and country music with its distinctively rollicking New Orleans vibe. Aside from the 60-minute concert, the DVD features interviews with Fats, Allen Toussaint (himself a legendary New Orleans musician and producer), author/music journalist Mikal Gilmore, and others, plus a minute or two of Domino and Toussaint jamming at the piano

This riveting music documentary traces the history of Jazz piano legend Oscar Peterson, from his early days as Montreal's teenage Boogie-Woogie sensation through his meteoric rise to international celebrity with Norman Granz and the ground-breaking Jazz at the Philharmonic and beyond. In this award-winning autobiographical portrait, legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson narrates his story, from his beginnings in smoke-filled Montreal clubs to hallmark performances with jazz greats. Concert footage includes an unforgettable combo -- Nat King Cole with Jazz at the Philharmonic and the Oscar Peterson Trio Wall reunion. Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie are interviewed, among others.

Few jazz musicians are as exuberant at their advanced age as Stéphane Grappelli in this concert. In this program, the old master plays in an ensemble reminiscent of the famous Hot Club de France, the ensemble Grappelli led with Django Reinhardt in the 1930s, featuring two guitars and a double bass.

Tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins has long been hailed as one of the most important artists in jazz history, and still, today, he is viewed as the greatest living jazz improviser. In 1986, filmmaker Robert Mugge produced Saxophone Colossus, a feature-length portrait of Rollins, named after one of his most celebrated albums.

Beth Hart celebrates the music and voice of a woman who enriches rock and blues with emotion, authenticity, and honesty.

Late into his career, an elderly drummer faces getting older.

Alvin Queen is one of the best jazz drummers of all time. A child prodigy, he played with the greatest masters (Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Pharaoh Sanders... ) He is also a very nice person who has a lot of wisdom to transmit. He shows it beautifully in this first episode of "Seeds of Success".

Taken in by the musical world as a young orphan, Rick Martin grows up with a desire to play pure jazz instead of the commercial gigs he lands, whilst also coping with the problems caused by his tempestuous marriage to an aloof heiress.

Tenor saxophonist, composer and producer Kamasi Washington and his band perform a special show at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater for the theatre's 85th year anniversary. Washington explores Harlem's rich musical and cultural history and the city's influence on his generation of artists.

Documentary about jazz great Chet Baker that intercuts footage from the 1950s, when he was part of West Coast Cool, and from his last years. We see the young Baker, he of the beautiful face, in California and in Italy, where he appeared in at least one movie and at least one jail cell (for drug possession). And, we see the aged Baker, detached, indifferent, his face a ruin. Includes interviews with his children and ex-wife, women companions, and musicians.

A meditation on what it means to maintain continuity with the past — told through the kaleidoscopic journey of a young drummer who must learn how to guide a multi-generational band into the future after being named their new bandleader.

Tenor saxophonist Jimmy McGary was a major presence in the Cincinnati music scene from the 1950s until his death in the early ’90s. With music rooted in Bebop with a progressive slant, the Jazz legend was a session player for King Records and released his first album as a bandleader — The First Time (with a quartet that included pianist Pat Kelly) — in 1979. McGary’s spirit and legacy have lived on well after his passing and well beyond Cincinnati, as evidenced in this new documentary film.

Chronicles a pivotal two-week period in London at the height of Dinah Washington’s career, following the international success of her 1959 Grammy-winning crossover hit 'What a Difference a Day Made'.

Jutta Hipp defied the odds and made it to the heart of the male-dominated jazz scene in 1950s New York.

Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday, beginning with her traumatic youth. The story depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay, her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.

‘Lady Day’ was one of the greatest jazz vocalists the world ever heard. In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Before her mysterious death in 1978, Lipnack Kuehl had taped over 200 hours of interviews. The tapes have never been heard. Now they form the basis of an atmospheric, multi-layered documentary that captures the many complex facets of a proud black woman, violent drug addict, loyal friend, vindictive lover and unforgettable singer of ‘God Bless The Child’, ‘Saddest Tale’ and the haunting ‘Strange Fruit’.