Jazz Appreciation Month-Non-Fiction & Memoir

A definitive look at the man and his music, interweaving rare interviews with Miles and insights and memories of his family, friends, and many of the great musicians who played with him during his long career.

This concert from July 8, 1991 was the last of Miles Davis' many appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival and took place only a few months before his death. Despite a defiant 'never look back' philosophy, Miles was persuaded by Quincy Jones and Claude Nobs to take part in this tribute to his great friend Gil Evans, who passed away in 1988. Features the music Miles created with arranger Gil Evans and conductor Quincy Jones, along with the Gil Evans...

A powerful biopic focusing on the life of legendary Romani jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

"Satchmo. There are few people in this country -- or around the world -- who will not recognize the name. Louis Armstrong embodied 20th century American culture... No other performer of his era had such a profound effect as a singer as well as an instrumentalist... With over a dozen of his classic film performances, ... numerous live concert and television performances [and] ... never-before-seen home movies and newly discovered 1935 Chicago nightclub...

A great day in Harlem tells the story of Art Kane's famous 1958 group photograph of the jazz greats of the period. Includes home movie footage of that day of the musicians arriving and greeting each other the morning of the shoot. Also includes conversations with musicians and archival performance footage.

Documentary exploring the history of jazz from its beginnings through the 1990's, including the stories of many of its creators and performers. Includes archival video, still photographs, historical performances, and newly recorded interviews and musical performances.

Profiles the life and career of American singer Nina Simone.

Recorded by his quartet in a single session in 1964, A Love Supreme is widely considered John Coltrane's magnum opus and one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. In Beyond A Love Supreme, Tony Whyton explores both the musical complexities of A Love Supreme and the album's seminal importance in jazz history. Marking Coltrane's transition from the bebop and hard bop of his earlier recordings to the free jazz style perfected throughout the rest of...

Coltrane on Coltrane includes every known Coltrane interview, many in new transcriptions, and several previously unpublished; articles, reminiscences, and liner notes that rely on interviews; and some of Coltrane's personal writings and correspondence [Publisher description]

"The other great Renaissance of black culture, influence, and glamour burst forth joyfully in what may seem an unlikely place--Pittsburgh, PA--from the 1920s through the 1950s. Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson's famed plays about noble but doomed working-class strivers. But this community once had an impact on American history that rivaled the far larger black worlds of Harlem and Chicago. It published the most widely...