The last 10 years have seen a remarkable upsurge in the number of documentaries focusing on jazz—films about artists both deceased (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Bill Evans, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Oscar Peterson) and living (Bill Frisell, Buster Williams, Jennifer Leitham), about record labels like Blue Note, clubs like Ronnie Scott’s in London, and immortalizers of the scene like photographer W. Eugene Smith. For fans of the music, it’s been a golden era. But why now?
On one level, it seems like a no-brainer: Growth in digital technology has enabled just about anyone to make a film using digital cameras and recorders or even smartphones, and film-editing software like Final Cut and iMovie has become more readily available, affordable, and intuitive. On another level, that question’s not so easy to answer. Revenue streams are tough to come by for films such as these; theater screenings are never guaranteed (especially not in times of pandemic), and DVD sales aren’t what they used to be. You may love jazz and you may want to make movies about it, but you’ve still got to find a way to make it pay … right? Well, sometimes yes, sometimes no. And yet, despite the difficulties, somehow the movies keep coming out—and we keep watching them.
We talked to several experienced filmmakers for further insight into both the whys and the hows of jazz documentaries.
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Obvious first question: How do you choose your subject? That decision is often based on a mix of affinity and expediency. Robert Mugge, who’s made dozens of documentaries about American music—including films on Sun Ra, Sonny Rollins, Gil Scott-Heron, and Al Green—had first seen Sun Ra perform at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival (1980) about the bandleader from the astral plane.
