Birth of the Blues

Dance Crazy in Hollywood(en)

American dancer and choreographer Hermes Pan recalls his life and work as he relives the glorious history of the Hollywood musical.

Born to Be Blue(en)

Jazz legend Chet Baker finds love and redemption when he stars in a movie about his own troubled life to mount a comeback.

Sting : My Songs au château de Chambord(fr)

Masada: Live at Tonic 1999(en)

Filmed with an intimate three camera shoot by Antonio Ferrera, a close friend of John Zorn and a long time cameraman for the documentary masters the Maysles Brothers, this concert film captures the band performing a set of Zorn's Masada compositions at their home base in the Lower East Side, Tonic, in the summer of 1999.

Don't Fall in Love with Yourself(en)

A documentary about the life and music of Justin Pearson. An enigmatic underground musician and owner of Three One G records.

Let's Get Lost(en)

Ozzy, beset on all sides by the eccentricities of the artists around her, meets Jack, a city-dwelling forest sprite jazz singer. Together, they escape Dante's, the jazz club Ozzy manages, and losing herself, Ozzy finds something else.

Spinning Gold(en)

A biopic of 1970s record producer Neil Bogart, co-founder of Casablanca Records.

Jazzia olohuoneessa - Bill Evans trio(en)

A film made in 1970 in the home of Finnish composer Ilkka Kussisto (whose two sons are famous violinists) when the Bill Evans Trio visited him for a private performance.

Jazz Icons - Quincy Jones Live in '60(en)

Jazz Icons: Quincy Jones spotlights a young “Q” conducting his “dream band”—an 18-piece orchestra of world-renowned players such as Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Sahib Shihab, Budd Johnson and Benny Bailey. This 80-minute program, featuring 17 songs, is one of the finest examples of big band jazz ever to be captured on film. Shot in Switzerland and Belgium in 1960, these two concerts are the only known visual documents of this legendary tour—an important lost chapter in an illustrious career which has spanned six decades.

Harry Connick, Jr and Branford Marsalis : A Duo Occasion(en)

Pianist Harry Connick, Jr. and saxophonist Branford Marsalis reunite in a magical live performance. Filmed at the 2005 Ottawa Jazz Festival in Canada on June 24, 2005, the pair reprise original music from their duo recording Occasion, while also including Connick’s "Light the Way" and the standard "Chattanooga Choo Choo."

Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise(en)

Robert Mugge filmed jazz great Sun Ra on location in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. between 1978 and 1980. The resulting 60-minute film includes multiple public and private performances, poetry readings, a band rehearsal, interviews, and extensive improvisations. Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored for the best possible viewing experience.

Melody Gardot: From Paris with Love(fr)

Melody Gardot performs her new album Sunset in the Blue, from the Radio France studios accompanied by a trio of musicians and 40 instrumentalists from the in-house orchestra.

Andrea Motis, The Silent Trumpet(es)

This film by director Ramon Tort documents a unique moment in the life and career of Andrea Motis: the months preceding the recording of her first album in New York as well as what followed. A time filled with changes and emotions; from leaving her parents’ home for the first time and start living by herself to embarking in a world tour that would take her to places like Japan, United States, Asia and Europe. A crucial time in a young woman's life, who is about to make the big leap…, but is she interested in success or fame? Andrea is not a conventional artist. She lives in the moment, enjoying the small things in life, every day in the most simplest way possible… An entire magical process that can only be understood through her music.

Soul(en)

Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.

Bill Bruford's Earthworks ‎– Footloose In NYC(en)

Footloose In NYC gives the viewer the whole Earthworks experience with live concert footage as well as exclusive interviews and backstage footage.

Wild Man Blues(en)

Wild Man Blues is a 1998 documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple, about the musical avocation of actor/director/comic Woody Allen. The film takes its name from a jazz composition sometimes attributed to Jelly Roll Morton and sometimes to Louis Armstrong and recorded by both (among others). Allen's love of early 20th century New Orleans music is depicted through his 1996 tour of Europe with his New Orleans Jazz Band. Allen has played clarinet with this band for over 25 years. Although Allen's European tour is the film's primary focus, it was also notable as the first major public showcase for Allen's relationship with Soon-Yi Previn.

Moondance(en)

A rogue Director turns a run of the mill Hollywood love story into a big band musical with the help of his crew and the out of the loop actors.

