Jazz on Film: The Complete Story of the Musicians and Music Onscreen [Paperback]

Scott Yanow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

Jazz on Film reviews, analyzes, and rates virtually every appearance of a jazz musician or singer on film. After presenting a detailed essay on the history of jazz on film and television, Yanow reviews and rates 1,300 movies, documentaries, shorts, videos, and DVDs. These include rare shorts from the 1920s, big-budget Hollywood films, independent productions, soundies, transcriptions made especially for television, semi-fictional movie biographies, concert films, documentaries, and many additional items.

Jazz on Film shows readers how to view the jazz legends and the greats of today, and which DVDs and videos are worth acquiring. Each film is given a 1 to 10 rating and a concise description of its contents and value. Jazz on Film covers the entire jazz field, from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wynton Marsalis, and Diana Krall. This informative book will prove invaluable to jazz and film enthusiasts and collectors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 314 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879307838
• ISBN-13: 978-0879307837
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not complete nor even accurate, December 16, 2009

By 

Thomas Bumbera (Maplewood, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz on Film: The Complete Story of the Musicians and Music Onscreen (Paperback)

To say the title of this book is misleading would be an understatement. It does NOT offer "the complete story of the musicians and music onscreen." It offers instead capsule reviews (a la Leonard Maltin's "TV Movies") of films featuring jazz music or musicians. The section devoted to "Videos and DVDs" reviews many films that were once available on VHS but are not currently available on DVD, so be prepared for some frustration should you wish to seek these out.

It is in the reviews that we find many errors and some questionable judgement calls. The first page that I opened to at random was the page with a review of "Pete Kelly's Blues," one of my favorites from the '50s. In that review we are told that Peggy Lee is featured in two numbers, "Sugar" and "I'm There." The only problem being, there is no such song as "I'm There" in the film; Peggy's other two numbers are the gorgeous "He Needs Me," written for her by Arthur Hamilton, and the charming "I Can Sing A Rainbow," also composed by Hamilton. We are also told that Janet Leigh's singing "is obviously ghosted." Except that it isn't; Leigh's own (barely adequate) voice is heard here, as it was eight years later in "Bye Bye Birdie." This is not some obscure film locked in a vault; this is a film that has been shown frequently on television and was available on VHS at the time of the book's 2004 publication (since released on DVD); what excuse can there be for such utter sloppiness regarding a film so easily available (and respected as Jack Webb's best film, nominated for several Oscars)? Yanow's credibility was shot with me from literally the first page that I read.

There are many other factual errors, at least one every three pages or so, way too many to mention here. As for the "ratings," let me just make this one statement: Yanow gives a six (out of ten)-star rating to Clint Eastwood's universally respected "Bird," and nine stars to the cloying, phony and overly sentimental "The Five Pennies," a Danny Kaye vehicle that almost completely fictionalizes the life of cornetist Red Nichols. If you agree with Yanow about the relative merits of these two films, perhaps this book will be of some use to you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique and valuable resource for jazz fans, March 20, 2011

By 

Gary Coffrin (San Jose, California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz on Film: The Complete Story of the Musicians and Music Onscreen (Paperback)

Here are my experiences with this volume. I hope these comments help you make your purchasing decision.

I edited this review months after the original posting and raised my rating from 4 to 5 stars. Why? I owe a significant debt to the author for opening new worlds of musical pleasure. Using this guide I have discovered, purchased and then hugely enjoyed music DVDs that were previously unknown to me. Additionally, internet searches have yielded videos that I never would have have discovered without this book's detailed information.

Without this volume, I would have missed Jazz Festival, Vol. 1 on the Storyville/Jazz Legends label. The DVD contains 1962 television footage of Louis Armstrong's All Stars, an Eddie Condon congregation and Bobby Hackett's sextet. Each group plays wonderfully. I loved Joe Darensbourg's clarinet work with Louis. I was hugely impressed with Wild Bill Davison's cornet playing with Condon. And, Urbie Green's trombone work with Hackett showed stunning control, speed and tone.

Without this resource, I would never have discovered Jazz On A Summer's Day, an innovative and colorful presentation of music from the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival (and the documentary clearly influenced the film Woodstock.) Seeing Jack Teagarden and Armstrong perform Rockin' Chair is reward enough for buying the DVD.

Lacking this guide, I would not have discovered DVD collections or YouTube postings of 'soundies' - musical shorts produced from 1941-47 for Panorams. (A Panoram was a movie jukebox. You inserted a dime to view a 3 minute musical short.) Nor, without this volume, could I have known about and enjoyed the Snader Telescriptions produced in the early days of television.

Omissions? Absolutely. Errors? Yep, with 1,300 reviews, there are some stumbles. Layout issues? In the movie section, there are two ratings: 1) Cinematic, 2) Musical. I would suggest listing the musical rating first, since music is the focus of the volume. The author gives Bird a '9' for music. His cinema score for Bird is an overly harsh '6,' but Yanow does articulate an interesting rationale for his rating.

Bottom Line: The volume is a near monumental accomplishment with its database and comments on 1300 videos. I owe many rewarding discoveries to this book. As an aside, I am impressed that it was even published. The book deals with a niche topic (music videos) within a niche market (jazz). Author Scott Yanow invites emails with suggestions and corrections. I certainly hope that a second edition is published.