The Cry of Jazz

Name: The Cry of Jazz
Director: Edward Bland
Genre: Documentary, Music
Released: 1959-03-22
Rating: 5.9
Cast: George Waller, Dorothea Horton, Melinda Dillon, Andrew Duncan, Leroy Inman

Original title: The Cry of Jazz

Watch The Cry of Jazz – Streaming Availability

Criterion Channel

Synopsis

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.