Movie Details
Theatrical Release:March 22nd, 1959
Original Language:English
Cast & Crew
G
George Waller
as Alex Johnson
D
Dorothea Horton
as Natalie
L
Leroy Inman
as Louis
J
James Miller
as Bob
The Cry of Jazz (1959)
Audience Score
Plot
Filmed in Chicago & finished in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is filmmaker, composer and arranger Edward O. Bland's polemical essay on the politics of music and race - a forecast of what he called "the death of jazz." A landmark moment in black film, foreseeing the civil unrest of subsequent decades, it also features the only known footage of visionary pianist Sun Ra from his beloved Chicago period. Featured are ample images of tenor saxophonist John Gilmore and the rest of Ra's Arkestra in Windy City nightclubs, all shot in glorious black & white.
