Photo: Bert Stern

Opening Night, August 9, 7:30 pm

Florida Premiere

Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer

USA/2007/90 min

Directed by Ian McCrudden and Robbie Cavolina

An intimate and deeply moving tribute to jazz diva extraordinaire Anita O'Day, completed just weeks before her death in November 2006. Packed with terrific clips and anecdotes from friends and fellow musicians, this enjoyable documentary zips along at the speed of her renowned up-tempo interpretation of "Sweet Georgia Brown."  You’ll see the classic 1958 Newport Jazz Festival performance from Jazz on a Summer’s Day (MJFF1998) and many other memorable masterpieces.

Director Ian McCrudden (Islander, Trespassers, The Big Day) and Producer Melissa Davis (élan entertainment) will present their film.

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After the opening film, all ticket-holders are invited to a free celebration featuring The Nicole Yarling Quartet at:

The Grape at Village of Merrick Park

360 San Lorenzo Avenue, Coral Gables 305.444.WINE (9463)

Enjoy delicious hot and cold hors d'oeuvres and divine red and white wines at tasting stations that will be set up indoors and outside the wine bar.

Friday, August 10, 7:30 pm

Florida Premiere

‘TIS AUTUMN—The Search for Jackie Paris

USA/2006/100 min

Directed by Raymond De Felitta

WDNA listeners had the chance to hear him on 88.9 FM in 2001 when he visited the studios upon the release of The Intimate Jackie Paris (Hudson).  Using new and archival performance footage, found footage, still photography, historical audio clips and rare unreleased recordings, Oscar-nominated director Raymond De Felitta (Bronx Cheers, Two Family House, The Thing About My Folks) brings us an intimate portrait of this ground-breaking jazz vocalist’s life, his work with Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, and others plus renown for his rendition of “Skylark”.

Photo: Bruce Weber

Friday, August 10, 9:30 pm

Let’s Get Lost

USA/2007/120 min.

Directed by Bruce Weber » Show All

Traveling with the elusive jazz vocalist and trumpeter Chet Baker, famed photographer-filmmaker Bruce Weber weaves together the life story of a jazz great.  The film uses excerpts from Italian B movies, rare performance footage, and candid interviews with Baker, musicians, friends, battling ex-wives and his children in what turned out to be the last year of his life. Winner of the 1989 Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival and nominated for an Academy Award, Let’s Get Lost has become an important document in the career of the filmmaker on the life of a jazz legend.  Since its release in 1989 this film has introduced a whole new generation of jazz enthusiasts to the timeless talent of the late Chet Baker. Let’s Get Lost initially premiered in 1988, was screened at the MJFF1998 and saw a revival in 2006 when it was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Saturday, August 11, 3:30 pm

Florida Premiere

Eric Essix: At Home

USA/2007/

Directed by Dwight Cammeron

Beautifully shot, in this part documentary and part performance Jazz producer/director Dwight Cammeron set out to chronicle chart-topping, record-breaking jazz guitarist Eric Essix, he ignored the occasional boxy documentary format and instead let Essix loose with his red Gibson hollow-body.  Essix is the youngest person to be inducted in Alabama’s Jazz Hall of Fame among greats Nat King Cole and Sun Ra and makes his home in Birmingham.

Director Dwight Cammeron (Still Holding On: Dorothy Love Coates and The Original Gospel Harmonettes) will present his film.

Saturday, August 11, 5:30 pm

Florida Premiere

Imagine The Sound

USA/1981/90 min

Directed by Ron Mann

This film profiles four musicians who were influential in the evolution of jazz into a free-form musical art: Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon, and Paul Bley.  Canadian documentary filmmaker Ron Mann’s first feature documentary, made when he was only 22 years old.  Considered to be by many critics as one of the all-time great jazz films, Imagine The Sound is newly restored and presented on HD and 5.1 stereo sound.

Saturday, August 11, 7:30 pm

Florida Premiere

Cecil Taylor: All the Notes

USA/2004/73 min

Directed by Christopher Felver

Director Christopher Felver has made it his mission to document firebrand movements and personalities from contemporary art, poetry and music before they die out unrecorded. He has made sterling films on the Black Mountain School of Poetry, has done biographic portraits of Beat meister Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Cage and boho wordsmiths on 1984's West Coast: Beats And Beyond. In 2004 he turned his attention to the media-shy, towering jazz figure of Cecil Taylor. Felver gets up close and personal with the pianist, gaining unprecedented access to Taylor's Brooklyn home/workplace, nailing his frequent stentorian pronouncements on life, art, music and childhood memories, as well as shadowing him to various concert engagements, teaching gigs in California, and a trip backstage to meet old friend Mal Waldron.

Photo: Frank Schindelbeck

Saturday, August 14, 9:30 pm

Special Premiere

CTI Films present DIZZY & TITO—Tangorine— Kings of Afro-Cuban/Brazilian Jazz

USA/2006/58 min HIGH DEFINITION 5.1 Surround Sound

Produced by Creed Taylor

For jazz lovers there are a number of renown record labels that stand out: Bethlehem, Impulse!, Verve, CTI Records, and they all have seen the impeccable production of Creed Taylor behind them.  This film project by Creed Taylor brings the precise ear of engineer Rudy Van Gelder and the photographic eye of Anthony Edgeworth to recording sessions and conversations with Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Anthony Jackson, Charlie Haden, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Benny Golson, Jimmy McGriff, Hilton Ruiz, Romero Lubambo, Bob Berg, Bernard Purdie, John Scofield, and Marvin “Smitty Smith”.  Recorded and filmed live in studio.

Legendary Producer Creed Taylor will present his film.

Sunday, August 12, 3:30 pm

US Premiere

Duke Ellington—The Portrait Collection

Billie Holiday—The Ultimate Collection

Louis Armstrong—The Portrait Collection

USA/2006-2007/120+ min

Producer Toby Byron holds a treasure of American masters. This performance-packed program begins with Duke Ellington and fifteen performances, many that have never been released.  This is followed by eight of Billie Holiday’s own performances, including three numbers not seen since 1956:  “My Man”, “Billies Blues” and “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone”, plus one each of her two big influences: Bessie Smith in “St. Louis Blues” and Louis Armstrong “I Cover The Waterfront”.  The program will continue with fourteen complete performances of Louis Armstrong, including neat clips with Dizzy Gillespie and Velma Middleton.

Sunday, August 12, 7 pm

A Night with Robert Mugge

Florida Premiere

New Orleans Music in Exile

USA/2006/113 min

Directed by Robert Mugge

Since hurricane Katrina struck, musicians who made a living performing and recording in New Orleans have kept on playing music elsewhere - much of it devoted to their beleaguered city. This film presents personal stories of horror and heartbreak from musicians who lived through the storm that wreaked havoc on the Big Easy. Featuring interviews and performances with Theresa Andersson, Dr. John, Cyril Neville, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Irma Thomas, Stephen Assaf, Eddie Bo, Marcia Ball, Kermit Ruffins, ReBirth Brass Band, The Iguanas, World Leader Pretend, Cowboy Mouth, beatinpath, Jon Cleary, and Papa Grows Funk.

Producer-Director Robert Mugge (Deep Blues, Hellhounds On My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson, Rhythm ‘N’ Bayous: A Road Map to Louisiana Music) returns to the MJFF to present his film joined by Producer Diana Zelman.

Sunday, August 12, 9:30 pm

Special Presentation

USA/2007/118 min

Directed by Robert Mugge

A special sneak preview of Robert Mugge’s forthcoming portrait of the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise to the Caribbean featuring performances by Taj Mahal, Bobby Rush, Buckwheat Zydeco, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Otis Clay, Tommy Castro, Tab Benoit and many others. 

Producer-Director Robert Mugge and Senior Producer Judy Alexander will make the presentation.

