Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Blue Note: A History of Modern Jazz (1997)

Director: Julian Benedikt

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

You couldn't make any great claims for this as an outstanding example of documentary film-making - it traces the history faithfully and talks to a lot of the right people, but its choppy, syncopated style is really just a gloss on the facts. Even so, it's most enjoyable. Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff emigrated from Germany in the '30s and created the most significant label in the history of jazz. Blue Note brought the best out of the best, including Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey and Sonny Rollins. Propelled by 'Cherokee' and a dizzy set of modern classics, augmented by revealing anecdotes from Max Roach, Lou Donaldson, Bertrand Tavernier and André Previn, as well as Wolff's stunning studio photographs, this swings like a hepcat.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Julian Benedikt

Producer: Ulli Pfau

Cast: Ron Carter, André Previn, Carlos Santana, Bertrand Tavernier, Taj Mahal, Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Cassandra Wilson, Max Roach, Lou Donaldson full cast

Genre(s): Documentaries

Duration: 92 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.