Music
Documentaries, movies, related to musicians, bands, songwriters
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27 titles
- DirectorThomas CarterStarsRobert Sean LeonardChristian BaleFrank WhaleyA group of teens adores forbidden music in Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War II.
- StarsKeith DavidWynton MarsalisGary GiddinsA survey of the musical form's history and major talents.
- DirectorBert SternAram AvakianStarsLouis ArmstrongMahalia JacksonChuck BerryThe highlights of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsDexter GordonFrançois CluzetGabrielle HakerA troubled, but talented musician flees the US to escape his problems, finding refuge and support in Paris.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsForest WhitakerDiane VenoraMichael ZelnikerThe troubled life and career of jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker.
- DirectorSteve KlovesStarsJeff BridgesMichelle PfeifferBeau BridgesThe lives of two struggling musicians, who happen to be brothers, inevitably change when they team up with a beautiful, up-and-coming singer.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDenzel WashingtonSpike LeeWesley SnipesJazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam makes questionable decisions in his professional and romantic lives.
- DirectorBruce RickerStarsClint EastwoodStingBill CosbyA chronological look at the life and career of jazz musician, composer, and performer Dave Brubeck (December 6, 1920 to December 5, 2012), presented through contemporary interviews, archival footage of interviews and performances, and commentary by family, fellow musicians, and aficionados. Emphases include his mother's influence, his wife's invention of college tours, his skill as an accompanist, the great quartet (with Desmond, Morello, and Wright), his ability to find musical ideas everywhere, his orchestral compositions, his religious conversion, and his unflagging sweet nature.
- DirectorDamien ChazelleStarsMiles TellerJ.K. SimmonsMelissa BenoistA promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.
- DirectorDee ReesStarsQueen LatifahKamryn JohnsonRikki McKinneyThe story of legendary blues performer Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and '30s.
- DirectorLiz GarbusStarsNina SimoneLisa Simone KellyRoger NupieA documentary about the life and legend Nina Simone, an American singer, pianist, and civil rights activist labeled the "High Priestess of Soul."
- DirectorRobert BudreauStarsEthan HawkeCarmen EjogoCallum Keith RennieA re-imagining of jazz legend Chet Baker's musical comeback in the late '60s.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsRichard GereGregory HinesDiane LaneMeet the jazz musicians, dancers, owner, and guests (like gangster Dutch Schultz) of The Cotton Club in 1928-1930s Harlem.
- DirectorBob FosseStarsRoy ScheiderJessica LangeAnn ReinkingDirector/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.
- DirectorSidney J. FurieStarsDiana RossBilly Dee WilliamsRichard PryorThe story of the troubled life and career of the legendary Jazz singer, Billie Holiday.
- DirectorAllen ReisnerStarsNat 'King' ColeEartha KittCab CallowayThe story of W. C. Handy, the undisputed father of the blues.
- DirectorCharles WaltersStarsBing CrosbyGrace KellyFrank SinatraWith socialite Tracy Lord about to remarry, her ex-husband - with the help of a sympathetic reporter - has 48 hours to convince her that she really still loves him.
- DirectorValentine DaviesStarsSteve AllenDonna ReedBerta GerstenThe young Benny Goodman is taught clarinet by a Chicago music professor. He is advised by bandleader Kid Ory to play whichever kind of music he likes best, but to make a living, Benny begins by joining the Ben Pollack traveling band.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsJames StewartJune AllysonHarry MorganBiography of bandleader Glenn Miller from his beginnings to his death over the English Channel in December 1944.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsKirk DouglasLauren BacallDoris DayA young trumpet player is torn between an honest singer and a manipulative heiress.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsTommy DorseyJimmy DorseyJanet BlairThe Dorsey Brothers bandleaders' lives traced from childhood music insisting father to fame rise eventual split furthering careers propelling with their music.
- DirectorAndrew L. StoneStarsLena HorneBill RobinsonCab Calloway and His Cotton Club OrchestraThe relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliBusby BerkeleyStarsEthel WatersEddie 'Rochester' AndersonLena HorneA compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsPriscilla LaneBetty FieldRichard Whorf"Jigger' Pine forms a band that includes singer Ginger 'Character' Powell, wife of the trumpeter Leo Powell, and Nickie Haroyen and Peppi. All of them dedicate themselves to work as a unit and to play blues music. The dedication isn't paying off financially and, while riding the rails in a boxcar, they meet and befriend gangster Del Davis. He offers them a job at a New Jersey roadhouse, where Powell falls in love with Kay Grant, a former 'real good friend' of Davis. But when Powell learns that Character is about to have a baby, he returns to her. Jigger tries to make Kay the band's singer and, after this fails, runs off with her. She leaves him with nothing but a nervous breakdown. Back at the roadhouse, after his recovery, Kay shows up, has a quarrel with Davis, shoots and kills him, and plans to take back up with Jigger, who knows better but just can't help himself. While she is waiting in a car for him, along comes cripple Brad Ames, who she put in that condition, and he gets in and drives the car over a cliff, leaving no survivors in the two-passenger crash. The band is back together at the end, still using boxcars as their transportation, but happy playing the blues.
- DirectorAlan CroslandStarsAl JolsonMay McAvoyWarner OlandThe son of a Jewish Cantor must defy the traditions of his religious father in order to pursue his dream of becoming a jazz singer.
- DirectorKasper CollinStarsLee MorganHelen MorganWayne ShorterAn exploration of the relationship between jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, who was implicated in his murder in 1972.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsPaul NewmanJoanne WoodwardSidney PoitierDuring the 1960s, two American expatriate jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls.