Esteemed jazz historian Toby Byron is responsible for this series of critically lauded jazz films, which have now come to DVD for the first time. The first volume, Session 1, focuses on two of the musical idiom’s seminal figures: namely Louis Armstrong and Count Basie. Satchmo: The Life Of Louis Armstrong puts the great trumpeter’s life and music under the microscope in a wholly interesting and insightful way, while Count Basie: Swingin’ The Blues examines the King Of Swing with the help of vintage film and a raft of on-camera interviews.
Session 2, dubbed Jazz Innovators, is even better, featuring three one-hour programmes on modern jazz trailblazers Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. The Triumph Of Charlie Parker is an award-winning documentary that explores Bird’s role as the doyen of the iconoclastic bebop sound and his subsequent musical legacy. Coltrane was a Parker disciple, of course, and the 1990 film The World According To John Coltrane is an absorbing portrait of the great man, peppered with pertinent interviews from peers (including Wayne Shorter) and extensive old black-and-white footage (remarkably, there’s a long section of archive film that shows Coltrane’s band playing Impressions when Eric Dolphy was with them). Sessions 3 (Vocal Legends) and 4 (A History Of Jazz) follow in July and September respectively. Essential for jazz devotees.
