Social & External
The people behind it
Ralph J. Gleason
Host
John Coltrane
saxophones
McCoy Tyner
piano
Jimmy Garrison
bass
Elvin Jones
drums
Jeff grows up near Basin Street in New Orleans, playing his clarinet with the dock workers. He puts together a band, the Basin Street Hot-Shots, which includes a cornet player, Memphis. They struggle to get their jazz music accepted by the cafe society of the city. Betty Lou joins their band as a singer and gets Louie to show her how to do scat singing. Memphis and Jeff both fall in love with Betty Lou.
A number one album and a double Grammy-win in 2023 put jazz vocalist Samara Joy on the map, officially establishing the Bronx native as the next jazz sensation and a legend in the making, with frequent comparisons to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Fresh from another double win at the 2025 Grammys, Joy makes her much-anticipated debut at London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall.
In this sober and moody documentary, director Anders Østergaard explores the life - and death - of Swedish wonder kid jazz pianist Jan Johansson through a rain-soaked windshield.
In New Orleans, young Kit Latimer, who loves and plays the African-American music of the city, moves to Chicago with her architect father, George. Over the next several years, Kit discovers that the ragtime of her childhood has developed into jazz. Struggling coronet player Johnny Schumacher befriends Kit, who is arrested after her music incites a riot at a club. Upon release, the two form a band.
Multiple Grammy Award winner, Norah Jones, plays an exclusive sold-out show at the world-famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. This wonderfully intimate live performance film sees Jones return to the piano, accompanied on stage by drummer Brian Blade and bassist Chris Thomas to form a classic jazz trio. The group play tracks from Jones’ sixth solo album Day Breaks and a selection of hits from her extensive catalogue including the hit singles, 'Carry On', ‘Flipside' and 'Don’t Know Why’.
Pop and jazz fusion vocal quartet The Manhattan Transfer is one of the most celebrated a cappella groups in history, with ten Grammys to their name. They have performed with a cornucopia of the biggest names in music - now including the innovative R&B and gospel a cappella group Take 6. Soundstage brings together these two wildly talented ensembles for the very first time - an unforgettable cross-cultural exchange that will test the limits of the unaccompanied voice!
The Hot Club of Montevideo is a Uruguayan cultural institution founded in 1950 by the pianist Paco Mañosa, along with his brother and some friends who played together. It was the first club dedicated exclusively to jazz in Latin America.
Jazz Icons: Sonny Rollins features two intimate concerts filmed in the '60s for Danish television at the pinnacle of one of his most creative periods. Cast: Sonny Rollins ... Self / Saxophone Alan Dawson ... Self / Drums Kenny Drew ... Self / Piano Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen ... Self / Bass
Martin, a nu-jazz trumpet player with a unique style, is fighting against convention and mediocrity. He will not accept any compromise, neither in his music, nor in love. When he gets the feeling that Kristina, the love of his life, only loves him for his musical talents, he is deeply hurt.Disappointed, he bids farewell to both her and his previous life. On the edge of society, he meets an old woman, Hanna, who bequeaths him her pain in the form of poems. Martin is immediately fascinated. Can they guide him back to himself, to Kristina, or to his music?
On stage since she was a toddler, Googoosh has been an icon of Iranian pop culture since the 1970s. Her progressive style and raw singing talent attracted worldwide acclaim and saw her performing alongside the likes of Tina Turner and Ray Charles. But the star's career came to an abrupt halt after the Islamic Revolution, which banned women from singing in public. Googoosh was placed under house arrest, where she remained for the next two decades. Niloufar Taghizadeh's documentary, which includes interviews with the charismatic singer (now in her seventies, but still performing and advocating for women and girls) and arresting archival footage, offers both a loving portrait of a national icon and a fascinating historical and cultural record of Iran.
A tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland, with Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Etta James, Marvin Gaye, David Bowie, and many more geniuses on tape; a cool Quincy Jones and a laughing Herbie Hancock; sweaty musicians, crazy audiences, and some very rare files.
“The Language of the Unknown” accompanies the great saxophonist and his band with a concert on November 3, 2012 in the Salle Pleyel in Paris, and observes the effect of the music on its creators, who are normally much too busy with creating the new than to deal with music already played.
After charging through "One More Time," "Wild West," and "You Can't Get What You Want (Until You Know What You Want)" at a punishing clip, one might expect the soft-spoken Joe Jackson to shift to a lower gear. Instead, the one-time musical prodigy, pub band pioneer, and now eclectic composer revisits one of his even faster, earlier hits, "On Your Radio." If most performers risk monotony with such a move, Jackson's quiet charisma in this 1986 performance encourages pleasurable surrender and, in his more mature material, careful attention to his uniquely marbled tones, rhythms, and colors. Steeped in the influences of swing, Latin music, classical composition, and melodic balladry, Jackson is full of mix-and-match surprises, such as a delicate re-imagining of "Steppin' Out" and a growling, funky "Soul Kiss." This is a pure delight, from start to finish. Special features could be more special, however: a Jackson discography would have made sense with such a far-reaching playlist
Footloose In NYC gives the viewer the whole Earthworks experience with live concert footage as well as exclusive interviews and backstage footage.