Kimberose in Private Paris Concert(fr)

Pop-soul band Kimberose is a French-British trio, led by singer Kimberly Kitson Mills, an artist with a voice reminiscent of Billie Holiday, Amy Winehouse or even Nina Simone. After several singles (including "I'm Sorry"), her first album "Chapter One" was released in 2018. Three years later, Kimberly Kitson Mills shows us again her talent in the new album: "Out". Recorded on 20 and 21 May 2021 at the Salle Wagram in Paris. [arte.tv]

Jamie Cullum: Live At Blenheim Palace(en)

Jamie Cullum's live concert from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, along with tour footage and interviews taken from his travels in the U.S., and footage from his performance at the Glastonbury Festival in the U.K.

The World of the Seekers(en)

While flying to the first stop on their latest tour, the four members of the Australian music group The Seekers recall in flashback the origins of the group and their rise to success.

Stormy Weather(en)

The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.

Young Man with a Horn(en)

Taken in by the musical world as a young orphan, Rick Martin grows up with a desire to play pure jazz instead of the commercial gigs he lands, whilst also coping with the problems caused by his tempestuous marriage to an aloof heiress.

Roustabout(en)

After a singer loses his job at a coffee shop, he finds employment at a struggling carnival, but his attempted romance with a teenager leads to friction with her father.

Show Boat(en)

Despite her mother's objections, the naive young daughter of a show boat captain is thrust into the limelight as the company's new leading lady.

Too Late Blues(en)

Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.

The Big Store(en)

A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department store, from the store's crooked manager.

Anchors Aweigh(en)

Two sailors on shore leave head out for four days of partying – only to become involved in the affairs of an aspiring singer and her precocious nephew.

Annie Get Your Gun(en)

Gunslinger Annie Oakley romances fellow sharpshooter Frank Butler as they travel with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

An American in Paris(en)

Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.

New York, New York(en)

An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long uphill climb.

Beyond the Sea(en)

Based on the life and career of legendary entertainer, Bobby Darin, the biopic moves back and forth between his childhood and adulthood, to tell the tale of his life.

Forever My Girl(en)

After being gone for a decade, a country star returns home to the love he left behind.

Les Misérables: 25th Anniversary in Concert(en)

This concert, recorded to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the landmark musical Les Miserables, gathers the casts of the show's 2010 original production at the Queen's Theatre, the 1985 original production by the London company, and the 2010 production at the Barbican together for one performance. Together with talents like Michael Ball, Hadley Fraser, and John Owen-Jones, the performers present the play's musical numbers in a semi-theatrical style, fully costumed and with all the emotion of the musical's heyday.

The Jazz Singer(en)

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer.

The Glenn Miller Story(en)

A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscurity and poverty to fame and wealth in the early 1940s.

Roberta(en)

Football player John Kent tags along as Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians travel to an engagement in Paris, only to lose it immediately. John and company visit his aunt, owner of a posh fashion house run by her assistant, Stephanie. There they meet the singer Scharwenka (alias Huck's old friend Lizzie), who gets the band a job. Meanwhile, Madame Roberta passes away and leaves the business to John and he goes into partnership with Stephanie.

Step Up(en)

Delinquent Tyler Gage receives the opportunity of a lifetime after vandalizing a performing arts school, gaining him the chance to earn a scholarship and dance with up-and-coming dancer Nora.

State Fair(en)

During their annual visit to the Iowa State Fair, the Frake family enjoy many adventures. Proud patriarch Abel has high hopes for his champion swine Blueboy; and his wife Melissa enters the mincemeat and pickles contest...with hilarious results.

Pepe(en)

Mario "Cantinflas" Moreno is a hired hand, Pepe, employed on a ranch. A boozing Hollywood director buys a white stallion that belongs to Pepe's boss. Pepe, determined to get the horse back (as he considers it his family), decides to take off to Hollywood. There he meets film stars including Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra, Zsa Zsa Gabór, Bing Crosby, Maurice Chevalier and Jack Lemmon in drag as Daphne from Some Like It Hot. He is also surprised by things that were new in America at the time, such as automatic swinging doors. When he finally reaches the man who bought the horse, he is led to believe there is no hope of getting it back. However, the last scene shows both him and the stallion back at the ranch with several foals.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game(en)

The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. turns outs to be a beautiful woman who really knows her baseball. Second baseman Dennis Ryan promptly falls in love. But his playboy roommate Eddie O'Brien has his own notions about how to treat the new lady owner and some unsavory gamblers have their own ideas about how to handle Eddie.