Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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

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.

Without this book, I would have missed Jazz Festival, Vol. 1 on the Storyville/Jazz Legends label. This 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. Just 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 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, would I have known about the Snader Telescriptions produced in the early days of television.

Omissions? There are some. 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: ****1/2. This is a near monumental accomplishment. Thousands of hours went into producing this volume. I am grateful, and I owe many rewarding discoveries to this book. As an aside, I am impressed that this book was even published. It 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.