This episode focuses on Zappa's early 70s albums, Overnight Sensation (1973) and Apostrophy (') (1974). Together they encapsulate Zappa's extraordinary musical diversity and were also the 2 most commercially successful albums that he released in his prolific career. Included are interviews, musical demonstrations, rare archive & home movie footage, plus live performances to tell the story behind the conception and recording of these groundbreaking albums. Extras include additional interviews and demonstrations not included in the broadcast version, 2 full performances from the Roxy in 1973 and Saturday Night Live in 1976, and new full live performance done specially for these Classic Albums.
All-Star concert recorded at Lincoln Center in 1982 -- Featuring Max Roach, Jon Faddis, John Lewis and Milt Jackson.
Shirley Clarke's frenetic documentary about multi-talented musician Ornette Coleman.
A documentary on the late French jazz pianist.
A teenaged shoeshine boy urgently tries to raise the remaining amount of money he needs to purchase a secondhand bugle before 6p.m.
A pair of star-crossed dancers in New York find themselves at the center of a bitter rivalry between their brothers' underground dance clubs.
A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department store, from the store's crooked manager.
A teenage rapper must use his musical talent to help a friend and win the girl of his dreams while overcoming self-doubt and the expectations of his strict religious parents.
Americans Jeff and Tommy, hunting in Scotland, stumble upon a village - Brigadoon. They soon learn that the town appears once every 100 years in order to preserve its peace and special beauty. The citizens go to bed at night and when they wake up, it's 100 years later. Tommy falls in love with a beautiful young woman, Fiona, and is torn between staying or going back to his hectic life in New York.
A celebration of the musical work of a group of session musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew." a band that provided back-up instrumentals to such legendary recording artists as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Bing Crosby.
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
Hitman Returns was filmed before a sold out crowd last year at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The lineup of talent, lead by Foster as maestro of ceremonies, includes performances by Seal, Donna Summer, Martina McBride, Earth, Wind & Fire, Natalie Cole, Ruben Studdard, All-4-One,'Glee' star Charice, Chaka Khan, Jackie Evancho, Lara Fabian and other artists whose careers have been touched by Foster, a 15-time Grammy winning producer and songwriter.
Gertrude Lawrence rises to stage stardom at the cost of happiness.
Taylor Swift takes the stage in Dallas for the Reputation Stadium Tour and celebrates a monumental night of music, memories and visual magic.
Graced with a velvet voice, 21-year-old Violet Sanford heads to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter only to find her aspirations sidelined by the accolades and notoriety she receives at her "day" job as a barmaid at Coyote Ugly. The "Coyotes" as they are affectionately called tantalize customers and the media alike with their outrageous antics, making Coyote Ugly the watering hole for guys on the prowl.
In the tradition of Fantasia, Make Mine Music is a glorious collection of musically charged animated shorts featuring such fun-filled favorites as "Peter and the Wolf", narrated by the beloved voice behind Winnie the Pooh. In addition you'll enjoy such classic cartoon hits as "Casey at the Bat," "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" and "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet."
A girl from New York attends a college in Atlanta to join their once-famous marching band.
Part jazz history, part true-crime tale, Kasper Collin’s new documentary employs extensive archival footage and new interviews to tell the tragic story of the magnificently talented trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, who murdered him in a New York bar in 1972.
When Stargirl's mother is hired as the costume designer on a movie, they relocate to L.A., where Stargirl quickly becomes involved with an eclectic assortment of characters.
Three angels bestow the gift of song to a young girl, who must follow a series of rules in order hold on to it during her rise to fame and fortune.
After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.
When El, an aspiring sneaker designer from Queens, meets Kira King, the fiercely independent daughter of legendary basketball star and sneaker tycoon Darius King, sparks fly as the two bond over their mutual affinity for sneakers. With a little nudge from his best friend and a sprinkle of Fairy Godfather magic, El finds the courage to use his talent to pursue his dream of becoming a ‘legit’ sneaker designer in the industry.
A race car driver tries to outrun the beautiful tax auditor out to settle his account.
A documentary chronicling Queen and Lambert's incredible journey since they first shared the stage together on "American Idol" in 2009.
Deni Maroon, a musician and dock worker is determined to pull off a music festival against the interests of the local factory owner.