Ten key jazz films
Karel Reisz & Tony Richardson, 1955 One of the foundation stones of British Free Cinema, this 22-minute short shows trad antics at Wood Green Jazz Club, with the Chris Barber Band featuring Lonnie Donegan. Years later, Absolute Beginners (Julien Temple, 1985) would be derided for its high-gloss reimagining of the London jazz scene in its heyday, but with input from Gil Evans and a dazzling fantasia on Charles Mingus’s Boogie Stop Shuffle, it’s not to be dismissed. The Connection Shirley Clarke, 1961 Jazz was as vital to the new American independent cinema of the 1950s and 60s as it wa...
Source: bfi.org.uk