MOVIE
Add to watchlist
Watched
Liked
Disliked
The Cry of Jazz
34min
DOCUMENTARY
MUSIC
Watch it on
STREAMING
Explore Details
Original Title
The Cry of Jazz
Release Year
1959
Runtime (Duration)
34min
Filmed in Chicago & finished in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is filmmaker, composer and arranger Edward O. Bland's polemical essay on the politics of music and race - a forecast of what he called "the death of jazz." A landmark moment in black film, foreseeing the civil unrest of subsequent decades, it also features the only known footage of visionary pianist Sun Ra from his beloved Chicago period. Featured are ample images of tenor saxophonist John Gilmore and the rest of Ra's Arkestra in Windy City nightclubs, all shot in glorious black & white.