Free Jazz

Free Jazz

6 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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Free Jazz

6 Episodes

  • Space Is the Place
    1:21:41
    Space Is the Place
    Episode 1

    Space Is the Place

    Episode 1

    Directed by John Coney • 1974 • United States
    Starring Sun Ra, Barbara Deloney, Raymond Johnson

    Avant-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...

  • Ornette: Made in America
    1:17:26
    Ornette: Made in America
    Episode 2

    Ornette: Made in America

    Episode 2

    Directed by Shirley Clarke • 1985 • United States
    Starring Ornette Coleman

    This 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...

  • Milford Graves Full Mantis
    1:32:47
    Milford Graves Full Mantis
    Episode 3

    Milford Graves Full Mantis

    Episode 3

    Directed by Jake Meginsky with Neil Young • 2018 • United States
    Starring Milford Graves

    This 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...

  • Promises: Through Congress
    48:47
    Promises: Through Congress
    Episode 4

    Promises: Through Congress

    Episode 4

    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...

  • The Cry of Jazz
    34:26
    The Cry of Jazz
    Episode 5

    The Cry of Jazz

    Episode 5

    Directed by Edward Bland • 1959 • United States
    Starring George Waller, Dorothea Horton, Melinda Dillon

    Featuring 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 ...

  • BLACK JOURNAL: Alice Coltrane
    12:42
    BLACK JOURNAL: Alice Coltrane
    Episode 6

    BLACK JOURNAL: Alice Coltrane

    Episode 6

    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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