Although the free jazz movement of the 1960s and '70s was much maligned in some jazz circles, its pioneers - brilliant talents like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane - are today acknowledged as central to the evolution of jazz as America's most innovative art form. FIRE MUSIC showcases the architects of a movement whose radical brand of improvisation pushed harmonic and rhythmic boundaries, and produced landmark albums like Coleman's Free Jazz: A Collective Inspiration and Coltrane's Ascension. A rich trove of archival footage conjures the 1960s jazz scene along with incisive reflections by critic Gary Giddins and a number of the movement's key players.

The lives of two struggling musicians, who happen to be brothers, inevitably change when they team u...

In the late 1990s, iconic photographer Bruce Weber barely managed to convince legendary actor Robert...

In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love ...

Danny 'Sweet Touch' Caputo is a young sax player on the verge of crowning his life's dream, to play ...

Combining footage unseen since WWI with original scores from the era, this film tells the story of N...

"This film explores how freedom of speech — including dissent — is afforded to all Americans, and sh...

Tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins has long been hailed as one of the most important artists in ja...

Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent w...
A short documentary on jazz trombonist, Ryan Porter.

An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and ro...

This live recording was culled from seven September 1992 concerts given in Vienna, Berlin, and Frank...

A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscu...

Made on a wind-up Bolex camera, The Sound of Seeing announced the arrival of 21-year-old filmmaker T...

Sun Ra and his Solar Myth Arkestra return to Earth after several years in space. Ra proclaims himsel...

The two musical masters swing out.

Oscar Peterson is accompanied by the stellar duo of bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen for eac...

Crazy is the story of a legendary guitar player who emerged from Nashville in the 1950s. Blessed wit...

In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, de...

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soo...