Jazz in Films» "Rambling Boy": A documentary film about "Charlie Haden"

"Rambling Boy"

Produced by piXiu films and helmed by award-winning director Reto Caduff, the feature legth documentary “Charlie Haden” presents the life and work of the fascinating american musician, bandleader, composer, producer, educator, political activist and family man Charlie Haden.

Throughout his career, Haden has constantly sought to transcend the boundaries of modern music. Widely considered to be among the greatest ever jazz bassists, Haden has contributed pivotal music to a stunning scope of genres: avant-garde, small group, big band, world music, folk and gospel, to name but a few.

Haden’s deep resonance and rich melodicism helped Ornette Coleman introduce free jazz in the ’60s. And it is his collaboration with Coleman that has put Haden on the map ever since. In a career spanning five decades by now, Haden continues to create music that is at once revolutionary and uplifting. 

Jazz in Films » Round Midnight (1986)

Round Midnight (1986)

Round Midnight is a 1986 film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by David Rayfiel and Bertrand Tavernier. It tells the story of an African American tenor saxophone player in Paris in the 1950s who is befriended by an unsuccessful French graphic designer who idolizes the musician and who tries desperately to help him to escape alcohol abuse.

The protagonist jazzman, "Dale Turner", was based on a composite of real-life jazz legends Lester Young (tenor sax) and the tortured and enigmatic Bud Powell (piano). While the film is fictionalized, it is drawn directly from the memoir/biography Dance of the Infidels written by Francis Paudras, who had befriended Powell during his Paris expatriate days and on whom the character "Francis" is based. The film is a wistful and tragic portrait that captures the Paris jazz scene of the 1950s.

Articles: Frank Sinatra at the Movies

Frank Sinatra at the Movies

Article by Leonard Maltin

There are only a handful of people who meant as much to the world of film as they did to the world of music: Bing Crosby, Doris Day, even Elvis Presley, although his movies were never as good as his records. But I think the case can be made that Frank Sinatra topped them all.

It's often been said that a great singer is, by nature, a great actor, because of the need to impart meaning to the lyrics that he or she sings. It's become a clich' but if it were as simple as that, there would be more great singing actors. In Sinatra's case, if you didn't know he was an enormously popular singing star, you'd still be impressed with his work on film.

Jazz in Films » Bird (1988)

The troubled life and career of the jazz musician,
Charlie "Bird" Parker. ~imbd.com

Bird is a 1988 American biographical film, produced and directed by Clint Eastwood of a screenplay written by Joel Oliansky. The film is a tribute to the life and music of jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker. It is constructed as a montage of scenes from Parker's life, from his childhood in Kansas City, through his early death at the age of thirty-four.

The film moves back and forth through Parker's history, blending moments to find some truth to his life. Much of the movie revolves around his only grounding relationships with wife Chan Parker, Bebop pioneer trumpet player and band leader Dizzy Gillespie, and his influence (both musically and into the world of heroin addiction) on trumpet player Red Rodney.