Free Jazz
13 Episodes
The free-jazz revolution that exploded in the late 1950s and early ’60s took music into hitherto unexplored realms of adventurous tonality, boundary-breaking improvisation, and ecstatic personal expression. Led by visionaries such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, and Milford Graves, free jazz extended beyond music and left its radical imprint on cinema. This eye- and ear-opening journey brings together definitive records of the movement such as SPACE IS THE PLACE and ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA—both of which find a thrillingly experimental cinematic analog to the genre’s abstract sound—rarities like the long-lost French cult classic LES STANCES À SOPHIE (featuring a score by the Art Ensemble of Chicago), and visionary multimedia reveries like PROMISES: THROUGH CONGRESS, set to a late-career masterpiece by Pharoah Sanders.
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01:01Episode 1
Free Jazz Teaser
Episode 1
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1:38:12Episode 2
Les stances à Sophie
Episode 2
Directed by Moshé Mizrahi • 1970 • France
Starring Bernadette Lafont, Michel Duchaussoy, Serge MarquandA long-lost gem of New Wave–inspired French cinema, LES STANCES À SOPHIE (“Sophie’s Ways”) features an exhilarating avant-garde jazz soundtrack by the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago that ra...
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1:21:41Episode 3
Space Is the Place
Episode 3
Directed by John Coney • 1974 • United States
Starring Sun Ra, Barbara Deloney, Raymond JohnsonAvant-jazz mystic Sun Ra brought his pioneering Afrofuturist vision to the screen with this film version of his concept album. It’s a wild, kaleidoscopic whirl of science fiction, sharp social comment...
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59:22Episode 4
Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise
Episode 4
Directed by Robert Mugge • 1980 • United States
Starring Sun Ra, June Tyson, Danny ThompsonYears ahead of his time, composer, keyboardist, bandleader, poet, and philosopher Sun Ra coupled images of outer space with those of ancient Egypt, acoustic instruments with electronic ones, and modern Am...
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1:31:34Episode 5
Imagine the Sound
Episode 5
Directed by Ron Mann • 1981 • Canada
The first feature documentary by counterculture chronicler Ron Mann is an eloquent tribute to a group of highly celebrated artists who helped forge the once-controversial free jazz movement of the 1960s. Bringing together interviews with and performances by l...
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1:17:26Episode 6
Ornette: Made in America
Episode 6
Directed by Shirley Clarke • 1985 • United States
Starring Ornette ColemanThis freewheeling documentary captures Ornette Coleman’s evolution over three decades. Documentary footage, dramatic scenes, and some of the first music-video-style segments ever made chronicle his boyhood in segregated T...
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1:51:25Episode 7
Rising Tones Cross
Episode 7
Directed by Ebba Jahn • 1985 • West Germany
Starring John Zorn, David S. Ware, Rashied AliThis essential document of New York’s avant-garde jazz scene in the 1980s is packed with thrilling performances by boundary-pushing musicians like Charles Gayle, William Parker, John Zorn, and Wayne Horvit...
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1:32:47Episode 8
Milford Graves Full Mantis
Episode 8
Directed by Jake Meginsky with Neil Young • 2018 • United States
Starring Milford GravesThis portrait of renowned percussionist and founding pioneer of avant-garde jazz Milford Graves finds him exploring his kaleidoscopic creativity and relentless curiosity. The film draws the viewer through th...
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1:27:26Episode 9
Fire Music
Episode 9
Directed by Tom Surgal • 2021 • United States
Starring John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun RaAlthough the free-jazz movement of the 1960s and ’70s was met with heated controversy, its pioneers—brilliant talents like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane—are toda...
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48:47Episode 10
Promises: Through Congress
Episode 10
Directed by Trevor Tweeten • 2021 • United States
Sound and image meet in a mesmerizing, multisensory experience in this journey through Ethiopian American artist Julie Mehretu’s expansive painting “Congress,” which sets the artwork to the acclaimed album “Promises,” a collaboration between elec...
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34:26Episode 11
The Cry of Jazz
Episode 11
Directed by Edward Bland • 1959 • United States
Starring George Waller, Dorothea Horton, Melinda DillonFeaturing music by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, this landmark semi-documentary explores—via a heated conversation between a group of Black and white jazz aficionados—the relationship between jazz ...
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12:42Episode 12
BLACK JOURNAL: Alice Coltrane
Episode 12
Directed by Stan Lathan • 1970 • United States
In this intimate portrait—produced for a segment of National Education Television's “Black Journal” television program—legendary jazz musician Alice Coltrane plays the harp and discusses her thoughts on music, spirituality, family, and the legacy of...
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05:36Episode 13
Dream City
Episode 13
Directed by Ulysses Jenkins • 1983 • United States
A video companion to a twenty-four-hour group performance organized by Ulysses Jenkins, DREAM CITY collages live music, poetry, and dance into a pulsating kaleidoscope of color and sound. Frequent Jenkins collaborators Maren Hassinger, Senga Nen...