Photo: Jan Persson

A Night with Monk

Monday, August 13  7:30 pm

Thelonious Monk: American Composer

USA/1993/60 min

Directed by Matthew Seig

This is an amazing portrait of a genius in full force, with unforgettable images and rare films exploring the musical mind of the man who took the piano from stride to bop and beyond.  Thelonious Monk is remembered by his stellar disciples—Randy Weston, Barry Harris, Ben Riley and Billy Taylor, among others.  Footage of Monk in America, Europe, and Japan. Shown MJFF2002.

Monday, August 13  9:30 pm

Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser

USA/1988/90 min

Directed by Charlotte Zwerin

This is a unique cinematic portrait of one of the most extraordinary individuals in the history of jazz. The film is built around documentary footage, shot in the late 1960's and combining this footage with filmed interviews of relatives, associates and friends; the film sheds further light on Monk's genius providing us with a never-before-seen look at the extraordinary work of this one-of-a-kind musical revolutionary. Shown MJFF1997

Photo: Sarkis Boyadjian

Tuesday, August 14, 7:30 pm

US Premiere

Les Enfants de Miles: Bob Berg (Sons of Miles: Bob Berg)

France/2006/58 min

Directed by Daniel Farhi

Paris-based film director Daniel Farhi (Young at Heart: Monty Alexander, MJFF2006) together with jazz musician and International Herald Tribune writer and film narrator Mike Zwerin (Swing Under the Swastika, MJFF2002) bring us the first of several episodes of those musicians that played with Miles Davis and followed in the avant-garde path of their mentor.  After working with the bands of Horace Silver and Cedar Walton, saxophonist Bob Berg joined the Miles Davis band in 1984, and his association consisted of many world tours and several recordings. Bob Berg was a phenomenal tenor saxophonist and clarinettist—hard bop, fast, swinging. When he left Miles he collaborated with guitarist Mike Stern, was part of Chick Corea’s Quartet, and led his own Quartet until his death in a road accident in 2002 at the age of 51. 

Tuesday, August 14, 9:30 pm

US Premiere

Play Your Own Thing—The History of Jazz in Europe

Germany/2006/89 min

Directed by Julian Benedikt

Ten years after his successful film Blue Note – A Story Of Modern Jazz (MJFF1999) Julian Benedikt starts looking for the roots of jazz in Europe. Why was jazz so enthusiastically received in Europe? And why is the best jazz today played in Scandinavia, France and on the Balkans? Julian Benedikt questions big stars of the present jazz scene to find out what defines this European music. Concert recordings and rarely seen archival footage promise a great music film, with Jan Garbarek, Till Bröner, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Manfred Eicher, Neils-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Tomas Sztanko, Juliette Gréco, Joachim Kühn, Arve Henrikson  and others.

Wednesday, August 15, 7:30 pm

Florida Premiere

Maria Bethânia, música é perfume

Switzerland/France/2005/82 min

Directed by Georges Gachot

Narrated by Bethania herself, the film not only gives us an insight into the intimate sphere of Maria Bethania’s creative process, but focuses on the history of Brazilian music. First a muse of the so-called counter culture, and then the queen of romantic ballads, she chronicles her musical life experience in relation to Brazilian society’s development. In addition to this, filmmaker Gachot gathers together a fantastic ensemble of contributors including Gilberto Gil, Nana Caymmi, Miucha, Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso, all of them witnesses and participants to some of the greatest music history of our time.

Photo: J. Fernando Lamadrid

Wednesday, August 15, 9:30 pm

Cachao: Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos ( Cachao: Like His Rhythm There Is No Other)

USA/1993/112 min

Directed by Andy García

Legendary for his descargas (jam sessions), creator of the mambo, Cuban bassist Israel López “Cachao” will celebrate his 89^th birthday on September 14^th and keeps going strong:  He just finished four nights at the Blue Note in New York and is going on a European tour with his band.  We celebrate the Maestro by bringing back (MJFF1997) the Andy García documentary film that captured the now-legendary concert played in the summer of 1992. Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos includes the music of Latin legends Nestor Torres, Paquito D'Rivera, Alfredo Valdés Jr., Jose “Chombo” Silva, Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros, Nelson González, Jimmy Bosch, and Gloria and Emilio Estefan. The soundtrack won a Grammy award while the film garnered international praise.